DIVISION OF STUDENT SERVICES

Career Services


Watson Scholarship Deadline


Watson Scholarship Deadline
Thursday, September 9

The mission of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program is to offer college graduates of unusual promise a year of independent, purposeful exploration and travel outside of the United States in order to enhance their capacity for resourcefulness, imagination, openness, and leadership and to foster their humane and effective participation in the world community. The stipend for the fellowship year is $25,000 ($35,000 for fellows accompanied by a spouse or dependent child). Watson Fellows must create, execute, and evaluate their own projects. When they wake up in the morning, most Watson Fellows ask themselves, What am I going to do today? A fellowship year may include some time spent learning a language, or dance steps, or a scientific method, and during those times a fellow may be subject to someone else's agenda. However, the Watson Fellowship is intended to be a time when fellows are their own advisors. The fellow should decide how questions can be answered, when it is time to move on, if a project must be adjusted in any way, etc. It is for this reason that Watson Fellows do not affiliate themselves with an academic institution, do not spend 12 months exclusively in a training course, and do not have volunteer work for institutions like Habitat for Humanity as their primary activity. Some fellows undertake volunteer work to gain access to people they wish to observe or interview, but in such cases the fellow should feel that he/she is still in charge of the project. More information...