DIVISION OF STUDENT SERVICES

Career Services

Reed College President’s Summer Fellowship

At the junction between dreams and aspirations, intellect and creativity lies the place where all things are possible and where we do our most remarkable imagining. The Reed College President’s Summer Fellowship offers you the opportunity to turn your imaginings into reality. Its purpose is to encourage you to develop summer projects that will lead to individual growth and transformation.

This fellowship is unique in that it allows you—a Reed first-year student, sophomore, or junior—the opportunity to create a ten-week summer experience that is bounded only by your imagination (and the counsel of those whose advice you seek).

Since this program is new, there do not yet exist any real-life examples of projects. To give you an idea of what might be funded, here are some potential categories and examples, which are illustrative, not exhaustive. Some projects might fit several categories; others might defy them all.

Read about the inaugural cohort of winning students and their projects.

Internship

  • Work at a lab doing research on neuronal differentiation.
  • Work as a reporter at a newspaper for the homeless.
  • Develop a new app for a Portland software startup.
  • Work as a Congressional intern.

Adventure

  • Build a wooden raft based on Huck Finn and paddle it down the Columbia River.
  • Bicycle across Idaho documenting native pictographs.
  • Excavate dinosaur eggs in the Flaming Cliffs of Mongolia.
  • Search for the ivory-billed woodpecker on the Choctawhatchee River.

Service

  • Teach disadvantaged middle-schoolers how to build their own PC.
  • Repair an organ at a local church.
  • Be a basketball coach for autistic kids in Minneapolis.
  • Work with an urban community organization to build a community garden.

Inquiry/Experiment

  • Go to Rome to research old chant manuscripts in the Vatican library.
  • Build a website exploring the Boston molasses disaster.
  • Write a computer program that plays chess.
  • Learn to speak an indigenous tribal language.
  • Study archeology on a Greek island.

Creative/Artistic

  • Write and stage a play about Oregon pioneer John Day.
  • Travel to a remote village in Guatemala and use traditional methods to carve a family of wooden flutes.
  • Shoot a documentary about Romanian folk dances.

The program will award $5000 to as many as 10 students. It is intended to encourage current first year students, sophomores, and juniors to plan and develop a creative and innovative experience that can be carried out over the course of a summer. We encourage applicants to consider the high value the college places on critical inquiry, freedom of expression, and exploration of identity, and to look for opportunities to complement and enhance your rigorous academic experience.

***********************************************************************

For Letter of Support Writers: Instructions for Uploading

Here's the link: https://iris.reed.edu/career_grants/letters

  1. Scroll down to the 2013 Reed President's Summer Fellowship and locate the person's name for whom you've written the letter.
  2. If you find their name, just click and you will be right where you need to be to upload.
  3. It is possible that the student in support of whom you write may not yet have created their application yet.
  4. If that's the case, just send your .pdf letter to Brooke Hunter. She will confirm for you when it has been successfully uploaded.

************************************************************************

Fellowship Requirements

Students who are interested in receiving a fellowship are responsible for the development, planning, and implementation of their own projects.

In addition, applicants must adhere to the following requirements:

  • It is strongly suggested that you seek counsel from faculty, career services staff, and any other potentially useful resource.
  • Create a project that can be done in a ten-week summer window.
  • You must complete and submit the online application and two letters of recommendation by March 15, 2013 at 2 p.m. One letter must come from a member of the Reed faculty. The second letter may be from a Reed faculty or staff member.
  • You must demonstrate how the proposed project combines intellectual pursuit with imagination.
  • You must commit to enrolling at Reed in the fall and actively participating in an event, including an oral presentation, where you will describe what you did and what you learned as a result of your project.
  • Recipients of the fellowship planning to travel abroad must adhere to the State Department’s Travel Warnings list.
  • If the project includes working with an organization, tribe, association, or any organized entity from which permissions are needed, applicants must indicate that fact on the application and upload a copy of that entity’s endorsement of the project.

Proposals will be judged by the overall strength of the project (clarity of concept, creativity, quality of design, the synthesis of intellectual pursuit with imagination); the endorsement of cooperating entities to support your learning; and letters of recommendation from faculty and staff. Please follow the guidelines carefully.

It is strongly encouraged that you meet with career services staff during the planning stages of your proposal (call 503/777-7550 to make an appointment). For your reference, hard copies of applications from McGill Lawrence and Davis Projects for Peace awardees are available in career services (Greywood). You may not photocopy or remove the materials; however, you are most welcome to view them in the office. In addition, you can contact Jo Cannon, Fellowships Coordinator (Eliot 429, 503/777-7545, jcannon@reed.edu).

Applications will be accepted only from individuals, not from groups.

Submission deadline:

TBA for 
Click Reed President’s Summer Fellowship

To apply, you must complete the online form the includes the documents listed here:

  1. Your résumé, uploaded in PDF format.
  2. Project Description. Provide details about the experience you plan, including the following information and answers. Your description may be no longer than 1,500 words.
    1. A one-paragraph introduction that summarizes your proposed fellowship and what you hope to make possible for yourself with your project. If your project is of a service nature, include the benefits that you and the community you intend to serve will derive. Discuss what learning you expect to gain, or what you hope to create.
    2. Explain why you are prepared for your fellowship project. For example, if special skills are needed, how have you acquired them?
    3. What are the desired educational outcomes of this experience, and how do they apply to your short- or long-term career? 
    4. If the project includes working with an organization, tribe, association, or any organized entity from which permissions are needed, applicants must indicate that fact on the application and upload a .pdf copy of that entity’s endorsement of the project.

3. Detailed Budget PLEASE NOTE: You cannot format rows or columns in this budget. Do not worry about that. Please include direct costs for living: travel, lodging, food, and savings needed to contribute to your education. List other funding sources that you will use, including any pay you may receive from your fellowship sponsor (this will not affect the amount of your award). Please explain how you will cover any expenses that exceed the award amount.

If you receive Financial Aid, do not include the amount of your expected summer contribution in your project budget.  List the amount of your expected contribution on a separate below your budget total. If you are an award recipient, this amount will be added to your award. 

In addition, you must obtain two confidential letters of support, one from a member of the Reed faculty and the other from either Reed faculty or staff who can speak to your qualifications. These letters must be uploaded to the IRIS application page in PDF format. If your recommender has questions about how to upload the letter, they may be directed to Brooke Hunter (503/788.6698 or hunterb@reed.edu). Please ask career services for a handout on requesting letters of recommendation if you would like additional support.

Travel Restrictions

Travel restrictions for awards that originate or pass through Reed's business office usually follow State Department travel warning criteria. If you suspect that your proposed location of study may present safety or security risks, please consult the U.S. Department of State Travel Warnings Section. If a project proposal includes travel to locations that may present safety or security risks, especially as identified by the State Department travel warning criteria, special note must be made in the proposal, and additional information may be requested before permission is determined. Students who do not receive permission to travel will not be allowed to use such funds for their proposed project; however, accommodations for an alternate location may be made at the discretion of the coordinators of the awards.

The Reed College President’s Summer Fellowship awards are tentative until travel permission has been received from the Reed College coordinators of such awards via completion of an award agreement that outlines conditions of acceptance.

If you are awarded the Fellowship, you must:

  • Download the award agreement here.
  • Bring it to career services and meet with a counselor to sign the agreement and get a staff signature. This must be completed to receive funds.

Notification

A committee of staff and faculty will evaluate the applications. Applicants will be notified by early April.