Relevant Background: How are you prepared to do this work?
When writing an application for a grant or award, you must go beyond simply identifying a research question to work on or a project you wish to undertake. To be competitive, you must establish that YOU are the right person to do the job. Strong applications will include a clear articulation of how you are prepared to actually do the work you are seeking funding to accomplish. The following winning paragraphs do a great job of situating the applicants’ prior experiences in research, academics, and cultural exchange in support of their proposed projects for which they are seeking external funding. Beyond just listing lines from their CVs or resumes, these winning applicants explain how their past experiences have given them the knowledge, skills, and experience they will need to successfully complete their proposed future projects.
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP):
I opted to major in Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh and soon added Linguistics as my interest in languages continued. Through Anthropology and Linguistics, I found that I could develop the tools that I would need to pursue archaeology at the graduate and professional level. That summer, I attended the University of Pittsburgh's field school directed by Dr. Kathleen Allen. The excavation was at Carmen, an Iroquois site outside of Ithaca, New York. I chose to work with Dr. Allen because I knew her personally and I knew that she was an excellent instructor. Her field school provided me with training in systematic excavation, soil typology, stratigraphy, preliminary lithic, faunal, and ceramic analysis, 3D locational plotting, measurement-taking, mapping, and the keeping of detailed field records.
Following this field season, I was asked to become a research assistant for a PhD. candidate who was working on the faunal remains from Carmen. With her, I spent 8 months analyzing burnt and unburnt bone, learning how to correctly identify taxa, elements, cut marks, burning, and use-wear on bone artifacts. The time spent in the University’s faunal lab was an excellent supplement to my first excavation experience, because it taught me how to undertake detailed analysis of an archaeological assemblage.
Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Award:
As someone who has been studying a foreign language, German, for the past 10 years, I have experienced both the highs and lows of trying to reach proficiency in a non-native language. Support from professors, mentors, and my fellow language learners helped me to succeed, and now I wish to be a similar supportive presence for students experiencing the same difficulties. With a background in instructing teens and a BA in German, serving as an ETA will allow me to share my language and culture with students in Germany while further developing my teaching practice. I have chosen Germany specifically because of my previous in-country experience studying abroad in Heidelberg. There, I was able to explore the country and make valuable connections that will enable me to adapt quickly to teaching English in a German classroom.
Fulbright Study/Research (S/R) Award:
My proposed study will be cross-sectional and be informed by the social-ecological model, which aims to understand the relationships between the individual, community, physical, social, and political environments. [...] My previous research experience has helped establish a strong foundation to conduct this proposed study. As a current post-baccalaureate fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, I am working with pediatric and elderly patients with neuromuscular disorders, such as congenital muscular disorders and spinal bulbar muscular atrophy. During research visits, I am involved in assessing and recording scores on various motor function assessments, such as the Motor Function Measure 32, Graded Functional Tests, Myometry, 6-minute Walk Test, and Timed Up and Go. Previously, as a volunteer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), I engaged in conversations with elderly patients about their lives, their hospital experience, and mobility while assessing them for delirium. As a Fulbrighter, I hope to engage with the research participants, become involved with my host community, and expand my knowledge in medicine.