How will an award fit into your future plans?
When reviewing grant proposals, funders look closely at how their investment in you and your project will have long term impacts on your development and future career. Though this can seem quite far off from your perspective as an applicant, articulating how your selection will help you progress in your academic or professional trajectory is essential in preparing a competitive application.
Let’s look at two examples from recent winning Pitt applications. The first comes from a successful National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) application that explains how reapplying a second time helped motivate them to continue pursuing their research goals:
“The NSF GRFP will enable me to achieve the goal of developing cutting edge scientific research in coral reef ecology and fisheries management by enabling me the flexibility to develop long-term field projects. Receiving an Honorable Mention during the fellowship application cycle last year has further motivated me to continue on the journey that began in the small town of Narragansett, Rhode Island. This funding, the flexibility it affords, and the confidence it inspires will all serve to give me the best start to my graduate program possible.”
The second comes from a successful Gilman Scholarship application, where the applicant deftly connects the specific skills they will gain through the grant-funded opportunity with their future career in public health communication:
“The ‘Public Health Threats in Suriname’ program will allow me to leverage my existing knowledge while learning more about the culture, environmental threats, methods of communication, and community attitudes specific to Suriname. This hands-on learning opportunity in Suriname will provide me with the knowledge, skill set, and network that will prepare me to address any public health challenge in my future career as a health policy analyst. The chance to meet Surinamese locals, learn from this community, and create a final case presentation that addresses Suriname’s environmental challenges would provide me with an experiential learning opportunity that will greatly enhance my health communication skills. I’ll be able to tailor public health messages while being mindful of the country’s diverse makeup, which would be invaluable to my public health career. From learning more about communicating information in an ethnically and linguistically diverse community to gaining a better understanding of how to better public health while considering economic factors, I will gain many insights from studying abroad, specifically in Suriname, that would advance my career as a health policy analyst.”