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Eligibility: |
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Graduates of 50 elite liberal arts colleges, of which Holy Cross is one. Four may be nominated each year. Citizens of any country may be nominated. |
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Duration: |
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One
year, to be spent entirely outside the |
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Award: |
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$28,000 plus help on the first year of student loan repayments |
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Holy
Cross |
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Preliminary application filed in Graduate Studies Office; interview by Committee on Graduate Studies and Fellowships in September |
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Essay(s): |
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Two, no more than 5 typewritten pages each: a personal statement and a project proposal |
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Then what: |
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Nominees chosen in early October, final applications submitted in early November, on-campus interviews by early February. |
GENERAL INFORMATION
This
has been the most attractive fellowship program for Holy Cross
students. The Watson provides a stipend of $28,000 for the student to “engage
in a year of independent study and travel abroad following
graduation." In addition, for those students with student loans
that must be paid back on graduation, the Watson Foundation will pay the
first year's worth if they are amortized over 10 years. This award is
absolutely unique in the freedom it affords fellows to design a worthwhile
project which can promote their personal growth, career goals, and
understanding of other cultures. Fifty fellowships are distributed
among the fifty colleges in the program. From all the Holy Cross
applicants, the Graduate Studies Committee must select four nominees on the basis
of a preliminary application and an interview. Only these four candidates
will complete final applications and be interviewed on campus by a
representative of the Watson Foundation. Additional information is
available at the Watson Foundation web site:
http://www.WatsonFellowship.org/.
The
project should not be primarily concerned with a country where the student
has resided, traveled extensively, or studied during the junior year abroad.
However, exceptions may be made for such countries as
Unlike a Fulbright Research Grant, the Watson year is not to be spent in regular graduate study at a foreign university, but instead the project should involve some kind of field work or investigation of an issue that immerses the fellow deeply in the cultures of multiple countries. Projects can be personal and imaginative, but they also should have social, cultural, or artistic value. Projects in all fields are welcome; the Watson Foundation recently has specifically solicited more projects involving science, economics, and business, areas that were underrepresented in past years. NEVERTHELESS, THIS IS NOT AN ACADEMIC FELLOWSHIP INTENDED TO PRODUCE MEASURABLE RESULTS. TO PUT IT IN A DIFFERNT WAY, THIS CANNOT BE A FULBRIGHT RESEARCH PROJECT RECAST TO LOOK LIKE A WATSON. THE EMPHASIS IS ON PERSONAL GROWTH, LIFE-ALTERING EXPERIENCES, AND CULTURAL EXCHANGES. REMEMBER THE FULBRIGHT MANTRA, "WE INVEST IN THE PERSON, NOT THE PROJECT."
Significant weight is given to curricular and extracurricular activities that
demonstrate initiative, leadership, and prior commitment to the concerns
addressed in the project. Language proficiency is important, especially
where the project involves direct communication with a country's inhabitants,
and where instruction in the language is normally available. In other
cases, where the language required for the project is not normally taught at
undergraduate colleges (e.g. Indonesian, Arabic), the Foundation will allow
the fellow to undertake intensive study of the language as late as the summer
preceding departure. The student's academic record is taken into
consideration, but an extremely high GPA is not absolutely essential given
other personal strengths. The quality of the proposal and the
candidate's traits of adaptability, initiative, and force of character are
the hallmarks of a successful Watson application.
WATSON ESSAYS: PROJECT PROPOSAL AND PERSONAL STATEMENT
The
Watson application gives the following description of these essays: "The
project proposal and the personal statement are an opportunity for you to
give us a sense of yourself as a person likely to derive genuine benefit from
the unique opportunities which the Watson Fellowship provides. The
proposal should outline your intended project, your reasons for pursuing it,
and your preparations for undertaking it. The personal statement might include
some discussion of your background, your college years and your professional
goals and aspirations. In other words, we ask you to describe how your
project fits you--how it reflects your talents, concerns and
commitments. Each are also opportunities to provide whatever additional
information you believe would be helpful to us when we evaluate your
nomination. In each case, the specific content of the document is up to
you, but we request that neither statement exceed five typewritten
pages."
In preparing your Watson proposal, think through the following questions:
1) What specifically do I
want to find out by doing field research in a certain culture or in the
cultures I compare? Remember, a general topic (e.g. "Alcoholism in
2) What method am I going to use in conducting my field research?
3) Why is this a worthwhile project to fund -- why is this information worth gathering in terms of contemporary concerns or historical knowledge? (The project can be in any field: the arts, religion, ethics, science, medicine, gender, sports, politics, philanthropy, environmentalism, business, economics, etc.)
4) What background
reading have I done on this topic? Do I know some of the current
research
on the issue?
5) How does this project relate to previous experiences in my life or to my future career plans or avocations? Why is this a project I want to do immediately after graduation?
NOTE THAT FEASIBILITY IS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF THE PROPOSAL.
Further suggestions may be found in the handout on Proposal Writing.
Additional useful suggestions were formulated by the late Maurizio Vannicelli in 1987.
The
Watson Foundation web page includes lists of recent winners. You will
notice that a wide range of activities is supported. It is not
necessary to be quirky, but it helps to be authentically individual,
proposing to do something that only you can do well and that will lead to
your growth as an individual actor in society.
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