Constructing the major components of a successful Graduate Fellowship Application

1. Constructing the major components of a successful Graduate Fellowship Application Purdue Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Juli Carrillo, Entomology Dept. NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow

2. What is a graduate research fellowship? • Provides stipend and research support during PhD program (sometimes Masters) • Usually more than what schools can offer on their own • Prestigious

3. Many agencies offer funding

4. Searching for fellowships…START EARLY!!! There are hundreds of fellowships – this is just a list of a few… Databaseor lists of fellowships: • http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/fellowships • http://www.lsa.umich.edu/eeb/graduates/currentstudents/resources/fundingopportunities/additionalexternalfellowships Life science Fellowships: • EPA STAR Graduate Research Fellowship: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/fellowships/ (check link for announcement and deadline) • Annie’s Sustainable Agriculture Scholarship: http://www.annies.com/giving-back/agricultural-scholarships (new announcement Nov 3, 2014) • Howard Hughes Medical Institute https://www.hhmi.org/programs/science-education-research-training (Jan 12, 2015) Basic STEM: • Argonne National Laboratory: http://www.dep.anl.gov/p_graduate/labgrad.htm (open submission year round) Multidiscipline: • American Association of University Women Fellowships:http://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/educational-funding-and-awards/ (deadline Nov. 15)

5. The Major Ones • NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (starting Oct. 29,2014 depending on area) http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14590/nsf14590.htm • Ford Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (Nov. 19, 2014) http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/pga_088455.pdf • Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research(March 8, 2014) http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-14-148.html

6. Major components Eligibility • Usually need to identify a sponsoring institution. You may need a sponsoring scientist statement (this would likely be your graduate school advisor). Some require that you are already admitted into a graduate program. • Be sure you are applying to the appropriate subject area. • Usually you cannot have completed more than 12 months of graduate study – apply as senior in undergrad or as a first year graduate student.

7. Major components Choosing your sponsoring institution • Figure out what you want to do and where. Ask your professors at Purdue, or use a literature database to figure out who is publishing in your interest area. • Identify several (at least two) faculty you would consider working with at each school to which you apply. Graduate school is a long time!! Visit if they invite, and ask to visit if they don’t. • Make sure they are accepting students and talk to their current and former students. • Ask about departmental funding – DON’T PAY FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL! • Take your GREs, apply for admittance – lots of resources online for timelines of when to do these steps – START EARLY. Much of your admittance application can be used for your fellowship application, e.g. letters of reference, personal statements, etc. • Inform potential advisors that you plan to apply for external funding and ask for their help with fellowship applications. They may know ones not listed here.

8. Major components Preparation • The Application • Read the application carefully to determine the purpose of the funding and direct your application to this intent1. • Plan the project; identify the resources needed and available; schedule appointments with the people or offices available for assistance1. • Develop a timeline to complete all the components of the application package1. • E.g. transcripts, enrollment verification, personal and research statements, letters of reference • Read the instructions carefully and complete the application as instructed1. Follow all directions on proposal requests, including page limits, font sizes, and margins • Begin as early as possible! From: https://www.purdue.edu/gradschool/funding/fundingtips/apply.cfm

9. Major components The personal statement • Read the question or statement, then determine the intent of the question, and identify the key components1. • Compose your response, directing your experience and skills to the intent of the essay. Place the emphasis on the impact of the experiences, not simply a listing of accomplishments1. • Edit the essay ensuring that all elements of the question have been addressed1. • Visit the Online Writing Lab (OWL) for assistance in grammar and composition1. • Authenticity but NO CHEESE. Write about transformative experiences that relate to your desire to pursue research and that showcase your passion (but don’t make readers cringe). Have someone brutally honest read it over for you. 1: From: https://www.purdue.edu/gradschool/funding/fundingtips/apply.cfm

10. Major components The Research Statement • Work with a faculty member, preferably your undergraduate research advisor. • The proposal must be scientifically sound, even if you don’t end up doing the project. • Attend workshops on grant writing, look at funded proposals. The graduate school at Purdue maintains a collection of funded proposals. • Know your system. Research the literature; don’t reinvent the wheel. • Include a figure if it makes sense.

11. Major components The Research Statement The Title -- Catchy, BUT NO CHEESE. Ecological Immunity: How Food Quality Mediates Susceptibility To Parasites When less is more: Reproductive decisions when the density and number of potential partners is linked to harassment of females by males and receipt of positive fitness benefits. Ecological costs of tri-trophic plant defenses

12. Major components The Research Statement The introduction Grab their attention and hold it. Question/problem/resolution Why are some individuals more susceptible to infections than others? It is widely accepted that genetic variation for immune capacity affects vulnerability to parasites, but individuals that mount strong immune responses are not necessarily the fittest5,8. Physiological or ecological factors constrain maximum immune investment, resulting in a tradeoff between life history traits (e.g., longevity, fecundity) and defense5. Some of the strongest evidence for immune constraints comes from insects, where diet quality affects immunocompetence towards parasites. While butterflies/moths reared on more toxic food plants tend to have suppressed immune activity, parasitoids (= parasites that are free-living as adults but whose juvenile stages develop within other organisms) perform worse on these toxic caterpillars as well, despite their host’s compromised immune system1,3. However, most studies have only investigated how a few secondary metabolites tradeoff with immune function using artificial diets. Even fewer have related those finding directly to parasitoid performance. To date, no study has measured host immune activity, parasitoid performance, and host’s diet quality over a broad range of natural food plants. Consequently, our understanding of whether host diet affects host-parasite interactions within natural communities remains limited. I will address this knowledge gap using the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, its main parasitoid, Cotesia congregata (Braconidae), and plants in the family Solanaceae.

13. Major components The Research Statement How are the costs and benefits of mating reflected in the mating behavior and reproductive success of individuals? When reproductive benefits are correlated with the costs of mating, individuals may face strong selective pressure to increase receipt of benefits while also reducing the costs. This balance of sexually antagonistic and sexually mutualistic effects may potentially lead to a sub optimal reproductive outcome for one or both sexes. Additionally, individuals that operate within different cost/benefit structures may have different behavioral strategies and optima; when these coexist, genetic variation for mate preferences could potentially be maintained within a system. Consequently, the relative importance of cost and benefits of mating and mate choice most certainly effect evolutionary processes on many levels.  Although much work has been done on sexual selection and sexual conflict, few studies have empirically examined the combined costs and benefits to mating and mate choice within a system. e.g. 5 Even fewer have examined how the cost/benefit structure of mating and mate choice can change with fluctuating environmental conditions (but see 6). A holistic examination of the costs and benefits of mate choice, particularly in terms of ecological parameters, is needed to move forward on this topic.7Thus far, this field has been limited in determining the relative importance of particular benefits, or even whether these benefits exist within a system. e.g. 8I suggest that costs of mating may mask these benefits at equilibrium, and that a manipulation of environmental conditions may be an effective tool by which to initiate change in behavior and highlight the relative costs and benefits of mating and mate choice. Additionally, through environmental manipulations, behavioral thresholds may become apparent and suggest limits to evolutionary adaptability and behavioral plasticity within a system.

14. Major components The Research Statement How do plants both grow and defend? It is widely acknowledged that plants grow through allocating resources to both vegetative and reproductive structures and often experience attack by herbivores that can reduce plant fitness (e.g. Bazzaz et al. 1997). To combat the negative effects of herbivory, plants have evolved a multitude of defenses, which can be broadly categorized as either resistance (avoiding being eaten) or tolerance (enduring being eaten) (Rosenthal & Kotanen 1994). Resistant traits can be direct, e.g. chemical or physical barriers to herbivores, or indirect, e.g. volatile organic compounds or extrafloral nectar, which function by attracting the enemies of herbivores (Kessler & Heil 2011). These can either be expressed constitutively or induced after herbivore attack (Karban 2011). Theory on plant defense against herbivores commonly assumes that defensive traits are costly as they reduce resources available for growth and reproduction (allocation costs of defense) and that functionally redundant defenses should tradeoff (reviewed in Stamp 2003). For this reason, plants are thought to experience an intrinsic dilemma in that they have limited resources to allocate among growth and defense related traits (e.g. Herms & Mattson 1992). There is evidence for and against tradeoffs among growth and defense and among different defenses (Fornoni et al. 2003; Koricheva et al. 2004), suggesting that some traits experience correlated selection due to synergy or redundancy among traits while others evolve more independently (Carmona et al. 2011). Importantly, correlated selection on multiple defense traits may represent a substantial ecological cost of plant defense, e.g. if selection for resistance reduces a plant's ability to tolerate herbivory (Strauss et al. 2002). Current attempts to understand the complex ecological and evolutionary processes that determine how plants both grow and defend need to examine allocation based costs of defense and the potential ecological costs of correlated selection on other defense traits to fully understand tradeoffs constraining plant evolution (Agrawal 2011).

15. Major components The Research Statement Study system and goals Key predictions and hypotheses Methodology Anticipated results and impacts

16. Major components The Research Statement – NSF GRFP • Intellectual merit: The potential of the project or fellow to advance knowledge within its own field or across different fields. • Broader Impacts: The potential of the project or fellow to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes. • Full participation of women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). • Improved STEM education and educator development at any level. • Increased public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology; improved well-being of individuals in society. • Development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce; increased partnerships between academia, industry, and others. • Improved national security; increased economic competitiveness of the US; and enhanced infrastructure for research and education.

17. Major components The Research Statement • Other points of review for NSF GRFP: • To what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts? • Is the plan for carrying out the proposed activities well-reasoned, well-organized, and based on sound rational? • How qualified is the individual, team, or organization? • Are there adequate resources to the sponsoring scientist to carry out the proposed activities?

18. Major components Letters or Reference • Select faculty who are willing and appropriate to provide a reference based upon the program announcement1. • Communicate the procedures for submitting the reference1. • Provide a copy of your CV and the program announcement to the faculty member when requesting a reference, noting the items to be highlighted by the reference1. • State the deadline for submitting the reference1. • Send a thank you note to the faculty member a few days prior to the stated deadline1. 1: From: https://www.purdue.edu/gradschool/funding/fundingtips/apply.cfm

19. Major components Letters or Reference • Advisors of undergraduate research, program directors, faculty you took multiple or in depth classes with over your undergraduate career. • Ask in person (email or ask for a meeting), but send a follow-up email with all the details. • They should know you well. • Remind them why you are good for the position or fellowship – e.g. if it is for a mentoring fellowship, be sure to include examples of your mentoring experiences in your email. Don’t go overboard, but make it easier for them  • Ask them to review your application materials if it is appropriate/in their field.

20. Major components Letters or Reference Hi Professor Dunham, Here is my CV and proposal for the America Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship. You should have received a link for the letter, which is due Nov. 17th. The other fellowship's letter isn't due until January, so I will send you that information after this one is complete.  I know you are swamped this time of year, so I really appreciate you doing this.  I think the fellowship reviewers are looking for a candidate with a strong background in mentoring women.  I talk about it in the application, but to summarize, I have recruited and retained more undergraduates to do research in EEB than any other graduate student. The majority of these students are women, and many are from underrepresented groups in STEM fields. If you have any comments on the application, want to meet to talk about it, or need extra info, please let me know. The narrative autobiography is *really* cheesy, but maybe that is what they want? Thanks,  Juli

21. Major components Submitting your application • DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!! • Confirm all materials have been uploaded correctly and that references have been or will be submitted. • Have multiple people read over your materials to check for grammar, clarity, overuse of clichés, and generally boring material.

22. University and departmental resources • Purdue Graduate School has several workshops throughout the year. • https://www.purdue.edu/gradschool/funding/index.cfm • The maintain a funding database and can direct you to the right people in your major department for additional help. • Mentoring networks. • Financial incentives!

23. Questions?? Please do contact me or other fellows for help! Juli Carrillo: Carrillj@purdue.edu THANKS!!