Slide appears, with the text (read by Elizabeth Rotolo): How has the application process shaped your future plans?
Transition into Elinor Eggers speaking, a banner with her name and Class of 2023 appears.
“Yeah, from completing an application with the Fellowships office I realize that I want to study abroad, and so next year I’ll be pursuing a Master’s degree in London. So, that was unforeseen and I’m very excited about it.”
Transition into Cooper Gottfried speaking, a banner with her name and Class of 2025 appears.
“Yeah, I would say more specifically I learned that I definitely, although I do definitely want to work with climate models, the idea of working more specifically with climate models to help individual communities and to help communities get the assistance that they need, whether it be from policy makers or wherever it may come from, is a real goal of mine and I don’t think I would have necessarily come to that conclusion without working on the scholarship application.”
Transition into MJ Ibrahim speaking, a banner with his name and Class of 2023 appears.
“Yes. So, I used to be pre-med, bio, all that good stuff, and then I applied for the Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship, as well as the Schiff Fellowship, and I decided to tailor my project in a more sociological way, and it turns out, I love sociology more than the pre-med and all that good stuff. So, that kind of validated what I wanted to do after graduation.”
Transition into Daphne Ballesteros speaking, a banner with her name and Class of 2024 appears.
“I remember when I was about to start undergrad, my original plan was just gonna be really linear, like I’m gonna be a PSYC major and then I’m gonna get an MSW, at whatever school that I am interested in, but now I’m looking at the possibility of a Fulbright grant, and of doing the IRT and getting a Master’s in counseling, but also probably entering academia as a result of having gotten to do Fulbright and seeing different life paths and journeys that are very tailored to not only what I majored in, but my actual life interests.”
Transition into Alex Stanley speaking, a banner with her name and Class of 2025 appears.
“Yes, it helped me really figure out what research pathways I want to pursue in the future, and it just made the entire process seem more realistic and attainable because I took the time to think through everything and plan my next immediate steps.”
Transition into Rachel Landis speaking, a banner with her name and Class of 2023 appears.
“I think, kind of at the same time as applying for the Truman Scholarship, I really realized that I wanted to work in the field of reproductive justice policies specifically, so that was nice to kind of have that happening concurrently, and then at the same time, because the Truman scholarship really asks you to think about your future. Like, what schools do you want to go, where do you want to work. It actually helps me do a lot of research into possible law school programs, and grad school programs, and fellowships that I can apply for in between now and grad school, and you know, long-term jobs and I learned about representatives who care about the same issues I do, so it’s actually been really helpful in my job process this year because a bonus of all of the research I did last year is now I get to just apply for those things.”
Cut to slide reading: Academic Fellowships Office, fellowships@brandeis.edu, @brandeisfellowships, Kutz Hall 122 with the Brandeis Academic Fellowships logo underneath. Fade to black.