People at Dartmouth love to brag about funding opportunities at our college. How many times a day do you hear tour guides mention how much money is available for Dartmouth kids to do cool things with. It's one thing to know it exists though, but how, when and where can students apply?
First of all students have to prove that their internship is more than just checking Facebook from 9:00 to 5:00.
"When someone submits an application we really want to see big connections made in the written application, so it's nice to see that with coursework or other interests that cross-sect with the specific opportunity they're looking at." Amy Newcomb, the Dickey Student Programs Officer, explained.
Don't worry if your goal isn't as ambitious as ending starvation in sub-Saharan Africa; you just need to be passionate about what you're doing.
"We've sent students to do just about anything, but the idea really is that you're getting the opportunity to engage with a community outside the Dartmouth bubble." Newcomb said.
Everyone has heard of the Holy Trinity of Dartmouth funding: Dickey, Tucker and Rocky. This is where you go if you want funding for internships related to international experiences, community service or public policy, respectively. Heads-up: the deadlines for Winter 2011 internships is Oct. 20. You've got until Feb. 2 for Spring 2011 internships.
But what happens if your interests lie outside these foundations? A little-known fact is that academic departments will actually provide funding for activities related to their field of study. Cool, right? So if you want to attend a conference or conduct research on a specific topic, you can apply for funding directly from that department. This type of funding is much more individualized as students apply for money on a case-by-case basis.
The Dean of the Faculty Office gives funding for faculty-advised research in any discipline and research during "on" terms. And no, this isn't the same dean you had to talk to when you got Good Sammed your freshmen Fall.
Career Services apparently forgot its obsession with finance and consulting long enough to fund other fields. Interns in advertising, public relations and publishing can receive money through the E.H. Fisher Fund while work in educational media or work that directly benefits at-risk or inner-city children can get money through the M.R. Robinson Fund. Shocking.
Concerned about selling your soul during corporate recruiting? Do the right thing instead or figure out what the "right thing" is and let the rest of us know. The Ethics Institute, which provides the Thomas D. Sayles, Jr. '54 Fund for Research in Development in Applied and Professional Ethics for students minoring in Ethics.
The Leslie Center for Humanities offers three annual fellowships related to research or creative projects in the humanities. Who knew that majoring in the humanities would ever get you a job in the real world?
On the other end of the academic spectrum, the ISTS-Neukom Institute Grant supports internships in information technology. I don't know what that is. If you do, then you'd probably also be interested in the Neukom Institute, which funds faculty-advised research in the development of computational techniques or the application of computation methods and covers travel costs to conferences.
If your DOC trip didn't satisfy your love of the great outdoors, you can even get funding from the Dartmouth Outing Club. The Schlitz Fund allows DOC members to embark on crazy adventures all over the world, while the Kirby Fund lets Ledyard Canoe Club members do the same. If you want to get all intellectual while you're enjoying Mother Nature, hit up the Mason Grant for funding to research environmental issues. The Northern Studies Internship Grants allows students to study northern forest and land issues, as if dealing with Hanover's pyscho weather doesn't make us experts already.
