Common application components

Personal statements often combine elements of your past, present, and future. They are opportunities to tell your story about your identity, impactful previous experiences, and your goals and plans for your future.

• Pre-writing: What makes you you? What words would your friends use to describe you and why? What personal attributes are the most important to you and why? Are there specific experiences or activities you’ve had that have shaped your career goals? What are they, and why were they so impactful?
• Drafting: After reflecting on and jotting down some notes about what makes you you, begin to draft your personal statement. Connect the dots between your identity, your past experiences, and your future goals.
• Revise: Continue to hone this essay over time and in relation to the specific prompts requested for each fellowship application.

Essays about leadership and/or service are opportunities to show your values, convictions, and drive in action. Typically, you share one specific example from your experience in which you noticed a need and you took the initiative to address that need. These essays are not lists of accomplishments.

• Consider the following explanations of research: the ability to influence and guide others; the capacity to create change; the ability to set a vision, get buy in, mobilize people to do the work, ensure accountability, and celebrate success. In other words, leadership is more than holding a title or maintaining the status quo of an organization or a project.
• Pre-writing: List 3-5 examples of your leadership experiences. Identify connections between them. Select one experience and describe what you did; note the actions your performed; include details about the involvement of others. Continue to get more specific: what was your role in the organization; what was the size and reach of the organization; what problem were you trying to solve; what did you ask other people to do to support the initiative; what was the outcome of your leadership. Be specific about the impact of your leadership. Consider your leadership style: how did you make decisions? How did you relate to others?
• Drafting: Compose an essay that indicates the breadth of your leadership experiences and that demonstrates the depth of at least one of those experiences.
• Revise: Continue to hone this essay over time and in relation to the specific prompts requested for each application.
• NOTE: While the prompts above are about leadership, you could substitute the word service in most of them to address essays about service.

Essays about professional aspirations are opportunities to show selection committees ways your future efforts are in alignment with the goals of the fellowship program. If the program prioritizes public service or ambassadorial potential or dedication to addressing climate change, your essay would address your aspirations in that specific realm. While this sort of essay is very similar to a personal statement, this is more future-focused, whereas the personal statement combines past, present, and future.

• Pre-writing: Make a list of the disciplines or fields you aim to work in, a list of the specific roles or positions you aspire to, and the impact you want to have on your community / the world. Compose a statement about your professional goals or the problem you want to address—allow this statement to be aspirational. Explain what education and experiences you’ll need to bring these aspirations to fruition.
• Drafting: Using your pre-writing, compose an essay that highlights the impact you aim to have in your future career.

A statement of grant purpose is similar to a cover letter—it explains the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the project you propose to undertake. You should include specific examples from your professional experience as evidence of your capacity to complete the proposed project.

• Pre-writing: Jot down some notes about the who, what, when, why, and how of your project. Include an explanation of the form your project will take at its completion (a paper, a film, a presentation, etc). Fill in details about how this project relates to the goals of the fellowship. Make a list of your qualifications and your previous experiences that relate to this one and be able to explain how your new project relates to, builds upon, or diverges from your previous work. Review the prompt and make note of any other components requested.
• Drafting: Compose a cohesive essay that introduces your topic; explains how your research works including your process and timeline; shows your preparedness based upon qualifications and previous experience; and where this project will take you.