The Swearer Center for Public Service received about 40 applications this year for its Howard R. Swearer International Service Fellowship, which provides up to $3,500 for students to pursue a summer internship or project abroad backed by a non-governmental organization or government agency.
The number of applications received by the March 2 deadline closely matched expectations, said Alan Flam, director of advising and community collaborations at the Swearer Center. The Swearer Center typically receives 35 to 50 applications for about 15 fellowship slots.
"We always hope to attract a wide variety of students," Flam said. "Students keep coming up with great ideas, and applications have increased steadily every year."
The fellowship allows students to work with an array of organizations and pursue interests that match their academic goals.
"The fellowship is a very good way to gain perspective about global demographics," said Natalie Ring '13. "It's easy to know conceptually that we're privileged, but the biggest thing I gained from the experience was seeing it for myself."
Since international organizations rarely pay students for their summer work, the University set up this fellowship to make such opportunities financially available to students, Flam said.
"The fellowships have a dual purpose of contributing to student learning and fostering work that is useful to NGOs," Flam said.
Though the organizations and projects students have chosen have not conformed to any particular subject area, the type of work has changed in predictable cycles. In the past, proposals have focused on issues of public health, democracy promotion and environmental quality, Flam said.
"The fellowship runs a real gamut of exposure to work around the world," he said. "It is an extension of the international emphasis within the curriculum at Brown."
The primary expense covered by the fellowship is the cost of international travel, which can amount to nearly $2,000, Flam said. The remaining funds pay for transportation, equipment and living costs during the summer abroad, he added.
The proposals have increasingly incorporated technology for innovative projects and progress reporting. All students contribute to the Watson Institute for International Studies' AT&T Global Conversation blog, where they promote their work, Flam said. Some students have also been making use of other online tools, such as documentary projects, he added.
This year, students have already completed a lot of the planning and designing work for their projects. The Swearer Center meets with students before the application is due to help them craft their ideas, which can be a valuable learning process in and of itself, Flam said.
"The work of formulating the idea is a good and valuable learning experience, even if the student doesn't get the award for that particular summer," he added.
Though the Swearer Center provides a great deal of support in the development phase, past fellowship recipients have expressed the need for further communication after the project is complete.
"The fellowships would be better with some additional follow- up," said Rajvi Mehta '13. "A time to time check up on what students were doing would be helpful."
