Description: The preparation of an application form for research and/or fellowship support helps graduate students to develop skills and strategies required to work in real life. In this activity, graduate students need to think how to apply a theoretical framework in practice, how to prepare a form for an application of research support, and how to present and write the research proposal of a fellowship professionally. These all competencies mentioned offers a professional development for them through the academic life.
Reflection: Applying for a fellowship by designing research was a new concept for a student coming from abroad to Canada like me. However, although I had difficulty in preparing all documents related to the fellowship that I applied for (which is the UBC Affiliated Fellowships), this helped me to learn the process and develop my skills associated with how to do a research design and how to get funding for research. This reflection will be covering four titles: which are a description of goals for the experience, competencies developed, challenges and lessons learned, and advice to myself for next time. Description Of Goals for The Experience: Applying for a fellowship can be considered as a learning activity and as engaging with other researchers since it is a part of professional development to begin presenting your research to other people. This activity has a couple of vitally important goals for graduate students. First of all, this activity provides enormous experiences for applicants about how to find and get funding for their research. It is a fact that researchers in academia must be able to find funding for their research ideas to be able to apply them to societies. The problem here is that although some researchers have a great idea, unfortunately, their projects do not get enough support because of their lack of skills related to how to apply for a fellowship, how to present a research idea, and how to manage all process of an application. In addition, another goal of the fellowship application activity is considering how a theory applies in practice, which is a part of the promotion of human knowledge. In fact, it is the biggest goal of fellowship application: extend human knowledge. We cannot do this if we sit and study in a dark room by using a pen and pencils. We need to extend the knowledge to be able to be used by society. Fellowships provide us with opportunities to extend human knowledge. That's why a researcher is supposed to think about how a theory can be applied in practice before applying for a fellowship by focusing on two things, feasibility and originality. Those things are directly related to using research ideas in practice. In conclusion, knowing and experiencing the whole process of how to get funding for research and extending human knowledge by considering how research can be applied in practice are the main goals of the activity.
Competencies Developed: During the process, I realized that there are some competencies I have developed thanks to this activity. For instance, learning the process of an application of a fellowship helped me to improve my management skills based on the process (i.e., process management). Similarly, how time management skills are crucial for someone who want to manage their lives effectively, process management skills are also vitally important for a researcher in academia. Besides, process management can be considered as seeing the big picture of a process, and it is including time management skills as well. The other competency was to improve effective writing skills. As you might know, most fellowship applications are required to write a research proposal by using just two pages. So, a researcher must mention every crucial detail, including literature review, methodology, contribution to the advancement of knowledge, and so on. Considering the situation, it is hard to mention every crucial detail. In addition, the research should be written effectively and creatively because the committee can better understand your ideas and decide your research design as original and feasible. So, writing skill is one of the competencies developed for me during the process. Shortly, considering process management and writing skills that contributed to my professional development (my competencies), I have learned how research should be predominantly qualified.
Challenges and Lessons Learned: Graduate students need to see every challenge as an opportunity to enhance their strengths. In this activity, writing a proposal effectively (i.e., by using just two pages), managing all processes, presenting a research idea by using the analyze-synthesis technique, and giving critical points in the literature associated with the research idea are the main challenges that I face throughout the application of a fellowship. However, each challenge taught me a lesson. For example, I have learned a couple of strategies for effective writing throughout preparing a proposal for the fellowship, which is that using one or two words in a sentence instead of using another sentence is better and effective for writing. On the other hand, making analysis and synthesis from what we read is a pretty challenge. For instance, during the application process, I was supposed to analyze intelligence theories and synthesis them with my previous experiences, including other academics, to design a workshop to help families that have gifted children. This was really hard, and I think the analysis and synthesis part is the most important part of a fellowship application in terms of challenges. What I have learned throughout the application of the fellowship is that (1) every part of the application should be consistent with the research, (2) the application should generate enthusiasm, and (3) it can be considered as an experience related to how a research study presents to the world. Besides, I have learned that I should always keep going even if it is highly competitive and hard. I remember a Ted video about self-confidence by Dr. Ivan Joseph, which says we will always face challenges during life, and the difference between failure and winner is self-confidence. Considering this application experience and the ted video by Dr. Ivan Joseph, I have now high self-confidence to apply for and win a fellowship for this year because I know the process, and I experienced many challenges, and I learned many lessons during the previous application. The last word is that enthusiasm is more important than anything in the process.
Advice to Myself for Next Time: Considering all application process of a fellowship, I could say as advice to myself for next time that I should start earlier to have enough time to better focus on making a great research design and preparing all documents perfectly. On the other hand, I should think of feasibility of a research deeply, which is one of the important parts of the process of fellowship application. It is kind of Do-able in terms of methods, time, resources. In addition, it must be easy to read including in its use of technical, (sub)discipline-specific terminology. Also, it is critical to find a peer group to share my research ideas for an application of a fellowship and get their feedback to contribute my research study. Lastly, I realized that there are some workshops related to how to prepare a great proposal for a fellowship offering by UBC library. So, I should join this kind of workshop to improve my skills associated with a fellowship application. I have already joined a couple of them, which are “Preparing Excellent Fellowship Applications” by Julian Dierkers, Associate Dean, Funding, G+PS, and “Designing your grad school strategy”. These were highly beneficial for me to realize what’s going on during the application process and what kind of things the committee wait from graduate students when they apply for a fellowship or grant. Every application will be contributing my personal and academic development.