• Recipients must work between 350 hours and 400 hours during summer break. No internship may exceed 40 hours per week.
• Recipients must submit information about the organization offering the internship, a detailed description of responsibilities, and the name and title of their summer supervisor.
• Recipients and their supervisors must submit a learning agreement and a mid-summer evaluation. This should be emailed directly to Career Planning no later than mid-July.
• Recipients must submit a final evaluation form reviewing their summer experience by August 31. They are also expected to give a presentation.

A committee of faculty and staff will carefully apply the criteria stated below and make award to applications that best meet the goals of the program. The quality of your application materials is important.

Here are some of the criteria committee members will use to evaluate your application:

Note: This application process requires that you secure a commitment from an organization willing to sponsor you as an intern prior to knowing whether or not you will be funded. Please speak with the appropriate person at the organization of interest and explain the fellowship award process and that you may need to withdraw should you not be awarded funding. Awards will be announced by mid-April.

1. Meet with a member of the Career Planning Staff to discuss your internship plans and review the application process.
2. Research and identify organizations with which you would like to intern. Get a contact name, complete address, and phone number.
3. Make sure that the sponsoring organizations and the internship responsibilities meet the criteria of the Fellowship.
4. Send a cover letter and resume to the organization by early January.
   • To get help with your cover letter and resume, please set up an appointment with one of the Career Planning Advisors.
   • Your cover letter should follow the same format as those listed in the Career Planning Cover Letter Handbook tip sheet. You may wish to change the first paragraph of your letter to read something like this:” “I am writing to be considered as an intern with your organization this summer. I am also an applicant to the Bowdoin College (name specific fund here) Summer Fellowship Program which provides grants to students to work in the field (name issue here) over the summer. If selected by the Committee, I would be awarded funds enabling me to become an intern with your organization.”
     
   • And your last paragraph should read something like this:
     I appreciate your consideration and look forward to talking with you further about my interests and qualifications and possible projects your organization could offer me. I will contact you shortly to discuss this in greater detail.”
5. Follow up with phone calls to set up interviews. Be sure to discuss the following in your meeting:
   • The Summer Fellowship Guidelines
   • Specific substantive projects and responsibilities
   • Number of hours/week
   • Starting and ending date
   • Name of your supervisor
   • Compensation (if any)
6. Select ONE organization to use for the Summer Fellowship application. Some suggested questions to ask yourself to help you make a decision:
   • Which internship provides the best opportunity to gain substantive experience?
   • Which projects and responsibilities do you like the best?
   • At which organization did you seem to connect more with the employees and/or with the supervisor
7. Approach recommenders regarding your letters of reference.
   • Allow individuals at least two weeks to write a letter of recommendation.
   • Be sure that at least one recommender is familiar with any service experience you have had and your commitment.
   • Please ask the recommenders to indicate the program for which you are applying.
8. Get a commitment letter from your sponsoring organization. This letter should indicate that you have been offered an internship with the sponsoring organization and describe the learning opportunities for you as well as your specific responsibilities.
9. As a courtesy to those organizations which have offered you an internship, please let them know if you have selected another internship for your program.
10. For feedback on all your written material, please work with the Career Planning staff.
11. Submit all materials with application form by the application deadline.
12. This is a competitive selection process. It is in your best interest to apply to several internships and/or summer jobs in addition to this Fellowship.
13. Good luck! Please contact us with any questions.

You can save this PDF version of this information to submit to employers with your application to them

PURPOSE: These funds have been offered with the hope that our students will, as undergraduates, begin to build a foundation for future career development.

AWARDS: Award amounts will be adjusted depending upon your ability to provide partial remuneration. Awards will be made directly to the student.

REQUIREMENTS: Sponsoring organizations must be able to meet the following criteria:

-Projects or assignments must involve a significant and substantive learning component, to be outlined in both the commitment letter and the learning agreement.
-All internship programs require a minimum of 350 hours and a maximum of 400 hours of work during the summer break. This can be full-time, 35 hours/week for 10 weeks, 22 hours/week for 16 weeks, or any combination in between, as long as the hours worked total between 350 hours and 400 hours. No internship may exceed 40 hours per week to comply with wage and hour laws.
-You will be asked by the student to provide a letter of commitment outlining preliminary internship responsibilities and growth opportunities as well as your willingness to participate in this program. Please email this (as a .pdf, if possible) to the student to submit with their application.
-A Learning Agreement must be completed by the award recipient and the supervisor at the onset of the internship and mailed directly to Career Planning.
-A mid-summer evaluation must be completed by the award recipient and the supervisor at the sponsoring organization and should be emailed to Career Planning no later than July 11, 2016.

SELECTION PROCESS: Once you have offered an internship to a Bowdoin student, the student will submit an application for review by a committee. This committee, which currently consists of Bowdoin faculty and staff members, will carefully apply the criteria stated above and make awards to those applications that best meet the goals of this program.

TIMELINE: Student applications are due to Bowdoin by Wednesday, March 30, 2016. Awards will be announced to students before mid-April. Regretfully, there may be some students who will have to withdraw from their internship at your organization if they are not awarded funding. We want to thank you for your willingness to participate in the application process.