Each year, the School of Public Health (SPH) offers a variety of scholarships to both undergraduate and graduate students. The 2017-2018 ones are now available to apply for and the deadline to apply for these scholarships is March 10, 2017. Also, there is a separate application for undergraduate and graduate students. These competitive scholarships are based on different criteria including major, interests, and experience.
Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington
Why Apply?
Being awarded a scholarship brings along many benefits. Most students apply for financial assistance, and some scholarships are based on academic or personal achievements and service work. If you have been busy volunteering on and out of campus, this might be a great way to get your work recognized through a scholarship award.
While scholarships can be used to pay tuition fees and living expenses, many times, they are great sources of funding to do research especially for graduate students. As such, the SPH offers specific scholarships such as the J.K. Rash Scholarship, which is awarded to doctoral students working on their dissertation. While working on a study, you might find yourself needing funds for incentives, printing purposes, traveling to conferences among others. As such, having some extra funds makes a huge difference in being able to be productive, research wise. Further, obtaining scholarships or small grants helps one to boost up their curriculum vitae when applying for bigger grants in addition to honing an applicant’s skills in clearly articulating his or her ideas. Moreover, with the SPH application, students can apply for multiple scholarships with one application rather than having to search for scholarships.
Application Materials
Similarly to other scholarships’ applications, students are required to submit their resume or curriculum vitae (CV) and a personal statement not more than 250 words. Writing personal statements is not an easy task, requiring a lot of introspection and multiple drafts on the applicant’s part. Luckily, the online SPH application makes it easier by breaking down the personal statement into three main sections, namely: reasons for choosing your major, future career goals and what makes you a deserving candidate to be awarded a fellowship. The best way to write a personal statement is to get started on it even if it is not the best draft you can come up with since it is a process whereby you will revise it multiple times and change the content as ideas start to flow more easily over time. The same goes for the resume and the CV. At the Office of Career Services, career coaches are available to meet students to get their resumes critiqued and provide constructive advice on how to build up a professional resume or CV. Furthermore, here is one of my previous posts which sheds some light on building up a resume.
Scholarships are an investment in students’ education and their professional development. So, do not miss this unique opportunity to invest in your own!
Trishnee Bhurosy
Trishnee is a second year PhD student studying Health Behavior. Originally from Mauritius, she is currently having the best time pursuing her doctoral studies and working on her research goals in the wonderful B-town. Her hobbies include cooking, knitting, gardening, reading romantic novels, and playing with her pets. You can reach her at tbhurosy@indiana.edu
