Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Program

NOTE: The deadline to apply is: 4:00 pm, Wednesday, February 7, 2018. Any online applications submitted after this time will not be accepted. No faxes or emails accepted.

Program Purpose

The GSRM Program is designed to provide financial support for UCLA doctoral students in the arts, humanities, social sciences, public health and nursing. It is also designed to release recipients from employment or loan obligations that might delay progress in graduate study. Awardees should consider it as their principal/primary summer activity.

A specific objective of the program is to promote opportunities for students to work closely with a faculty mentor in developing a paper for presentation at an academic conference and/or for publication. General goals are to facilitate close working relationships between faculty and students during the early stages of graduate education, to promote timely degree progress, and to encourage creative scholarship and research productivity.

Program Expectations

GSRM awardees are expected to complete and submit a draft of a paper (either single-authored by the student or co-authored with the faculty mentor) by the end of the summer through the GSRM Program Evaluation. This paper should be submitted for presentation at a professional conference and/or for publication sometime during the following academic year (October-–June). This is a program requirement.

If the program evaluation and paper are not submitted by the end of the program, recipients will not be considered if applying for this fellowship in subsequent years.

It is expected that the faculty mentor will be in frequent contact with the awardee during the summer and committed to working closely with the student. Awardees and mentors must complete a program evaluation at the end of summer.

GSRM awardees may not work more than 25% time so as to not detract from the GSRM experience. Furthermore, awardees should be mindful that by accepting funding, they are declaring that the GSRM project will be their sole activity in summer. Should a post-audit discover appointment(s) above 25%, the GSRM stipend will be prorated and reduced accordingly (e.g., a 50% TA appointment for a six-week summer session will result in a reduction of the GSRM stipend by at least 46%––6 weeks of the 13 that should have been devoted to the GSRM activities were spent as a TA).

Eligibility

The program is open to UCLA doctoral students in the arts, humanities, social sciences, public health and nursing who:

  1. Are in year one, two or three of UCLA doctoral study at the time of application; priority will be given to students currently (at the time of application) in year one or two of doctoral study, and to students who have not already received a GSRM award.
  2. Have not yet advanced to doctoral candidacy.
  3. Are US citizens, permanent residents, international or registered California AB540 students. For international students, funding is subject to fellowship eligibility in regards to visa type. For those under AB540, funding will be provided only if AB131 is still in effect for the duration of the fellowship.
  4. Have been continuously enrolled/registered the previous Spring and will be continuously enrolled/registered the following Fall. If these conditions are not met, the awardee will be required to repay the summer award.
  5. Have a minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA at time of award (i.e., at time of payment disbursement).

Awardees of the George and Sakaye Aratani Fellowship, Center for European and Russian Studies Summer Award, Graduate Dean’s Scholar Award, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS), Lenart Travel Fellowship, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Training Grant and other summer fellowships are not eligible to receive GSRM funding at the same time as their other funding.

Students may apply for the GSRM in only one doctoral degree program and may receive the award only twice. In addition, prior year recipients who did not complete the program evaluation nor submit their paper will not be considered for future applications.

Program Dates

The 13-week program begins June 18, 2018 and ends September 14, 2018.

Award

Program participants will receive a maximum $6,000 stipend.

Deadline

The deadline for receipt of all online application materials (including the letter of recommendation) and a single PDF copy of supporting documents is:

  • 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Incomplete applications cannot be accepted.

How To Apply

By applying, students understand that they are giving their consent to disclose application information to University officials and to relevant funding committees.

Students nominate themselves for this award. To apply:

Complete and submit the Online Application Form. Upload the following documents in the order listed as a single PDF file (do not include the letter of recommendation as part of the PDF upload).

  1. Overview of Research Paper. Describe the work you will do in the summer to prepare your research for presentation at a regional or national conference and potentially for publication. Include the mentoring activities in which you and your faculty mentor will engage. If you have already received a GSRM award, briefly describe the research progress, presentations and/or publications that resulted from that experience. The document should be a maximum of four pages, double spaced, inclusive of images, graphs, tables, notes and/or references as appropriate.  Minimum font size 11 pt., with at least 1-inch” margins. Pages in excess of four will not be forwarded for review.
  2. An unofficial copy of your Graduate Transcript with Fall 2017 grades posted. The transcript printed from MyUCLA is acceptable. Do not submit a Degree Progress Report (DPR). If Fall Quarter is your first graduate term at UCLA, please include an unofficial transcript from the last university attended (even if the last college/university was UCLA).Students who have incomplete grades that remain unresolved must provide a statement explaining the reason for the incomplete(s), the steps that will be taken to resolve the incomplete(s) and the timeline for doing so.
  3. Resume or Curriculum Vitae.
  4. Letter from the faculty member who will serve as the mentor. The mentor does not have to be from the same department/program as the applicant.
    • In Step 3 of the online fellowship application process, provide the name and email address of the recommender.  The system will then send your recommender an email with instructions as to how to submit the letter online as a PDF document.  The recommender will not need to email anything to the department Student Affairs Officer.
    • The mentor should describe the mentoring relationship and the paper that the student will complete during the summer. If a mentoring relationship has already been established between applicant and faculty member, the letter should distinguish between ongoing and additional mentoring activities that would occur during this period.
    • It will be the student’s responsibility to ensure that the letter has been submitted on time. The online site will provide information about the status of the letter’s upload.
    • The letter of recommendation is due on or before the GSRM application deadline.  Applications missing the letter of recommendation will not be reviewed.

If there is a document that should be in landscape position and it is in portrait position, please rotate it before you upload it.

NOTE: Applications that do not follow the application procedures listed above will be disqualified and not considered for the fellowship.  Revisions to applications after submission are not allowed; no exceptions.

Hints to Prepare a Strong Proposal and Faculty Letter of Recommendation

A strong application will contain the following:

  • The mentoring relationship is a key component in this fellowship. The faculty mentor’s letter of recommendation must address the following:
    • Specific mentoring activities and plans that will prepare the applicant’s summer research for publication or conference presentation;
    • A clear plan for meetings, progress reports, research development, and expectations for final paper to be presented at a conference and/or for publication
  • The applicant’’s research overview should be written so that the work will be understandable and its significance appreciated by faculty who may not be expert in the applicant’s field.
  • The description of the research paper should present the following, as appropriate to the subject:
    • The question(s), thesis or hypothesis being addressed;
    • The project scope and research approach, plan or methodology;
    • A synopsis of any preliminary findings, results and/or analysis;
    • The significance, creativity, originality and/or and impact of the work.
  • The relevance and significance of the mentoring activities to the achieving the project goals should be clearly articulated.
  • If you have already received a GSRM award, briefly describe how the award enabled you to advance your research skills and progress and note any presentations and/or publications you have authored or co-authored since receiving the award. Explain why a second GSRM award is justified, as they are made only in exceptional cases.
  • Reviewers will evaluate all applications holistically, with particular attention to the:
    • Overall quality of project and proposal;
    • Applicant’s readiness for this mentoring fellowship;
    • Applicant’s academic record, as reflected in his/her transcripts;
    • Mentor’s recommendation.

Publicizing Fellowship Awardees

The name and home department of fellowship awardees may be published on the Graduate Division’s website, in its publications and/or posted on its bulletin boards and other Graduate Division venues for educational purposes.  Awardees who do not want their information published must submit a statement to this effect when returning the fellowship contract.

For Further Information Contact

Henry Hernandez, at hhernandez@grad.ucla.edu, (310) 825-1985, 1228 Murphy Hall.