You are more than your transcript, and what you choose to do with your free time can say a lot about you. Your time out of the classroom gives you the opportunity to expand current interests or explore new ones. You can use this time, if you like, to:
Internships and the Praxis Program
The real-world experience of working in an organization can be enriching and can help you clarify your career preferences while building your resume. Planning ahead is crucial.
Internships
Fall is not too early to start looking for summer internships. You can find out about internships from The Career Center, numerous online resources (including www.careeers.wustl.edu), and some academic departments. The Career Center will be hosting the All-Campus Internship and Job Fair on October 11. Internship Week is slated for the last week of January, with a series of workshops and panel discussions on the schedule. Look for more information about these events as their dates approach and plan to attend.
The Praxis Program
The Praxis Program is designed for students interested in combining the skills of a liberal arts education with specific coursework aimed at teaching additional skills that translate more directly to the world of work. Most students enter the program at the beginning of their sophomore year but interested sophomores, particularly those who already have taken such background courses as macroeconomics or microeconomics, can still join if they investigate this option early in the sophomore year. The Praxis experience culminates in an internship designed through The Career Center, normally taken at the end of your junior year. For more information, go to http://artsci.wustl.edu/~college/After_ First_ Year/Sophomore/Praxis/curriculum.html.
Fellowships and Summer Stipends
There are several fellowship opportunities available to undergraduates, linking students to appropriate academic mentors and providing stipends for summer and academic year research. There are other programs designed to encourage students by providing financial support for qualifying internships or projects.
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program
The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program is for students interested in pursuing graduate work in the following suggested fields: anthropology, area studies, art history, classics, computer science, demography, earth science, ecology, English, ethnomusicology, foreign languages, geology, history, literature, mathematics, musicology, philosophy, physics, political theory, religion and sociology. Sophomores who are African American, Latino American, Native American, or who show a demonstrated commitment to increasing cross-racial and ethnic understanding, who are American citizens or permanent residents, and who are majoring in one of the listed fields or a related field, are eligible to apply.
Applicants must be interested in pursuing a higher degree, preferably the Ph.D., and must show exceptional scholarly promise. For more information about this program, go to http://artsci.wustl.edu/~college/Mellon.
Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Program
Modeled after the Mellon Mays program, the Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Program is intended to encourage exceptionally promising students to pursue independent research, to write an Honors thesis, and to explore the possibility of pursuing a higher degree, preferably the Ph.D. It provides an opportunity for students to engage in a two year seminar that allows them to do an independent research project on a topic of their choice, to meet weekly with other students interested in independent research, and to learn more about the pros and cons of applying to graduate school. Students work one-on-one with a faculty mentor of their choosing, who helps with all aspects of the research project.
Applicants must be interested in a major in either the humanities or social sciences. Sophomores majoring in an eligible field and who are considering doing Honors work in their major field may apply. The intent, as with the Mellon Mays Fellowship, is to encourage the best students in the Humanities and Social Sciences to consider graduate study as an option. For more information about the program, go to http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu/honorsfellowship.html.
The Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values
The Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values awards summer stipends to students to encourage them to spend several months over the summer developing projects that will cover topics in the areas of ethics and human values. Undergraduates (from sophomore year on) and graduate students from all disciplines may apply. For more information about the Center, go to http://humanvalues.wustl.edu.
Richard A. Gephardt Institute for Public Service
The Richard A. Gephardt Institute works to encourage students to consider a career in public service. Partial or full summer stipends are awarded to selected students holding uncompensated public service internships (with either a government office or with a non-profit organization engaged in public service work), to make holding such unpaid internships affordable. For more information, go to http://www.gephardtinstitute.wustl.edu/SummerStipend.html.
Social Change Grants
The Stern Social Change Grant and the Kaldi Social Change Grant are designed to encourage students to pursue innovative ideas serving the common good in the spirit of social entrepreneurship. The Stern grant provides up to $3,000 each year for one Arts & Sciences student to pursue innovative work in the social service sector during a summer. The Kaldi grant provides up to $5,000 to one undergraduate student each summer to develop an innovative community project in the St. Louis region and to sustain the project through the following academic year. For more information about the Social Change Grants, go to http://www.communityservice.wustl.edu/programs.
National Scholarships and Fellowships
In addition to the programs listed above, which are restricted to students of Washington University, Washington University students are also eligible for certain selective national scholarships and fellowships. For more information, go to: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~college/Scholarships/descriptions.html. While some of the opportunities described are for students more advanced in their studies (junior, seniors, graduates), there are programs open to sophomores, including the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and the Morris K. Udall Scholarship. Both require nomination by faculty rather than the student.
Research
Often students associate research only with the sciences. While there are many research opportunities in the sciences, research opportunities are available in a number of disciplines.
Office of Undergraduate Research
Students from all disciplines should explore the options offered by the Office of Undergraduate Research. This office works to stimulate and facilitate undergraduate research by keeping a database of opportunities, by matching students and mentors, and by assisting with funding. Two sources of funding are available:
Science and Social Science Opportunities
There are many opportunities to do laboratory or field research in all the science and some social science departments on the Danforth Campus: anthropology, biology, chemistry, earth and planetary sciences, mathematics, physics, and psychology. Additionally, many faculty members at the medical school, in both the basic science and clinical departments, welcome undergraduates into their laboratories.
It is important for students interested in research in the sciences to get involved in laboratory research during the sophomore year. Understand, however, that research opportunities for undergraduates usually involve assisting with someone else’s project.
Students should investigate the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program (HHMI/SURF), which provides an opportunity for undergraduates to do scientific research under the guidance of a mentor. In collaboration with a mentor, students submit a project proposal for review by a faculty committee. Students accepted to the program receive a stipend for ten weeks of summer research. See the biology website noted below for details.
Contact academic departments and The Career Center about research opportunities. Particularly extensive information is available online as follows:
Honors Work in your Major
Every department and most interdisciplinary programs offer an option for Honors work for majors leading to Senior Honors. That work may require research. Consult the departmental website, the director of undergraduate studies for the department or program in which you are a major, or your major advisor for details about Honors eligibility requirements and expectations.
“It has been a fascinating adventure of learning and self discovery, being able to choose from so many courses within Arts and Sciences.”
