Travel Fellowships
Fellowships fund purposeful activity—all over the world! Travel fellowships are available to both undergraduates and graduates, can fund structured opportunities or “build your own adventure” independent projects, can be open to citizens of any nation and applicants from any major, and can fund research, language study, graduate study, teaching, and service… to name just a few! Where could a fellowship take you?
Killam Fellowships Program (students)
The Killam Fellowships Program, administered by Fulbright Canada, allows undergraduate students from Canada and the United States to participate in a program of binational residential exchange. Killam Fellows spend either one semester or a full academic year as an exchange student in the host country. Students can apply either to the direct exchange program, which is limited to certain participating university partners, or to the open competition, allowing for participation from (and to) any accredited degree-granting college or university in either country.
Introduction to Fellowships for Graduates
Fellowships and scholarships can fund graduate or professional study, purposeful travel, professional placements, self-designed projects, and so much more. They can help you build your experience and qualifications, help you explore a passion, and clarify a path forward. What would you do with a fellowship?
Mary Elvira Stevens Traveling Fellowship (graduates)
Established by the will of Alice Alvira Stevens, Class of 1891, the Mary Elvira Stevens Traveling Fellowship is available to a Wellesley graduate who is at least 25 years of age in the year of application and supports up to a full year of purposeful travel outside the United States. We invite proposals that will inspire reflection and growth and lead to more fulfilling and productive personal and professional lives. Campus application deadline typically in the spring.
Thomas J. Watson Fellowship (rising seniors)
The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship offers graduating seniors a one-year grant for independent study and purposeful travel and exploration outside of the United States, to enhance their capacity for resourcefulness, imagination, openness, and leadership and to foster their humane and effective participation in the world community. Campus deadline typically in August.
A Brief Introduction to Fellowships and Scholarships
Fellowships and scholarships offer funding to support a range of purposeful activities, including undergraduate research, language study/other study abroad, self-designed projects, teaching and service, graduate or professional study, or even internships and professional placements. They can open doors for you to things you might not be able to pursue otherwise.
There are opportunities for students and graduates of every nationality and at every stage of their careers. What might be the right fit for you?
Fellowships and Scholarships for Graduate Study
There are more fellowships and scholarships than you might think there are to help fund graduate or professional study. It’s helpful to be creative and persistent in your search, and in your applications. This research will give you an overview of some of the fellowships out there, and tips for searching for opportunities.
Wellesley College Graduate Fellowships (WCGF—seniors & graduates)
Wellesley College offers a number of fellowships and scholarships for graduate study or research open to Wellesley seniors and graduates. Two awards are open to women graduates of any American institution (the Schimke and the Shackford). Awards are usually made to applicants currently enrolled in or applying to graduate/professional school for the following academic year; there is a single common application process for most of these awards, and the campus deadline is typically in January.
“I want to make ethics accessible to people. Whatever form it takes, I want to bring ethical inquiry into the everyday, and the Watson will ground me in that work.”
“I see the printshop as a place for all things: teaching, learning, experimentation, creation, expression, collaboration, communication, and inspiration.”
“By living in vegan communities and exploring their foodscapes, I hope to understand the lived experiences of being vegan across cultures and find ways to adapt veganism to various cultural contexts and customs.”
“[There are] a lot of different conceptions of the ocean, and a lot of exciting and creative solutions that are happening all over the world.”
“It was a wonderful new experience to visit community health care centers and NGOs. I was able to speak with community health workers who provide appropriate and equitable care as trusted members of their community.”
The Mary Elvira Stevens Traveling Fellowship truly embodies Wellesley’s spirit of life-long education for women in its unique requirement that it should fund independent travel to unfamiliar territory for up to one full year. This stipulation inspires courage, imagination, tolerance, and curiosity from the nascent idea of the proposal throughout the process and during the grant year.
“The Watson Fellowship is the opportunity of a lifetime, unique and unprecedented in the utter freedom afforded to fellows to pursue their passions around the world. It’s brought me to places I’d never dreamed of visiting, given me friends in every corner of the world, and allowed me to not just visit, but truly inhabit, incredible communities in other cultures. The Crawford Fellowship gave me the means to revitalize my artistic practice and connect with a community of artists and craftspeople.”
“I am so thrilled that I will be able to learn directly from women leaders in crucial environmental projects in a diverse array of Latin American countries that I otherwise could not have ever imagined visiting.”