Wrapping Your Head Around STEM Fellowship Applications: Where to Start and How to Succeed
This two-session workshop will introduce STEM PhD students and postdocs to the landscape of fellowship opportunities and guide them through key steps in the application process. Participants will explore tools for identifying relevant fellowships, reflect on their goals, and begin taking the first steps in crafting their application. The sessions will cover timelines, application components, and strategies for framing research and personal narratives effectively.
UChicago GRAD’s Fellowships team assists graduate students and postdocs in finding and applying for fellowships, a critical skill that will be relevant in grant writing and publishing your research.
Dates & Time: May 20th and 22nd (1:00 – 3:00 p.m.)
Location: In person (On campus)
Intended Audience: STEM PhD and Postdoctoral Trainees
Session Descriptions
Session 1: Introduction to Fellowships
This session will provide an overview of fellowship opportunities available to STEM PhD students and postdocs, including key distinctions between internal and external, early-stage and late-stage fellowships. Participants will learn how to navigate the fellowship search process using curated tools such as the GRAD Database and Pivot. Through guided reflection and small-group discussion, participants will begin identifying fellowships aligned with their goals and timelines.
Session 2: Crafting a Competitive Fellowship Application
This session will focus on key components of a strong fellowship application, including personal and research statements, CVs, letters of recommendation, and budgets. Participants will learn how to frame their research and personal story in response to specific fellowship goals and selection criteria. The session will include a comparative review of sample fellowship calls and time to begin mapping out an application strategy tailored to a specific opportunity.
About the Instructors
Kelly Holob (PhD ’25 in Divinity) is Assistant Director of Fellowships in UChicagoGRAD. She has four years of experience advising undergraduate and graduate students for nationally competitive and smaller fellowships. While trained in the humanities, she especially enjoys helping STEM students articulate their research to funders. UChicagoGRAD promotes and provides application support to graduate students applying for a broad range of awards, including awards from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Fulbright Student award program, and many others.
Elahe Ganji (PhD ’21 in Mechanical Engineering, UD) is the Associate Director of myCHOICE at UChicagoGRAD (STEM PhD and Postdoc professional and career development at the Office of Provost). Elahe leads the development and administration of exploratory and educational myCHOICE programming (i.e., seminars and mini-courses). Prior to joining myCHOICE, Elahe earned her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware and distinguished herself as a Beckman Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow.