Jeff Metcalf Fellowship Grant for Internships for Odyssey Students
Career Advancement will offer a limited number of grants to undergraduate students who plan to intern during summer 2020 with off-campus employers in any industry and any geographic location. Students with remote internships, as well as short-term and small-scale projects are also eligible for grant funding. Students who receive funding are required to complete and fulfill the responsibilities and requirements of the Metcalf Program. Second through fourth year Odyssey Scholars are eligible to apply for the Odyssey Metcalf Fellowship Grant.
As an added bonus, limited funds are also available to support academic-year internships, on-campus internships, and supervised research internships. Examples of supervised research include laboratory internships with Pritzker School of Medicine faculty members, policy internships at the Harris School of Public Policy’s UChicago Urban Labs, and legal internships at the Law School’s clinics.
All applying students, including students with remote internships, must have access to a supervisor. The supervisor must be available, whether in person or virtually, to provide regular support and mentorship throughout the internship. In the case of supervised research, the supervisor does not need to be a UChicago professor but must be affiliated with another research institution. Independent research projects or freelance experiences are not eligible for this fellowship.
To be eligible to apply, students must have already received an offer. Please note: students are not required to have accepted an offer and are welcome to inform their potential employer that acceptance of the role may be contingent on receiving grant funding.
Stipends may range between $500 and $5,000. If you are selected for the grant, the amount will be determined based on your application materials, the number of hours you work per week, and the total number of hours of your entire internship.
Please note that current University guidelines restrict international travel. If a student is awarded a Metcalf stipend for an on-site internship outside the U.S., they must successfully petition the University for an exemption to this policy in order to receive their funding. All petitions will be reviewed by the Study Abroad Risk and Security Assessment Committee (SARSAC).
SARSAC will only give exemptions to students who had existing travel plans to return to their home countries/countries where they have long-term residence permits, and have now secured an internship there. Students will need to indicate as well that they will not need to apply for a work permit in such situations. Exemptions will not be given for new trips. As part of the petition, students will be required to submit a budget worksheet indicating that any Metcalf stipend they receive will not be used to travel to the site of an internship outside the U.S.
If an exemption is given, students may not use University funds to purchase international airfare or other international travel arrangements.
For questions regarding the petition process, please contact Michaela Appeltova, Program Coordinator at appeltova@uchicago.edu.
For country-specific information, the U.S. Department of State Travel Advisories can be found at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/, the CDC website can be found at https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices and the International SOS ratings can be found at http://internationalsos.com where one can log in with UChicago’s membership number: 11BCAS084635.
International students who plan to graduate during the 2019-20 academic year will need to apply and obtain OPT in order to work in a job or internship in the U.S. that starts or extends past their graduation date. Please note that it may take up to 5 months for students to receive their OPT. Career Advancement highly encourages you to connect with your employer and discuss your internship start and end date as the OPT process may impact your timeline. For further questions on OPT work authorization please reach out to OIA.
Timeline
Applications for the Metcalf Fellowship Grant are accepted on a rolling basis during the following time period for the 2019-2020 academic year:
Application opens: Monday, November 25, 2019
Application deadline: Sunday, May 31, 2020
Please note: No late or incomplete applications will be accepted. The decisions regarding acceptance and funding amounts made by the reviewing committee are definitive and cannot be appealed. Applications will be evaluated on the basis of the materials submitted through Handshake and the additional Jeff Metcalf Fellowship Grant application form by the required deadlines. No new materials or updates will be accepted and/or taken into consideration.
Application
Step 1: Upload resume (one page) to this Handshake posting
Step 2: Fill out the following form: Jeff Metcalf Fellowship Grant for Odyssey Students 2019-20
Step 3 (for internships abroad only): All students with internships abroad are required to review and submit the Student Responsibilities and Available Resources document. This outline provides a basic overview of additional resources and considerations for students who could be traveling internationally for their position.
Please note that the form requires you to upload an offer letter or email from your employer. The letter/email should include:
§ Supervisor name and contact information (email must be a company domain)
§ Physical location of internship and if your internship will be remote
§ Number of work hours per week
§ Total number of work hours for the quarter(s)
§ Start and end date
§ Indicate if this is an unpaid or partially paid opportunity
§ Offer letters should be on company letterhead
§ Emails should be sent from a company email address with the employer’s domain
The proposed experience must meet the following standards:
1) Your professional experience must take place either during the 2019-2020 academic year or summer 2020.
According to your class schedule and commitments, your summer experience may start/finish earlier or later. For the College policy on summer internship start dates, please refer to the Undergraduate Student Recruiting Guidelines.
2) Your professional experience may be located in the U.S. or abroad, either on-site or remotely. Students with an on-site internship outside the U.S. must successfully petition the University.
3) You must have a direct supervisor.
4) You must perform work that provides you with a substantive professional experience.
5) Your experience must be unpaid or receive very little compensation.
6) The grant only funds internship opportunities that students arrange directly with employers. Internships that require participants to pay a fee or deposit to the host organization are not eligible for funding.
7) All organizations are eligible for funding under this grant, including government agencies and for-profit organizations. There are two exceptions: 1) the organization is on the State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations or otherwise sanctioned or monitored by the U.S. Government; 2) the organization was formed for the purpose of supporting a candidate for political office. Because the University is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization under the tax code, it is prohibited from participating in political campaign activities.
For summer internships
8) Students with full-time internships, part-time internships, as well as short-term and small-scale projects are eligible to apply.
For academic year internships
9) Students may work for a maximum of 20 hours a week per quarter. In order to be eligible to apply to the Jeff Metcalf Fellowship Grant, students working more than 20 hours a week during the academic year must submit a petition to the Dean of Students in the College. If you expect to exceed 20 hours a week, please contact Kiah Williamson at kswilliamson@uchicago.edu.
10) Students may work a minimum of 1 quarter and a maximum of 3 quarters.
For summer internships
11) Priority will be given to students with full-time experiences (300 to 400 hours over the summer). If your experience is shorter in length or work hours, you are still eligible to apply.
Additional Requirements for Award Recipients
Please refer to the Responsibilities and Requirements form. By submitting your application for this award, you are agreeing to allow Career Advancement to contact your employer and offer them the opportunity to engage with UChicago.