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Jeff Metcalf Fellowship Grant for Internships 2020-2021

University of Chicago – Career Advancement
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Jeff Metcalf Fellowship Grant for Internships


Career Advancement will offer a limited number of grants to undergraduate students who plan to intern during the 2020-2021 academic year and summer 2021 with off-campus employers in any industry. 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.

As an added bonus, limited funds are also available to support supervised research internships, either in-person or remote. 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, legal internships at the Law School’s clinics, and curatorial internships at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Art Museum.

All 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.

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 Erwin Paderanga, at erwinp@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 2020-21 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


To give students maximum flexibility, applications for internship funding will be accepted throughout the 2020-2021 academic year. Each quarter will have 3 application cycles. Students can request funding for summer or academic-year internships during any of these cycles.

For academic-year internships, if you’d like to know whether you’ll receive a grant in advance of the quarter you’ll be working, Career Advancement recommends applying by December 4 for a Winter Quarter 2021 internship and March 12 for a Spring Quarter 2021 internship. Students are also welcome to apply after the quarter has started.

Fall 2020 Schedule:

Cycle 1
  • Open: September 18
  • Deadline: October 2
  • Decisions released: October 16

Cycle 2
  • Open: October 19
  • Deadline: November 6
  • Decisions released: November 20

Cycle 3
  • Open: November 23
  • Deadline: December 4
  • Decisions released: December 18

Winter 2021 Schedule:

Cycle 1
  • Open: January 4
  • Deadline: January 15
  • Decisions released: January 29

Cycle 2
  • Open: February 1
  • Deadline: February 12
  • Decisions released: February 26

Cycle 3
  • Open: March 1
  • Deadline: March 12
  • Decisions released: March 26

Spring 2021 Schedule:

Cycle 1
  • Open: March 29
  • Deadline: April 9
  • Decisions released: April 21

Cycle 2
  • Open: April 22
  • Deadline: May 5
  • Decisions released: May 14

Cycle 3
  • Open: May 17
  • Deadline: May 28
  • Decisions released: June 9

Cycle 3
  • Open: May 17
  • Deadline: May 28
  • Decisions released: June 9

Cycle 4
  • Open: June 2
  • Deadline: June 4 12pm
  • Decisions released: June 9


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 application form
Step 3 (For on-site international internships):  All students with on-site international internships 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 MUST include all of the following information:
  • Supervisor name and contact information (email must be a company domain)
  • Physical location of the office 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

In order for your application to be considered complete, you must submit both your resume and a fully completed application form. Incomplete applications, including applications with missing details, will not be reviewed.






Eligibility


The proposed experience must meet the following standards:
  1. Your professional experience must take place either during the 2020-2021 academic year or summer 2021. 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. You may only apply for funding for an internship in the current or upcoming quarter(s) at the time of your submission, and cannot apply for funding retroactively.
  3. You may only submit a Metcalf Grant application for a specific internship once during each quarter. If you secure an additional opportunity with a different employer, you are welcome to submit a separate grant application.
  4. 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 in order to receive funding.
  5. You must have a direct supervisor.
  6. You must perform work that provides you with a substantive professional experience.
  7. Your experience must be unpaid or receive very little compensation.
  8. 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.
  9. 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:
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:
Your internship can either be in-person or remote.

During the academic year, 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.