REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS:
COMMUNITY-BASED SUMMER RESEARCH FELLOWS PROGRAM
Summer 2010
Deadline: electronic submission by 4:30 PM, Monday, March 15, 2010
The Harward Center for Community Partnerships invites applications for Summer Community-Based Research Fellowships for 2010. The CBR Fellows Program provides a $750 stipend, mentoring, and peer reflection for student research projects that advance public needs, as articulated in dialogue with community partners. Students may apply for a community-based research project that is already underway (one that was initiated in a Winter Term course, for instance, or an Honors Thesis project) or a project that students are beginning to plan (for instance, a Senior Thesis). The project may be a stand-alone summer project as well. Students are encouraged to apply for a locally-based Harward Center Summer Fellowship to fund full-time work with a local organization with whom they will develop and implement a research project. See Summer Fellowship applications on the Harward Center web site.
The CBR Fellows Program has several key goals: to support Fellows’ specific projects; to work with community mentors to enhance student development as public scholars; to foster research that makes a significant contribution to community life and Bates community partnerships; and to offer Fellows an understanding of the value of academic work for the public good.
Community-based research—academic research that meets significant public goals or needs as articulated in dialogue with community partners—is an important part of the Bates education and the College’s commitment to academic civic engagement. The Program enables students to bring community concerns into connection with Bates’ wide-ranging support for undergraduate research. At the same time, it enables students to bring the resources of academic scholarship to Bates’ commitment to community partnership.
Who May Apply for a CBR Fellowship?
Any Bates student planning on residing locally during the summer may apply for a CBR Summer Fellowship. Strongest consideration will be given to upper-level undergraduates. Students may apply for a CBR Fellowship in conjunction with a local Harward Center Summer Fellowship or as separate from that to complement other local research work. CBR Fellowships are not reserved solely for thesis students, but we assume those students will be especially interested and qualified. Students may apply for projects in all disciplines. Students who have been CBR Fellows previously may apply for a new Fellowship, as long as they are actively pursuing a community-based research project.
What Are the Criteria for Selection?
Students must have the support of a faculty person who is familiar with their academic work. The faculty person is not responsible for supervising this project. The student must also have worked with a community partner to develop a research project that is beneficial to all parties involved. The strongest proposals for CBR Fellowships will be for projects that offer community benefit and are grounded in a process of community partnership.
What Are the Benefits, Expectations, and Goals of Being a CBR Fellow?
CBR Fellows will receive a stipend of $750 for the 2010 summer (whether their projects are currently in a planning or a more advanced stage). Equally important, they take part in a non-credit Fellows Seminar, led this summer by Professor Georgia Nigro, which will expose them to the history, methods, and ethics of community-based research across different disciplines, engage them in thinking about the distinctive values and challenges of community-based research, and offer them an interdisciplinary peer community for sharing their work. The Seminar will meet for dinner once a week at Bates. Students must be available for these meetings.
Like all Bates researchers, CBR Fellows will be expected to fulfill the ethical obligations associated with their projects, including submitting their research plan to the Institutional Review Board for approval. They will be expected to present about their work and to decide, in dialogue with their community partners, the most valuable venues or products for giving the fruits of their research back to the community.
Please contact Georgia Nigro (), or Holly Lasagna () with questions about the Community-Based Research Fellows Program or for advice about specific project proposals.
The Bates Community-Based Research Fellows Program is funded by grants from Learn and Serve America, through the National Network for Community-Based Research, and from the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge their generous support.
Community-Based Research Fellowships
Application, Summer 2010
Name: ______E-mail: ______Class: _____
Preferred Phone: ______Major (if declared): ______
Topic or focus of research project: ______
Community organization or setting for project: ______
Key community collaborator: ______
Contact information: ______
Faculty Advisor: ______
Previous courses, research projects, or community experience that has helped to prepare you for this project:
______
What other funding, if any, have you applied for or received to support this project?
______
Your application must include:
· This cover page
· A proposal (one-page, double-spaced) that describes the research project you are proposing or currently pursuing. Please discuss the goals and design for the project, including the problem or question it answers, the methods or sources that you are using, and your time table for completing it. (Note that you may apply for a project that you have already begun--for instance, an Honors Thesis--or a Fall Term project that you are starting to plan now.) Please discuss how the project furthers your academic interests and the goals or needs of your community partner. Finally, please discuss the possible products of your community-based research project (including both academic deliverables like a senior thesis, but also possible public presentations, reports, online materials, etc.)
· An e-mail or letter of recommendation from a faculty member who is familiar with your academic work (one page maximum)
Note: If you are also applying for a Summer Fellowship from the Harward Center, you can ask your faculty member to add a paragraph to your letter of support that speaks to your research capacities.
· An e-mail or letter from the community organization with which you are working, discussing the research project you propose and its significance to the organization (one page maximum)
Note: If you are also applying for a Summer Fellowship from the Harward Center, you can ask your community partner to add a paragraph to your letter of support that includes endorsement of a research project collaboratively planned with the partner.
Please submit your proposal electronically to Georgia Nigro () and Kristen Cloutier () by 4:30pm, Monday March 15, 2010.
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