Funding Student Experiences

Internships, study abroad, conference travel, academic research – all are ways students take a thoughtful, concrete next step and test the hypothesis that they’ve formed about themselves based on their personalities, values, strengths and interests. The Center for Purposeful Work assists students in exploring and considering a wide variety of funded opportunities as a way to test their passions, build skills and knowledge, and gain exposure to the work that interests them. For students without inherited networks of professionals and mentors, gaining experience and contacts in a workplace opens doors to additional people on whom they can rely for guidance in their future.

There are hundreds of paid and unpaid opportunities to gain experience to work and research posted in Handshake.

Overview

The Bates Center for Purposeful Work offers limited financial support (an annual budget of approximately $10,000) to students for professional attire, graduate school test prep & application fees, and interview and conference transportation costs, insofar as they relate to Purposeful Work. These funds do not have to be repaid.

Mini Grant awards are available up to $300.00 (up to $150.00 can be used for professional attire), and students are typically limited to one award per academic year (refer to rubric below). Requesting and/or receiving support will not affect a student’s annual financial aid award, but may affect future Mini Grant decisions.

While the budget is limited, we make every effort to fund each eligible request. The program supports, on average, 30-40 grants per year.

Expenses Not Covered by the Purposeful Work Mini Grant Fund:

  • Tuition for any course that could be considered for Bates credit
  • Study abroad costs
  • Personal bills such as utility, credit card, cable, cell phone, etc.
  • Parking tickets, library fines, etc.
  • Food Expenses
  • Overnight Accommodations
  • Purposeful Work Internship Funding: If you have an internship and would like to apply for funding, please see the Purposeful Work Internship web page.
  • Purposeful Work Job Shadow Program transportation: College Key transportation grants are available for eligible students, please contact jobshadow@bates.edu with any questions.
  • Requests that are academic and/or research in nature: We encourage students to apply to the Bates Student Research Fund.
  • STEM students seeking travel grants for academic conferences and professional meetings: We encourage students to apply for STEM Conference Grants.
  • Emergency requests: Please visit the Student Emergency Fund web page.
  • Non-PW Departments: The Mini Grant Program does not support costs related to other offices’ or departments’ programs or offerings.
  • Groups of Students: The Mini Grant Program is meant to support individual students. Students pursuing the same opportunity should apply for grants individually, and requests will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

If you are unsure whether your need fits within the Mini Grant Program’s purview, please do not hesitate to complete this short application form for our consideration. Your answers to our application questions will remain confidential.

Process

Purposeful Work Mini Grant Funding Rubric (used by the Mini Grant committee to assist in making funding decisions)

1. Quality of Application

  • Answered Questions Completely
  • Spelling, Grammar, and Complete Sentences

2. Quality of Experience

  • How would the grant contribute to the exploration of purposeful work?

3. Financial Need (as determined by financial aid status)

  • High: 4
  • Medium: 3
  • Low: 2
  • No Need: 0

4. Statement of Need (as described in the application)

  • Extenuating Circumstances: 4
  • Compelling Circumstances: 2
  • No Demonstrated Need: 0

5. Academic Year Employment

  • On-campus/Local Employment During Academic Year: 1

6. Prior Purposeful Work Mini Grant Funding

  • Prior grants will reduce rubric scores via a sliding scale (depending on the size of prior grants). The cumulative effect of prior grants (or even a single large grant) within a given year can make a student ineligible for further grants within that same year. Each student and circumstance is unique. 

Notification

Requests are considered every week during the academic year. Students will be contacted by a member of the Center for Purposeful Work staff via campus email.

Accessing Funds

Processing the Mini Grant award decision and payment takes time. If awarded a Mini Grant, our default process is to deposit funds into your bank account for you to pay for the expense with your own credit or debit card. In the event that your bank account is not set up for direct deposit with Bates, a paper check will be mailed to your student mailbox via Post & Print. If you do not have a bank account set up for direct deposit with Bates, and/or do not have a credit or debit card to pay for your expense, and/or cannot pay for the expense up-front while waiting for time-sensitive funds to arrive, please let us know in the “Plan Ahead” box at the bottom of the application form so that we can make alternative arrangements.

Reflection

Mini Grant recipients will be required to reflect on their experience supported by the grant. Reflection will take the form of a virtual or in-person meeting with a Purposeful Work advisor, either during drop-in hours or by scheduling an appointment via Handshake.

Application for

Purposeful Work Mini Grant

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If an employer requires “academic credit” for an internship, a student may apply for the Internship for Credit status. Through this program, one credit may be available as a notation on the student’s transcript. Please be aware that internship credit will not count as one of the 32 credits required for graduation, nor will it be included in a student’s GPA.

Qualifications:

  • Internships must last a minimum of six weeks and at least 120 hours.
  • Internships for credit are reviewed by the Center for Purposeful Work on a semesterly basis.
  • Students are limited to two qualifying internships for a total of two transcript notations.

Note: This information does not apply to internships completed as part of a Bates course requirement. If you have questions about a specific course that requires the completion of an internship, or questions about designing an independent study, please contact the academic department or the Registrar’s Office.

International students: International students are not eligible for internships-for-credit.

Deadlines:

Applications for internship for credit are due by the following dates or two weeks before the internship begins, whichever comes first:

  • Fall internships – October 22
  • Winter internships – February 18
  • Summer internships – July 15

For more information and application forms, please contact us at purposefulwork@bates.edu.

Bates College ranks fourth in the nation for Fulbright U.S. student awards. Students interested in applying for prominent nationally competitive awards such as the Fulbright, Rhodes and Watson should contact Dr. Robert Strong, Director of National Fellowships, at rstrong@bates.edu and visit the Graduate Fellowship Committee’s homepage.

There are many other fellowships to which students and alumni can apply directly.  For questions and advice about fellowships please review the fellowship overview in the Resource section of Handshake or contact the Bates Center for Purposeful Work for advice about options.

Immodest proposals:  Students offer tips for fellowship success