Eligible Applicants:

• Applicants must be full-time Northwestern students with junior standing who will be returning to campus next year.  NU students with senior standing may apply only if they will be returning to Northwestern as full-time undergraduates for the entire academic year following the summer circumnavigation.
• Applicants must be available for an interview. Exact date to be determined (but usually in early January).
• Students in any discipline may apply.  

Ineligible Applicants:

• Undergraduates at other institutions are no eligible.
• Students who do not have junior standing are not eligible.
• Students who will be studying abroad or otherwise away from campus during the winter/spring before the trip or during the academic year following the trip are not eligible.

No group submissions are allowed; the grant is only for a single individual. The travel-study trip must be undertaken by the grant recipient alone, unaccompanied by friends, significant others, relatives, a research partner or partners, or larger group of associates.

One winner is chosen each year. The grant recipient travels:

Discussing your ideas with faculty is key to developing a meaningful and feasible global project.  The unique travel requirements of the grant pose challenges distinct from those of traditional, more narrowly focused research projects.

Faculty serve primarily as recommenders, rather than project supervisors.

Applications require endorsements from two faculty recommenders (aka sponsors).

Outside faculty may be used as recommenders; graduate students and post-docs are not eligible, unless they are added as a supplemental third endorsement. If a recommender falls into one of these categories, contact the Circumnavigator Coordinator prior to the application deadline for details.  At least one of your faculty sponsors must be a Northwestern faculty member.

Request endorsements well before the deadline.

Ask your recommenders to review Info for Faculty and provide them with a draft of your proposal and resume well in advance to give them time to write their endorsements.

Endorsements are due within 48 hours after the student deadline.

Unendorsed applications will not be considered.

Make sure faculty see the Info for Faculty page to show them how to access our system and the endorsement questions asked.

A Northwestern Review Committee evaluates applications and selects three finalists before winter break to be interviewed by the Chicago Circumnavigators Club Selection Committee.

Interview Required

Finalists must be available for an interview with members of the Circumnavigators Club (normally in early January). No alternate day interviews will be permitted.

The Circumnavigators Club will choose the grant winner and notify all three finalists, the University, and the International Foundation in New York of its decision.

What Are They Looking For?

Both Northwestern and the Circumnavigators Club are looking for interesting, pertinent, and globally-based topics, undertaken by persons who can easily think on their feet in any situation they might encounter abroad.

Final selection will further be based on a number of factors, including: (a) merit of the subject to be studied, (b) student’s connection/commitment to the subject, (c) poise, maturity and communication skills, and (d) inherent discipline and enthusiasm of the student.

• The grant recipient is required to submit a 50-page (minimum) research paper to the Circumnavigators Club Chicago Chapter and Foundation.  This paper is not submitted to Northwestern, but many students use the trip/project as the basis of a senior thesis.
• A draft analytical outline of the research paper is due to the Chapter’s Foundation Coordinator within 30 days of the end of the trip.  The final paper must be submitted no later than 90 days following the end of the trip.
• Within 60 days, a summary of all expenses, such as travel, food, lodging, extras must be sent to New York headquarters.
• The winner will speak to at least two Circumnavigators Club banquets during the nine months following the trip.
• The grant recipient will be expected to help advise applicants for the following year’s competition, including speaking at fall info sessions and helping to mentor the following year’s winner by passing on tips and suggestions.
• After completion of the requirements, the grant recipient is expected to complete an application and join the Circumnavigators Club.

Proposal Basics

The writing required for a research proposal is not like other, more familiar, forms of writing. In particular, it does not work like an essay where you weave your ideas in and out of the different sections.  Grant proposals are very segmented; each section is its own little pod.  In general, you complete the section and never revisit the content in it – you simply move on to the next argument you have to make.

While a Circumnavigators proposal differs in some ways from a standard URG proposal, the overall structure and arguments remain the same.  It can be useful to review our Proposal Writing page, and then work with an advisor on the changes necessary to apply to this program.

Formatting

Five pages, 1″ margins, double spaced (*GoogleDocs defaults to 1.15 spacing! You must change it manually!)

Times New Roman 12 or Arial 11 font

No headers, footers, or cover pages

Additional Resources

ANNOTATED SAMPLE GRANT PROPOSALS: This resource includes a description of common types of research methodologies and a database of 25+ annotated sample grant proposals. We recommend you read annotated sample grants based on which methodology is most applicable to your project, not based on which sample grant is closest to your field of study.

THE ADVENTURES OF GRANT MAN WEBSERIES: This web series follows three students as they struggle through the process of creating a project connected to what they want to research— plus, you’ll get to meet the mysterious Grant Man, who seems to have all the answers (and a cowboy hat to boot).

LIBRARY RESOURCES: This page introduces you to helpful library resources for developing your project and your application. It includes a video overview on how to make the most of the library, links to subject librarian contact information, and books to help you get started.

Works Cited

All proposals will include a literature review justifying the need for your project; therefore, every proposal must have a Works Cited list.  You can use any official citation style that you like – usually students use one they are familiar with from their field.

Travel Plan

Most proposal appendices include a summary table/list outlining the stops on your trip.  The Circumnavigators Club prefers preliminary itineraries that go in one direction around the world.  In other world, list your countries in the order you would realistically visit them.  You wouldn’t go from England to China to India; you would go from England to India to China.  Your OUR advisor can help sort the order with you.

Proof of Contacts

The review committees expect to see that you have reached out to people/organizations at each stop of your proposed trip.  Ideally, they want to see correspondence back from them showing that they understand your project and agree to support you.  They don’t need formal commitments, as the trip will be a long way off; however, they need to assess how realistic it is for you to do the things you propose to do.  Your OUR advisor can help you to reach out to people/organizations and what kind of proof of contact the committees prefer.

Project-Affiliated Appendices

INTERVIEW/SURVEY QUESTIONS: If your methodology uses interview or survey questions, the questions MUST be included in an appendix. It demonstrates to the committee that the data you plan to collect will sufficiently allow you to answer your research question (and there is alignment between these two components). For example, if your research question is about X, it should follow that the questions you pose to your subjects are ALSO about X (and not about some unrelated topic Y).

READING LISTS: If your methodology requires lots of reading (e.g. literary/composition analysis and some creative art projects), you should include a reading list to convince the committee that you have narrowed your focus to a specific starting place. However, you must do enough preliminary reading of material prior to grant submission to sufficiently argue the scholarly relevance of your proposed work in your background section.

ARCHIVAL COLLECTION PLAN: If your methodology requires collection of archival materials, you should include a list of what sort of content you plan to collect. This step is particularly important for proof of project feasibility when you are asking for funding to travel to the archive itself and only have a brief window of time for data collection.

We strongly recommend you use citation management software to help you with this process. The Library has instructions and tips for each of the following tools on their website, and they regularly schedule workshops to teach you how to best use these tools:

• Zotero is a free, open source bibliographic manager. It works with the Firefox web browser or in a standalone version that works with other web browsers. Zotero is compatible with GoogleDocs.
• EndNote is a software program designed to store and manipulate bibliographic information. It is free to all Northwestern students, faculty and staff and can be downloaded from NUIT.
• Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network.

Your faculty sponsors must submit an online endorsement of your research grant proposal within 48 hours after the application deadline. Unendorsed projects will not be considered. Make sure you give your faculty sponsor enough warning of the deadline.  You should discuss your project with them ahead of time, and they should have a copy of your final proposal draft. Do not leave it to the day before to ask someone to give you an endorsement! Specific guidance for faculty sponsors can be found here.  Although you will likely seek their counsel if you are awarded the grant, sponsors play no formal role beyond submitting their endorsement.

The finalists will be interviewed by members of the Chicago Chapter of the Circumnavigators Club Foundation.  All interviews will be held on the same day/evening, and they will select the winner.  They usually notify the winner within 24 hours of the interview.