My best tips for your Fulbright-National Geographic Application!

My application didn't move on to the semi-finals. However, I have notes from seven different Fulbright-NatGeo webinars, as well as all my application material posted here. As a favor to you just starting your application, let's go through the official webinar advice and compare it to my application to see where you could do better.

My application

Here's the summary of my proposal:

"I will undertake a series of animated film projects at schools and libraries in six locations in Sweden to discover how working together on common challenges builds social cohesion. The projects will intimately involve children in the narration, illustration, and animation of simple kids’ stories focused on environmental issues. The children will be drawn from all backgrounds, and I will tell a story of how these projects promote community building with immigrants and refugees."

 
You can read more in depth here: 
Personal statement
Statement of grant purpose

Now, let's go through it step by step!

Writing style 

David Braun from National Geographic said during a Q&A webinar: "The way you write is judged very harshly. Writing needs to be clear, crisp, no grammatical errors. Poor writing throws you in the non-select pile."

So, read my application, and for the love of God, no matter what else you may do, don't write like me. Let my application stand as an example of how not to write.

New

During at least 3 webinars, they stressed that they are looking for something very new: "fresh", "unique", "creative", "inventive", that "hasn't been done before."

My application was all about doing animations with kids, which definitely hasn't been done before. So I advise you to pick something new, but make sure your level of 'new' stays far away from where my level of 'new' so clearly transgressed. Does that clear it up?

A kinder, trusting world

Vincent Pickett from the State Department said during two webinars that your application should "break down barriers", help create a "peaceful, prosperous planet", help "humanize each other", and be "working for a future peaceful planet that we can all share."

Read my application carefully, find all the times that I talked about these topics, and understand that will not be enough for you. In fact, that's not even semi-finalist standards. Maybe stay away from the words "kinder" and "trusting".

Community engagement

During one webinar, they had fellowship alumni come in and give us their tips. They mentioned that some journalists will go to a foreign country, take a few pictures, and then run away. David Braun from National Geographic echoed that in a later webinar: "What will be the benefits for the community, and the wider world? You don't want to just come in, photograph people, and leave."

My project had the involvement of local kids baked into every step; it had the participation of their parents when each animation was finished. When I compared my project to all the previous projects, I would say that widespread community engagement was far more intrinsic to my project than any others. You can compare and decide for yourself.

So, they want you to engage the community; but just don't overdo it. Good to keep in mind as you write your application.

Digital portfolio

My samples included videos of finished animations that I made with kids. Logical choice since that's what my proposal was about. Because these videos are on YouTube, I'm able to access viewership statistics. I can even see what states viewers are from. I noticed that from October to December, there was not a single view of the pertinent videos from any of the states where are located the colleges at which the 11-member Fulbright-National Geographic review panel work.

So I don't think they looked at my digital portfolio at all. Maybe at best they skimmed the first page of the grant proposal. Maybe they look at your name and decide they don't want to read the rest; or maybe they look at where you're from and give up from there. Who knows?

Passion

From at least two webinars: "Your passion should come through."

I was passionate enough about my project that before I ever heard about this fellowship, I had already done it small-scale three times, twice in the US, once in Sweden. I found the classes and libraries to work with, I came up with the idea on my own, I found time while doing my PhD to pull the projects off, and I spent my own money drawn from a student budget for the plane ticket and rooming in Sweden.

Better make sure that your level of passion is about 100 times greater, maybe even 1000 times greater, because what I showed was paltry. Definitely not semi-final standards.

"Every moment of your life led to this"

The same fellowship alumni also said that you should demonstrate that "every moment of your life has been leading to this grant. All your life experiences added up to this. All they have to do is fund you to make something awesome happen."

I challenge anyone to read my personal statement and conclude that wasn't true for me; so I caution that the advice given is not foolproof. Maybe you should, maybe you shouldn't follow it.

Feasible

On at least two webinars, they stressed that your project can't be a fantasy. You have to demonstrate that it's doable. I've done every step of my project before, multiple times, but that's not good enough. I hope you who are applying now have something far better up your sleeve.

Language skills

They suggest speaking the language of your host country. I do, but that is after all not even semi-finalist standards. I probably needed to win the grand prize for the Sweden-wide "Best Swedish Essay" competition for them to consider me.

Be the best to tell the story

Vincent Pickett from the State Department says: your application has to make clear "how you fit into the story, and why you're the best to tell it."

In my case, I understand that the world is chock-full of Americans with Swedish backgrounds and another immigrant background, who make animations, work with kids, and have a background in environmental science, and speak Swedish; how could I ever have thought that I was the 'best' to tell the story?? You make sure that you do better.

Affiliation letter

Click here for mine.

Your affiliate must be 'willing to work with you', 'help you carry out the project', 'connect you with resources or people'. And 'if you have local contacts already, then weave them into the statement of grant purpose'. (Quotes from webinars).

My affiliate and I knew each other; we had worked together before on a small-scale pilot of the same project I proposed here. You need to understand that's not good enough for semi-final standards.

Recommendations

Two of my three recommenders shared their letter with me.

Here's the first one.

The second one I received as a google document, and unfortunately I didn't think to save a copy and now it's been deleted. But from what I remember of its contents: that I have a "careful, storytelling mind". That this project is especially feasible because it will take place supported by the existing robust infrastructure of libraries and schools in Sweden; that my work writing in the local community newspaper had been very well-received, that it was entirely on a volunteer basis, and that my readers would email me and even take me out to lunch; something like I have a keen intellect and lots of curiosity; that the recommender herself received a prestigious media fellowship, and she's married to a former Fulbrighter who now judges Fulbright applications, and with that background, she can still full-throatedly endorse me and my project.

So, to those of you applying now, make sure you show these example recommendation letters to whoever you're asking; and tell them they're going to have to step it up about 70 or more notches from here. Because this is not even semi-final standards!

Lens to choose

I picked the 'Human Journey' lens and emphasized that, but there was probably some overlap with a more environmental-focused lens. I thought that was okay based on what I heard in the webinars:

Vincent Pickett from the State Department: You need to cover one of the lenses, and they're pretty broad, but you could cover 2 to 3. Sometimes, there's "human journeys" happening in very "wild places".

David Braun from National Geographic: But don't sweat it too much. It's pretty much the whole world and everything in it.

But this didn't work for my application; maybe you should just stick within a single lens for yours.

If your country already had a fellow

Sweden did have a fellow, maybe 2 or 3 years ago; but she was only there for 3 months. During the webinars they said:

"It's all about the project, first. If a project is proposed for the same country as a previous year, then make it a new topic at least."

"Syrian refugees is a huge story, and affects millions. So [even if it's been done before] you could for sure look at it differently. Maybe something that closes the loop, finishes the story, or takes it to a new level." - Vincent Pickett from the State Department.

In retrospect, maybe they just don't want that. Or maybe the new State Department policy is that your application can't say anything nice about Sweden, because it will inflame Trump, because Sweden is one of his favorite punching-bags; or maybe Sweden just told the Fulbright they don't want any more applications about migration. Who knows?

Final thoughts

Now you know what an application that doesn't make it to the semi-finals looks like. Don't make yours like mine.

I am so, so sorry for every second, and every thought, that I placed into my application. If I could take every moment back, I would.

I am so sorry that when one of my recommenders disappeared (she was getting married) about three weeks before the application was due, and was no longer answering emails, I biked around at night so I could find someone to give me her phone number, so I could interrupt her two days before her wedding and honeymoon with nagging about my application. I am so sorry for the effort, for the worry, that I gave to tracking her down, and just to one tiny piece, of trying to put this application together.

I am so sorry for the spreadsheet I made of libraries in Sweden, of the time I put in searching for libraries in different cities, running through the staff lists and gauging who I should contact, keeping notes on who all I emailed, who responded, when they responded, what I told them in return.

I am sorry for the separate packet of notes I put together for each person who wrote me a recommendation.

I am sorry for the twenty pages of notes I took from the various websites with information: the site with the application checklist, the Sweden country Fulbright site, the site with the application tips, the site with the information on the three lenses, the general information site. And I am even sorrier for the I-don't-know-how-much time it took me to watch seven webinars, most over an hour long, and take 31 pages of notes on them all together.

I am sorry for how I agonized over the website instructions, nitpicked over every sentence, and debated what to do when two sites indicated two different rules to follow; how I censored the number of emails I sent to the contact at the IIE so as not to annoy her too much. Why did I do all that?

I am so, so sorry that both times when submitting the application - both during the initial school submission and then the post-campus interview submission - I re-read every part of the application twice, just to check one last time that there wasn't any word, any letter out of place. I regret that time and that concentration.

They give you no explanation.

I regret everything about this application.