Thanks to a number of new donations, the Career Planning Center (CPC) will offer more grants for summer projects and internships this year than ever before.
Dighton Spooner, associate director of career planning, said that the CPC anticipates adding about 12 new grants this year. In previous years, the number of applications has significantly eclipsed the number of available grants; last year, 26 grants were awarded.
The 12 new grants include two additional Robert S. Goodfriend grants, and three entirely new funds to expand paid internship opportunities for students.
The Robert S. Goodfriend Summer Internship Fund will now offer five grants of up to $5,000 instead of three, after Mr. Goodfriend, an alumnus of the College, increased the annual sum available for the fellowship program. The Goodfriend Fund grants provides money to students who take unpaid internships in their business field of interest.
The new Strong/Gault Social Advancement Internship Grant, financed by anonymous donors, offers eight stipends of $4,000 for students to work with nonprofit, for-profit or governmental organizations providing assistance in impoverished and economically underdeveloped regions.
Another new source of funding is the Anwarul Quadir Fellowship, sponsored by the Anwarul Quadir Foundation. The fellowship will fund student internships at businesses in Bangladesh.
Lastly, the new Bowdoin College Alumni Council Internship Fund offers a grant for one student to pursue an internship in his or her potential career of choice. All of the grants require students to have secured an internship offer by the time of their application for the grant. CPC grant applications are due on March 27.
Spooner said that the 12 new grants will allow the CPC to award funding to qualified students who would have been turned away in past years.
“We had many more applications than we were able to give out grants last year,” said Spooner. “The quality of the applications of the students who didn’t get grants was also very good. It wasn’t that the quality of their applications didn’t allow them to get a grant. It was that we had more good applications than we had money to give out.”
Neuroscience major Linna Gao ’12 won a Thomas Andrew McKinley ’06 Entrepreneur Grant last year to work at a biotech startup focusing on developing cancer medication. Gao worked on the business side of the company, researching competition and searching for investors.
“I really wanted to explore something entrepreneurial with the things I love about science, so it was really a perfect place to design my own project,” she said.
The CPC advocates that students pursue internships during their time at the College to build an understanding of a potential career path after graduation.
“There are three summers between when you arrive at Bowdoin and when you leave,” said Spooner. “From a career-planning point of view, we think it’s important to focus on what area it is you want to explore.”
Editor's Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported the funding source of the Strong/Gault Grant. The grant was made possible by anonymous donors.