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ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

The Purpose
The Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship provides internships, mentoring, and enriched educational opportunities to promising New York City undergraduates with the goal of increasing their life choices and developing their capacity to make a difference in their own and others’ lives. The centerpiece of the Fellowship is on-the-job learning that will:
  • Provide opportunities for leadership and personal growth;
  • Help test in practice what you may be learning in the classroom;
  • Provide experience and insight on choices for a future vocation;
  • Assist you in thinking about graduate program opportunities;
  • Help you present a more compelling application for national fellowships, graduate admissions, and jobs.
The Thomas J. Watson Foundation was created in 1961 as a charitable trust by Mrs. Thomas J. Watson, Sr., in honor of her late husband, the founder of International Business Machines Corp., widely known as IBM. The Foundation initially used its resources in support of a variety of programs. In 1968 it created the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program, which makes travel and study awards to outstanding graduating seniors at a select group of small liberal arts colleges throughout the United States. In 1999 the Foundation created the Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship in honor of the wife of Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

Click here to download the 2007 Jeannette K. Watson Annual Report.

To view our Annual Report, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 installed on your computer. If you do not have this software installed, download it first by clicking here.
ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

The Opportunity
The Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship offers fifteen students paid internships for three consecutive summers. The internships will be closely supervised and provide challenging work from which one can learn.

In the course of the program, interns (Fellows) are encouraged to sample work in at least two of three sectors: nonprofit organizations, government service, and private enterprise. Each internship lasts up to ten weeks. The stipend is $5,000 for the first summer and $6,000 for the second and third summers.

Fellows will meet regularly in seminars with their peers, the fourteen other Jeannette K. Watson Fellows who are selected from ten New York City colleges, to discuss their internship experiences and talk about important issues with distinguished New Yorkers. Each year, 45 Fellows are at various stages in their three-year tenure.













ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

The Obligation
A Watson Fellow is expected to complete successfully three summers of paid internships of up to ten weeks that will enhance her/his vocational goals and personal development. During the summer, Fellows must also take part in a weekend orientation session, participate in a program of evening seminars designed to complement the internships, maintain a weekly professional journal, and attend cultural events scheduled both during evenings and on weekends. Attendance is also required at four term-time seminars held on Saturdays.

The Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship staff constructs internships in consultation with the Fellows. The Director must approve of all assignments.













ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

The Internship
Many of today's leaders first found purpose and meaning in their lives through internships they held during their college years. These experiences shaped their values, career directions, and further education plans. To have such an influence, an internship should be an experience from which one can learn, and an internship should have a strong mentoring supervisor.

Through the Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship, this type of meaningful internship will be developed in consultation with each Fellow in terms of that Fellow's growing interests and career directions. The first two summers will be spent in challenging internships in New York City. Fellows are encouraged to spend their third summer at an internship in another country or city.













ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

What Do Graduates of the Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship Do?

Enroll in Graduate Schools:
  • Brooklyn Law School
  • Cardozo School of Law
  • Carnegie Mellon, Heinz School of Public Policy and Management
  • Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, School of Public Health, School of Social Work, Teachers College
  • Fordham University, International Development
  • Harvard University, Law School, Kennedy School
  • Hofstra University School of Law
  • Hunter College, School of Health Sciences
  • INSEAD (Institut Européen d’administration des affaires), Business
  • John Jay School of Criminal Justice, Public Administration
  • Loyola University, New Orleans, College of Law
  • New School University, International Relations & Media, Media Studies Program
  • New York University, School of Education, School of Medicine, Tisch School of the Arts
  • Queens College, Mathematics
  • Southern Methodist University, School of Law
  • SUNY at Buffalo, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
  • SUNY Downstate, College of Medicine
  • Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
  • University of California at Los Angeles, Political Science
  • University of Chicago, Political Science
  • University of Missouri at Columbia, Journalism
  • University of Tel Aviv, History
  • University of Washington, Seattle, Master of Fine Arts in Poetry
 Win National Fellowships:

  • Beinecke Scholarship
  • Boren Scholarship, Russia
  • Coro Fellowship for Civic Leadership, Saint Louis
  • Critical Languages Scholarship, Istanbul
  • Fulbright Scholarship, Albania, Bangladesh, Malawi, South Korea, Turkey
  • Gates Millennium Scholarship
  • IREX Young Leaders Fellowship for Public Service, Russia
  • National Security Exchange Program, Haiti, Russia
  • Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans
  • Public Policy and International Fellowship Program
  • Harry S. Truman Scholarship(2)

Volunteer for Service Opportunities:
  • New York City Teaching Fellowship
  • New York City Urban Fellowship
  • Peace Corps, Costa Rica (2)
  • Steppingstone Foundation, Boston
  • Teach for America, Houston, New York City
  • WorldTeach, Guyana
Find Jobs in Their Chosen Field:
  • Capco Consulting, financial consultant
  • Carter Center's China Program, consultant
  • Committee to Protect Journalists (Europe/Central Asia), associate
  • Cox Communications, research associate
  • DonorsChoose, assistant to the CEO
  • Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, paralegal
  • Information Week, associate editor
  • Institute of International Education, program associate
  • International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, program manager
  • International Center for Transitional Justice, program associate
  • Medical and Health Research Association, manager IT
  • Middle School Teachers, math; language arts
  • Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, legal assistant
  • Mount Sinai Hospital, bilingual social worker
  • New York City Department of Parks, press associate
  • New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, staff analyst
  • Quinn and Co., public relations associate
  • Social Science Research Council, fellowship assistant
  • Touchstone Consulting, government strategies associate
  • Vision International Real Estate, property manager
  • The World Bank, program associate
    • Partial list

 
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