Applying to the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship: My experience (and advice!) from a Watson Fellow
The moment I heard about the Watson Fellowship– and its promise of an independently designed, multi-country, and fully-funded year of purpose driven travel– I was fixated on the idea of becoming one of the fellows. At the same time, I apprehended what a strenuous and protracted application journey I had ahead of me. My excitement was mixed with a whole lot of stress and nervousness. Ultimately, the year-long application process paid off, and I was selected to carry out my project on Ecosystem Restoration Communities in Brazil, India, Kenya, and Spain. I hope that this article on my application process can serve as one of the available resources for future applicants, who are likely feeling many of the same feelings as I was!
Finding resources surrounding the application itself can be a bit tricky, particularly because only students from a select list of 41 “partner institutions” are considered eligible to apply. This means that, in total, there haven’t been that many applicants to the Watson, especially compared to more well-known national post-graduate fellowships, like the Fulbright. I was able to find one blog post from a Watson applicant, Lily, which really dug into the application itself. It was helpful (and reassuring) to hear a first-person perspective on an application process that feels so high-stakes.
Other important resources for tackling the application include talking to your campus Watson liaison, reading lots of stories from Watson winners (it helped me to visualize what could be possible through my proposed project, though I did this after I had already selected my personal topic), and of course, reflecting deeply on your own interests, strengths, and values. The Watson website, too, puts in their own words what they are looking for:
While these lists of adjectives may seem intimidating– or even too vague at first– they ultimately served as helpful guideposts for my application. I sought to identify and highlight the places in my essays and interviews that spoke to these qualities in myself and my project.
I’ll now break down my experience with the main phases of the Watson application: Forming my project idea, contacting communities, writing the initial essays, the campus interview, the national interview, and, finally, winning the award.
Phase 1: Forming my project idea
I was in Panama, studying abroad in my junior spring, when I first heard about the Watson Fellowship. I was on an online call with my Swarthmore biology advisor, working out some course registration snafus for the following semester. Near the end of the conversation, after we had decided to swap organic chemistry for environmental chemistry in my schedule (a great call in the end), it occurred to me to ask him for some advice on post-graduate opportunities and fellowships that I should apply for.
I told my advisor about my interdisciplinary interests (ecology, global studies, and a desire to be abroad) and he quickly gave me a brief overview about the Watson. I haven’t forgotten how he framed it: “It’s competitive, but Swarthmore students do get it, fairly regularly.”
After we hung up the phone, those words rang in my ears. Swarthmore students do get it. Does that mean I could get it? Familiar feelings of imposter syndrome flooded back into my body, mostly buried since my freshman year. Could I even be competitive against other Swat students, never mind the national competition? Disbelieving hope mingled with excited nerves, a sensation that would last throughout the application period, but also kept driving me forward.
After that phone call, my new preoccupation with the Watson was temporarily eclipsed as I drove into preparations for a three week long, self supported kayak research expedition on the Pacific coast of Panama. It was a part of my study abroad program through SIT: Panama, and I would be trying my hand at mangrove-based primatology, studying howler monkeys for my credited Independent Research Project. I had never dove in so deeply on creating an expedition project, and it was a stressful, though welcome, distraction in the week leading up to my embarquement on the delta of David, Panama.
During the hours I passed paddling the mangroves and open crossings of the delta, I had ample time to ponder what my project would be, deeply reflecting on what I would do if I had the freedom and financial security to spend a year chasing my deepest passion. It was a thought experiment I kept returning back to, in between paddle strokes and mangrove islands, and it was filtered through the experience I was having at that moment. I had started to have a mental turn away from the type of independent ecological research that I was contemporaneously embroiled in, with its detachment from community and people that I felt often afflicted biology field research. I loved challenging myself by being deep in nature and working in the field, but I missed the feeling of community engagement through sustainability, and finding the crossover points between social change and ecological research.
My mind kept coming back to intentionally sustainable communities, ecovillages, and other similar projects I had been affiliated with in the past. I had lived in a housing cooperative/commune while I was still in high school, as well as during the pandemic. Living in community is something that has been deeply important to me for many years, and it never left me– I always envisioned myself living in community long-term, and sought to harmonize this social interest with my values of ecological restoration, agroforestry, ecofeminism, and more. I knew that these sorts of communities existed all around the world, and I also knew that if I had the time and money, my heart would draw me most strongly to visiting and living in them.
Around the same time as I started thinking about the Watson Fellowship, someone asked me this question: “What would you do if you had unlimited money for a year, and could do whatever you want?” It ended up being a really helpful guiding question for me as I narrowed down my project interest. Of course, the Watson doesn’t supply unlimited money– it supplies enough. But the idea of doing something that is completely untethered from the strictures of money and resources helped psychologically free my mind to imagine what it is that I truly want in my life. This is important when deciding a Watson project. Rather than starting with personal academic/work history and gleaning a project topic from that, I think it is far more authentic and compelling to think about what you would do if you could do anything at all. Then, work your way backwards and find the pieces of your story that align with your project, and figure out how to tell that story in a compelling way. If you have identified your deepest interest, then it only logically follows that there will be pieces of your story that deeply support that interest, and this will help improve your own inner seeking.
If I had based my Watson project only on my most recent academic and professional ventures, it would have looked more like a traditional biology-based expedition, rather than the socio-ecological project I am currently embarked upon. However, my current project most accurately and meaningfully represents who I am, and where I come from. The Watson Foundation likes to reiterate that they invest in people, not projects. So finding the genuine *you* in your project is the most important piece, and will help your application stand out. For me, this process alone was life-changing and life-affirming, helping me to more clearly frame what I want to do with my career and education post-college. Be open to unexpected answers within yourself, give yourself time and space to ponder (for me, I do my best pondering when I am deep in the wilderness, but find the ways that make you feel the most mentally spacious!), and trust your deeply rooted knowledge. I hope that the process reaps internal benefits for you that persist outside of the application process itself.
Phase 2: Contacting communities/putting together your project proposal
Besides conceiving of my project topic, the first concrete step I took toward the Watson application was contacting and creating my community list for the project proposal. This is the part that theoretically should be started the earliest, because it takes time for communities to respond to your inquiries, set up meetings, and solidify relationships to the extent possible.
I didn’t start contacting communities in earnest until late August/early September. It took time for me to select which communities I was going to reach out to, narrow down countries, and put together the skeleton draft of my project. This initial research stage took longer than I anticipated, so definitely be aware that it might take a lot of looking. However, this process will help you refine your project as a whole, so give it ample time and don’t rush it! Because my project topic of ecovillages/ecosystem restoration communities is rather broad, I found myself wading through databases and online forums, searching networks and allowing the community search to help direct me toward which countries I wanted to go to.
I looked for places that filled the following criteria:
1. Did valuable, multifaceted work that I actively wanted to be a part of; an organization that I believed in and presented themselves well.
2. Seemed open to volunteers, visitors, collaborators in general (keep in mind that through the Watson you are not supposed to hold full-time volunteer positions. However, finding organizations that have already accepted volunteers or visitors can make it easier to establish a connection. Don’t let this stop you from reaching out to other orgs, though!)
3. Were a part of global networks related to my project topic. (I sought out ecovillages that had both a local and global component).
4. Had at least one person that I could communicate fluently with for organizational purposes.
These criteria are specific to my project and your project may have very different requirements. Some projects are more reliant on individual people rather than organizations, others may seek to hire a translator to overcome language barriers, others may rely on your personal network, rather than online searching.
It helped me to find pre-existing networks of organizations to help narrow down where I was going to reach out to. In the end, I didn’t reach out to that many organizations, because I felt quite confident in the ones that I had selected, and all of the places that I reached out to responded positively to me. Another strategy would be to send out many cold emails or blanket messaging and then see who responds, but I was more discerning and picky about who I reached out to in the first place. In some cases, I found Whatsapp numbers or Instagram accounts, which helped get quicker responses than email. It can be nerve-wracking to send a text to someone that you don’t know, but I find that many organiatations post their Whatsapps online and tend to be more responsive to them.
In the end, I found four ecosystem restoration communities that fit my criteria and had confirmed that I could stay with them, in Brazil, Kenya, India, and Spain. I had a video call with one of the communities, but the others I talked with over email or Whatsapp. It’s important to keep in mind that the Watson Foundation and campus liaisons are aware that your project is likely to change if you are ultimately selected for the Watson, and you shouldn’t get hung up on having long video calls with every single person you are interested in meeting. It is more important that you demonstrate your capability to make connections, and that your plan is feasible to carry out.
Phase 3: Writing the Essays
As with many high-stakes applications, the essays are the most challenging, and the most important part! The Watson application asks for two essays: a personal essay, and a project proposal (each 1500 words). The personal essay is where you should discuss why it is that your proposed project deeply connects to you as a person, your studies, and your work. I began with discussing the genesis of my idea, then went back to the points in my life and studies that best supported and informed my project, while trying to paint a vivid and compelling picture through my words. I solicited direct essay feedback from one professor, and by the point of submission had gone through 3 drafts of the personal essay. You’ll hear from other applicants that they made 12 essay drafts and showed it to 15 people, which might be a better strategy than my rather succinct process.
A key question for you might be– is it a good idea to seek out examples of successful Watson personal essays? I have seen that some schools have a policy not to share examples of these essays, due to how bespoke they ought to be for each applicant. There is no set format for success in the personal essay, similar to any college admission essay. Get creative! With that said, it is possible to find examples of these essays online, or potentially through your campus liaison. I skimmed through a couple of them, but I didn’t read them very carefully as I didn’t want it to influence my writing process too much. My biggest takeaway from skimming the essays was that it is okay to have a unique voice or approach to telling your story– the prose doesn’t necessarily have to be overly flowery; it is more important to be genuine (and as concise as possible in the relatively short word limit!).
The project proposal also has room for creativity, but I think that it’s okay to be more straightforward in this section. I felt like I had a lot of information that I was trying to get through quickly as I presented my project locations and the activities that I planned to do in each of them. I wasn’t able to get too deep describing each location, but I highlighted the important parts that I am most looking forward to participating in, while also emphasizing the connections and information I had garnered through the research process. I think that the project proposal contains some space to explain why your project is important in a more general/broad sense, but keep the personal meaning of it to your personal essay. The proposal can be a bit more “nuts and bolts.” I wrote the project proposal much quicker and ultimately edited it less than the personal essay.
In my interviews, it was explicitly mentioned that I had presented my project in a very clear and compelling way through both of my essays, which was a great confidence booster. It speaks to the importance of the essays as the part that will most touch the heart of whoever reads them.
Phase 4: the Interviews
The general format for the university/national process for the Watson Fellowship is that there is first a round of interviews and selection at the university level. Then, each of the 41 partner universities nominates 4 candidates to go on to the national competition. Each of the nominated candidates gets interviewed by a representative of the Watson Fellowship national board.
Because the national interview was long (1 full hour) and much more high stakes, my memory of the interview process is biased toward this second interview. I was not quite as stressed out about the university-level interview, nor did I prepare as fastidiously (partly because, at that point, I still had that nagging voice of doubt in my head telling me that there was no way I would be nominated!). Nonetheless, at that point felt that I had a strong grasp on my project, its potentials, and its connections to my story. I had the conviction that no matter what would happen with the application competition, I would attempt to carry out my project to the best of my ability. My university interview was done with my campus liaison and a former Watson fellow from Swarthmore. It felt like it went well, but it was also a relatively short interview.
Some of the questions that I was asked during the interviews included why I wanted to do the Watson Fellowship specifically, what challenges I expected to face during the Watson year, times that I had grown/faced failure and questions about my accomplishments. For the national interview, the questions were more tailored toward me and my project specifically, as the Watson representative had prepared well to interview each of the nominated candidates individually. In the past, I have heard that certain Watson representatives can be somewhat challenging as interviewers, seeking to push the candidates and ask deliberately tricky questions. In my experience, the interviewer for Swarthmore was very encouraging and conversational. It all depends on who is assigned to your school– but having a challenging interview doesn’t mean you have any less of a shot!
Phase 5: Putting it all together
While the essays, project contact list, and interviews take up the bulk of the application process, there are also a lot of other small pieces that take time on the Watson Application portal. You have to put together a sample budget (for what it’s worth, I didn’t even do mine on a spreadsheet, but I did put time and research into estimating the costs of the project and presenting it as a word document). You also have to fill out and write descriptions for your various extracurricular activities, which I wrote with care, tailoring toward them to reflect pieces of my project when possible. There are the two recommendations as well, which need to be sorted out ahead of time– your recommenders will want to or need to see at least a draft of your personal essay and/or project proposal, so keep that in mind when you are discussing with them. You also have to write a short project summary, and about your career goals.
These “small” pieces really do add up, especially if you are nominated as a finalist and need to fill out the portal as well as possible, making sure that each and every component is strong and well-written. I had a pretty sleepless night the night before the national deadline, as I looked and re-looked over every single aspect of the application portal.
Phase 6: The Long Wait, and getting the news.
The wait to find out if I had received the Watson was one of the most grueling and preoccupying waits that I have experienced. The first stages of the process went by fairly quickly, as I finished my national interview in mid-November (sometimes these can be scheduled much later), which was good, but also meant that I had a full 3 months to wait before finding out if I was going to be selected on March 15 (the Ides of March!). I cycled through every emotion and possibility, as my future felt completely obscured due to this process.
Ultimatley, I tried my best to come to peace
