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BY MARTHA MARRAZZA

In print | January 19, 2006

Katie Camillus, Omer Corluhan, Sebastian Duncan, Ei Mon, Sybille Ngo Nyeck and Shadi Rohana, all class of 2008, received Lang Opportunity grants to fund projects addressing various social problems. Winners are guaranteed a summer internship and the opportunity to apply for up to $10,000 to fund their project.

The six students who were chosen applied for projects ranging from creating a micro-credit loan program for women in Darfurian refugee camps to developing an early childhood education program in Myanmar.

Besides a summer internship and funds for the actual project, all Lang Scholars are eligible for scholarships at the graduate level after successfully completing their project. While the most recent application proved equally as rigorous as last year’s, James said Lang Center employees continue to improve the process of applying each year.

Since Eugene Lang ’38 first funded the program in the 1980s, Lang Opportunity grants have evolved from scholarships issued at admission to the current system of letting sophomores apply, James said.

“The process changed with the class of 2006,” she said. “We had some great Lang scholars who did wonderful programs, but there were a lot who were named but didn’t quite get what they were supposed to do. With the class of 2006, we changed the process so students could apply their first semester of sophomore year. That way students understand Swarthmore and how it works, and they have a better sense of what goes on here.”

Lessons learned from evaluating the application pool of the class of 2006 have influenced the process since then, James explained. "The applications get better and better every year. When we interviewed the class of ‘06, we threw everything into the application and then we realized that it shouldn’t be an endurance test.

“The class of 2007 was somewhat easier since we streamlined the application process a lot,” James said. “What was difficult about both was that to get a good mix of students, faculty and staff on the panel, we were doing different interview times and applicants didn’t always have the same interviewers. This year, all the interviewees came in on one day.”

Many recent scholarship winners found the application to be rigorous but original. “We had to write essays talking about things like our history in service and social justice work, besides submitting our transcript, resume and recommendations,” Camillus said. “I think the hardest part was when we had to write about our project as if we were looking back on it, and discuss the obstacles, results and how to continue it in the future.”

For Mon, a student from Myanmar who hopes to open up an education program for children in her community, some of the application requirements proved difficult. “English is not my first language, and we had to write six short essays and one project essay.”

James said different students handle the varying portions of the application according to their personalities. “I suspect it was hard for students,” she said. “What might be hard for some might not be for others. It probably wasn’t any harder than last year, but it was a little more demanding because we really shortened the time period between the application, interview and decision.”

Since recipients only have until graduation to complete their project, the summer internship allotted in the Lang Opportunity grant often provides a jumping off point for students like Camillus to begin their work. “I’m hoping that this summer I can get an internship related to the project, hopefully in Africa,” she said. “If I intern with this organization that offers the same type of micro-credit loans I’m looking into, I can get a feel of how they do everything and also gain more cultural understanding that will benefit my project.”

Other students choose to take time off from Swarthmore in order to complete their project. “I’m thinking of taking a semester off, maybe next semester,” said Rohana, who is planning on preserving the history of Arabs in his town of Haifa, Israel before the 1950s. “I don’t just want to send checks over there,” he said.

While scholarship winners and program administrators acknowledge that projects often change from their initial proposal, the people who make application decisions look for drive and dedication in potential Lang scholars. “Sometimes whole ideas change, and we expect that,” James said. “If you were 35 and applying we wouldn’t expect your idea to change, but college students get a whole new experience every semester.”

In gauging the success of a particular project, James praises students who set definitive targets and then work to achieve those goals. “Basically, success is someone who has written a good project proposal with really clear benchmarks of what success entails, and then they meet those benchmarks,” she said.

“We also look at if the project is replicable and sustainable. We don’t want to create a good project that happens for six months to a year and then vanishes. Not surprisingly, people do a good job of setting high standards of what success means in their proposals.”

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