OIP Announces Grant Recipients

Over 500 students looking to study and work abroad this summer received notification Tuesday that they had joined the inaugural group of undergraduates to be awarded David Rockefeller International Experience grants.

The grants, administered though the Office of International Programs, are the fruit of a $100 million donation from David Rockefeller ’36, made specifically to fund “significant” international projects.

The determination of significance is a task left by the University to the OIP, which assesses how well student proposals adhere to standards for cultural immersion, faculty consultation, and curricular integration.

According to Erin E. Goodman, the assistant director of the OIP and one of the grant program’s chief coordinators, 825 students applied for Rockefeller grants, which are available only for proposed projects lasting at least eight weeks. Of that number, 511 have been sent letters informing them of their grant award, with the possibility that some award recipients may receive late notification.

“Of the people that are not receiving Rockefeller grants, a significant number received funding from other sources on campus,” Goodman said, noting that her office reviewed proposals requesting anywhere between $600 and $20,000.

The actual amount awarded varied widely among students. Andrew R. Milewski ’12, a resident of Straus Hall, said he received $4,000 for his summer in Paris, while his roommate, Evan R. Czaplicki ’12, will live in the same city on only $1,500.

“That covers plane tickets, essentially,” Czaplicki said.

Both students said that their summer plans—for Milewski, work in a neurological research lab at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, and for Czaplicki, language study at Columbia University’s Parisian campus—were entirely contingent upon receiving grant money.

They also characterized their experience with the OIP as more confusing than constructive, with Czaplicki explaining, “In terms of choosing a program and figuring out what kinds of things I needed, they weren’t very helpful.”

“They were helpful in directing me to different resources,” said Milewski. “I would go in and ask for help, and they would tell me things that I already knew.”

Goodman said that in spite of the faltering economy, the budget for next year’s Rockefeller grants will not shrink, since the gift had been specifically tied to student travel.

—Staff writer Edward-Michael Dussom can be reached at emdussom@fas.harvard.edu.