Everything about applying for a SILC grant

March 17, 2016

The members of the Student Intellectual Life Committee (SILC) at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) told about their work to an audience of students. The SILC members gave advice on how to write applications for SILC grants, pointed out common application mistakes, reminded applicants of what is mandatory and important for applying for a SILC grant, and provided information on what grant-winners must provide after returning to AUCA.

There are nine members on the SILC committee, including both students and faculty: five elected faculty members, one appointed by the Faculty Senate, and three students chosen by the faculty members of the committee.

- Gorkem Atsungur, Assistant Professor in European/American Studies (Chair of the Committee) 

- Jean-Baptiste Jault, Assistant Professor in Business Administration

- Kamilya Kadyrova, NGA Academic Director

- Polina Dolmatova, Assistant Professor in Maths

- Nicholas Mazik, Associate Professor in International and Business Law

- Rustam Ismailov, Instructor in Psychology

-  Nurali Abdukhalilov, Student representative

- Saibkhan Nadirov, Student representative

- Sanjar Toktomambetov, Student representative 

 

 

Tell us about SILC.

Gorkem Atsungur: SILC was established in the 2002-2003 academic year in order to promote excellence in research, learning, and overall intellectual development of AUCA students.  Currently, we have 9 members; including faculty and student representatives. I am the chair of the committee since 2013 and also a member of the Faculty Senate. Each subcommittee of the Senate has one representative to monitor the committee activities. The other five faculty members are directly elected by the AUCA faculty, so the members are not just a random sampling. We have members from IBL, Psychology, NGA, BA, Math, and ES.

 

How many students received grants in the 2014-2015 academic year?

Gorkem Atsungur:  Last academic year, 2014-2015, we gave grants to 62 students, coming from different departments such as Business Administration, Sociology, Economics, European studies, International and Business Law, Anthropology, International and Comparative Politics, Psychology, Journalism and Mass Communication, Software Engineering, and Applied Mathematics and Informatics. Last year we gave grants to 25 sophomores, 24 juniors, and 13 seniors. Since freshmen do not have a reliable GPA and we need an overall GPA for the application, we do not give grants to freshmen. Seniors are ineligible in their second semester generally, on the other hand, we have given grants to some seniors in a few special cases for their academic development and senior thesis.

We provide grants for AUCA students only. In some cases, we have received applications from non-AUCA students. This is not a grant for studying at AUCA; it is for research traveling and intellectual development.

What is the deadline for applying to SILC?

Nicholas Mazik: The 15^th of every month. Students apply online, and then we all discuss and vote on the proposals. By the end of the month we give a response to all the applicants.

Jean-Baptiste Jault: Basically, do not apply on the 15^th for the money you need by the 17^th.

 

What is the selection process for the grants?

Jean-Baptiste Jault: First of all, students have to apply every month. We filter the applications based on the criteria Görkem mentioned. If a student is a freshman, he or she cannot be nominated. We will consider seniors, but it depends on their projects.

When students apply, they have to provide different documents, the main one we check first is their transcript. When students have an “F” or a “D”, it can sometimes  be a problem, but not all the time. If we have two candidates to choose between, and one has an “F” and one does not, we will probably give preference to the one who has good grades.

After that, the statement of purpose is very important; perhaps even the most important part of the application. Obviously, we don’t know all the conferences and programs that exist around the world, so the statement of purpose ideally tells us if the conference or program, to which the student is applying, fits our mission. On the other hand, we also do research about the programs which our students apply for. Very often, students write up their statement of purpose the day before it is due, so it is usually not of a great quality.

Nicholas Mazik: The purpose of the SILC is to fund people for their studies. The statement of purpose needs to tell us where you are going, why it is important to you, why it will benefit your academic development, and how it will benefit AUCA. We want to send people out to represent the university in conferences around the world. We want to send students out to learn things and bring their knowledge and experience back to AUCA. In the statement of purpose, we are looking for a clear explanation of how your project will benefit everyone. We need the rationale to be clearly explained to us in your statement of purpose. Why is it good for you - for your thesis research, for your future studies - and why should AUCA be funding it? AUCA is not going to pay for someone to go to the beach and have a good time, but the university will pay for an experience that substantively benefits you, and that positively represents AUCA across the globe. Because of our limited funds, we need you to write a compelling and detailed proposal - we can’t send everybody everywhere. The statement of purpose is your pitch to get us to help you. 

Kamilya Kadyrova: It’s very important for us if a student is presenting their own paper or research proposal at a conference. We always value our students’ own input at conferences, not just showing up. Of course, it’s great that he/she represents AUCA but it is better when he/she also shows some intellectual input. That’s why we have that separate point in the application where students explain the research he/she is presenting. Sometimes we judge by the impact on the society or by their research methods. We have applicants sometimes asking for funds not to go to a conference, but rather to do research in a local community. We can fund those as well.

Nicholas Mazik: It’s important if they have a research plan. Sometimes we get an application that just says “I want to do research.” And then other people say, “I want to do research, I want to go to this town, on these days, and I have this interview set up, so I need to meet these people, and I am ready to go.” Of course, we are much more likely to fund something like the latter. If you’re serious about your plan and we know that you are going to get it done, that’s a much easier decision for us.

Kamilya Kadyrova: And we don’t just fund only individual projects, we often fund group projects also. Last year we had a group going to Mongolia for research. It doesn’t have to be an individual project.

 

How much money can you give per student?

Jean-Baptiste Jault: It depends. That’s totally up to us. Even though, as we said, we have a limited budget.

Gorkem Atsungur: We have annual SILC budget. And we try to allocate that budget over the academic year. But also I would like to talk about the statement of purpose: it should be realistic. Sometimes the students are very ambitious. The writing is vague, for example, when a student writes that he/she will come back to AUCA and change this country, professors, etc. What we expect from the statement of purpose is a realistic project. It should be something that is relevant and doable.

Nurali Abdukhalilov: I want to talk about exchange programs funded by SILC because I went to Germany for two academic semesters funded by the SILC. They paid for my Visa and a round-way ticket. I think SILC makes AUCA unique among other Kyrgyzstani universities because, when AUCA students face financial problems and are unable to  study abroad, SILC is there to help realize it.

Rustam Ismailov: The SILC committee is like academic parents. The most important part of your statement of purpose is the planning structure and a delineation of all of your potential expenses. It’s a big plus when we see students really calculating, down to the penny, how much they will spend on everything, and then showing us how much money they will need from us. It makes the decision much easier.

Kamilya Kadyrova: We usually don’t give students all the money they ask for. We try to be very rational when evaluating the benefits of each individual project.

 

What should students not put in their statement of purpose?

Jean-Baptiste Jault: In the statement of purpose, students are free to write whatever they want, especially at AUCA where we support freedom of speech. Of course, it has to be serious. Your statement of purpose justifies why we should fund your project. Explain your purpose explicitly, and lay out why it is related to AUCA and your academic development.

Nicholas Mazik: Give us a clear picture of what you intend to do. The content is important but it is also important that you write it well. If we can’t understand you, you won’t get funded. Don’t write the night before. Write it in advance, and get the Writing and Academic Resource Center, a friend or a sibling to proofread it for you. Take your time, do a couple of drafts.

Jean-Baptiste Jault: Sometimes we get students who tell us personal stories. For example, a student writes that he wants to go to such-and-such conference, which is about business people or networking. And that when he was in primary school he studied a lot about business and started his own business, and so on. Even that is interesting. There is nothing that you can’t put in the statement. Just explain to us why your project is good and why we should give you the money. You are pitching yourself.

 

What else besides the statement of purpose do students have to provide?

Gorkem Atsungur:  The statement of purpose is not the only thing we look at. We also look at GPA and a reference letter. We care much about the reference letter, so we suggest students to get them from professors in their department, especially the Chair of the department. Because they know students from many courses and in details.

Kamilya Kadyrova: We ourselves cannot recommend students; otherwise we would be excluded from the voting for that student. It’s very important to have a clear reference letter.

Gorkem Atsungur: It’s also good to mention that we don’t fund during the summer. Basically, May is the last time to apply for a SILC grant. We do not operate in June, July, and August, so if a student wants to get a grant for a summer program, he must apply in April or (as an absolute last chance) in May.

Jean-Baptiste Jault: I think it is important to emphasize that when students receive money for their projects, conferences, studies, we would really like to get feedback about what they did after their return. It’s not for our committee, but rather for the donors. The money doesn’t come from the sky and it is really appreciated when students come back to say thank you to their benefactors at the end of their project.

Gorkem Atsungur: It’s important because sometimes students ask for too much money, and for that money you have to work so much. And this money doesn’t come very easily, and that’s why, in the statement of purpose, students have to demonstrate why their projects are important.

Nicholas Mazik: We want to encourage people to look into larger projects and to look for multiple sources of funding. We can’t afford to fund one person and forget about everyone else. We can provide a small amount of funding, and a student can also find funding from somewhere else.

Kamilya Kadyrova:  And it’s important to say that we also look at students’ financial and economic status for exchange programs. If a student comes from a financially disadvantaged background, if she/he is on financial aid, we try to support her/him as much as it is possible. 

Rustam Ismailov: It’s also important to mention about the report that students must provide within 30 days after they come back. You just briefly tell us about the experience you had, and again like the term of appreciation for the money that they received.

 

What else do students provide after they come back to Kyrgyzstan?

Gorkem Atsungur: They have to provide two reports; a financial report to the financial office with a list of expenses and receipts. The second report they prepare  goes to the PR office. If they don’t provide their financial reports, the financial office closes their registration. Students receive a lot of money and it’s their responsibility to give feedback.

 

How has your experience been as a student on the SILC?

Nurali Abdukhalilov: As far as I know we have three students in the SILC. Those three students change every year. We, the students, have the same voting power as any of the professors. They never say that because we’re students we cannot decide how we should vote. Every vote is equal.

 

What else do you want to add?

Gorkem Atsungur: One more thing about the SILC activity: we also choose the best senior thesis at AUCA. At the end of the academic year, we ask every department to send us their best senior theses. Then we, the faculty members, go over the theses with our rubric, choose the best of the best, and award a cash prize. It’s a kind of motivation for seniors to write better senior theses.

Kamilya Kadyrova: Now, we are looking forward to our next round of applications. It’s very important that students apply, and we will do our best to find the most deserving and the motivated students.

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