And I'll introduce myself and then I'll pass it over to Beth, who was really the star of the show today. My name is Mia Ferraina, and I have been helping coordinate the Summer Shat Series. You may be getting some e-mails for me, but Beth is our Fellowships Advisor and she's going to talk to you about a lot of different kind of overview of different topics today. I'll be here to kind of monitor the chat, help answer questions, things like that. So if you have a question that you don't want to ask and from the whole group, you're welcome to even just message it to me privately. I can read it anonymously, but feel free to even unmute yourself or type in the chat whenever you want. And we can answer. No formal PowerPoint or anything like that today. So it can be pretty conversational. This is a reasonable sized groups. So if you have questions as we go, feel free to ask, and Beth can either shield them now or say that's super specific to you. Let's meet one-on-one and we can talk about it another time. So I guess that's as much as I'll say about kind of the flow of things. And I'll pass it over to Beth to share some lovely information with you. Thanks Beth. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much Mia. Here's the beginning of lovely information. As we said, my name's Beth Fiori. I'm the Fellowships Advisor at Cornell. My office is in 103 Barnes. And I'm happy to talk with you today. This is going to be a general introduction. You might end up with some specific questions which I'm happy to field at the end or in individual appointments. But the first thing you should know is that when we're talking about fellowships, and I use that term, as well as scholarships can use those interchangeably. We're talking mostly about merit-based awards, not financial aid. Some of, some scholarships do have a criterion of financial need, but, but most don't. So I just want to make that clear. You know, if you're if you need to talk to the Financial Aid Office, if you're looking for money that's based on your income or your parents income. That's a different matter. But these are merit-based awards, the merit is usually has to do with academic work. Although sometimes the merit is also related to leadership, public service, career goals, long-term projects, and, and the like. Most of these awards support study and are related to study. So it could be that you are in one of the natural sciences or in mathematics or engineering. And you're looking for money that would help defray some of your Cornell costs or maybe help you pay for graduate school. And so you're looking for things based in the field. It could be that you're looking for something that supports you, again at Cornell or in graduate school and it's based more on career plans. For example, you plan to go into a public service career, or into teaching, or again, into the sciences. There are, there's one scholarship where the work is, or the scholarship is related to career goals in the environmental field. And that is understood very broadly. It could be the sciences, it could be environmental law, it could be advocacy. So there's just a lot of different criteria. But usually and, and kind of at the base level at principally, there is some academic criterion. Some times that is a very high bar in terms of GPA. Sometimes not. But generally, academic strength is important. And then as I said, other things are important too, such as career plans, service, leadership. Scholarships come from different sources. Some of them are private trusts. For example, at the Rhodes Scholarship, which is probably the most well-known or easily recognizable scholarship, is based on private money. From a man named Cecil Rhodes, who was a, a British citizen who was in South Africa and got his money through diamond mining. And if you knew a teeny bit of African history, you may recognize that there used to be a country called Rhodesia that was named after him, but it's no longer called that. So it can be private money, it can be federal money. So for example, the Truman Scholarship, named after President Truman, is a scholarship that supports people going into public service careers. Pays for $30,000 of graduate study. And that is government money that the Congress has set aside. There's another one that's Congressional called the Udall Scholarship, named after Congressman Morris Udall. Originally and now also named after his brothers Stuart Udall, who was Minister of the Secretary of the Interior under Kennedy. And that too is government money set aside by Congress for specific purposes of scholarship that one happens to pay for undergraduate tuition while but Truman, which I just mentioned, pays for graduate school. Another source is an NGO or an, another kind of organization. An example of that is the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Maybe some of you who are in government or history or ILR have come across the Carnegie Endowment. And that is, as I said, an NGO. And it has its own small Fellowships Program. It, that one actually is as much a kind of a job hire, as it is scholarship. But they do call it a Junior Fellows Program and it has come under, under the offices of my office. So as I said, there are a lot of different sources. It is important when you apply to consider the source. I mean, doesn't make a big difference in terms of your application. But you may see that some of the criteria are, some of the things they're looking for in applicants are somewhat aligned with the source. Let's see. The next thing I wanted to talk about, and this is probably one of the more important points for you as students, is to talk about the various factors that count to make a strong application. All the scholarships I handle, and most scholarships in general have very, a lot of competition, are very competitive. And I see a fantastic students when fantastic records who don't win these things. So we have, I mean, I'm happy to talk with individuals about that and whether it's worth applying and how to handle possible disappointment and so forth. But know that this is a long shot - understanding of these scholarships is a long shot. But given that, we make it our job to put forward the strongest application possible. And so that's what I want to lay out for you right now. First of all, strong academics, even if it's a scholarship that is oriented towards public service. Or as I mentioned, with the Udall Scholarship, oriented towards a career in, related to the environment. Their still looking for and strong academics. What does that mean in terms of GPA? Usually, it well, it's very dependent on a scholarship, but I would say most generally a 3.5 and above. Let me elaborate on that a little bit. The Udall, just as an example. So this is $7 thousand for undergraduate tuition in environmental science or in native... for Native Americans who are going into medical fields. That has a GPA minimum of 3.0. That's the lowest GPA minimum I've ever seen a scholarship. And I would say, I mean, if you're interested in that one and that's, that's relevant. But in general, you should have in your mind a 3.5. There are other scholarships I handle. Where to be honest, I don't consider an application viable unless the GPA is say at least to 38.5. Now I don't want to scare anybody off. I mean, there are a lot of things to consider with that. But to be honest, the GPA does matter. Now, both at Cornell and beyond with these foundations. I have always seen that readers pay close attention to transcripts. So it's not as if your GPA is that magic number is going to be doing all the talking. They're going to look at a transcript and see what kind of courses did you take? How many credits did you earn? Did you how many majors do you have? Is there evidence that you challenged yourself? Did you take unusual courses and perhaps for the sake of a challenge? Did you do an honors thesis? Have you conducted research either as an assistant for it, your own coursework as part of a job? Is there an upward trend in the GPA? You know, some students have a tough semester or two at the beginning, adapting to university life. That's that is often clear in an, in a transcript and sometimes fine. It can be forgivable. And he kinda depending on on how extreme that is, you might have one bad semester when you were ill or there was a family situation. I mean, there are a lot of things to look at in an application or in a transcript in an application. So don't think you know, you must have perfect GPA and all A's and nothing more. If there is something kind of unusual or something you feel uncomfortable about in in, in a transcript. It's worth talking to me about it. What I often recommend is say, if it were a one semester of poor performance or maybe two courses. And I will say organic chemistry as a possibility, that, that is where the grades are a little bit lower than usual for you. That can be something that's well explained by a faculty letter. I mean, I'm not saying that you kinda try to explain away every little blip on a transcript. But if there's something significant that you feel is a weakness, you and I certainly should talk about it. And one way of handling it is to have it addressed by a faculty letter. I the letter should address only that. It would be someone from someone who was writing a for you in general. But there may be a paragraph that says, you know, by the way, Joe is an excellent student, had a really tough semester. This one, this one semester when he was sick and everyone in his family was sick and the dog died. And, you know, I don't mean that in a I don't mean to be flip about that. And sorry, Mia. We were just talking about her dog recently. It's Okay, he's healthy, he's fine. But I mean, there can be extenuating circumstances and its strategic to have a faculty member or an advisor speak to that instead of you speaking to it in the application. I mean, that can be a possibility. But number one, it burns up word count that is usually limited in an application. And often you don't wanna do that because you actually want to be writing about something else. And secondly, I think it is stylistically difficult to write about this as the student and not make it sound as if you're making an excuse. It, even if you're not and you have a very good reason for a low GPA in one particular semester, it's often better to have someone else address that. So anyway, that's, that's more than enough on a, an unusual circumstance. But the larger point is that everyone has what you could consider weaknesses are soft spots or divots in an application. There's never an entire application that is unassailable. And it's up to you and me to talk about those things ahead of time and address them as best we can. So another thing that counts for a strong application is service. And that can be service on campus. It can be in your local, the local community and the Ithaca area. It can be in your home community. Important, it can be longevity of service or breadth of service. Generally. We'd like to see a little bit of both. I mean, you might especially early on in your Cornell career, be shopping around a little bit for a service organization or a volunteer activity that suits you. And so at first it might, we might see on your resume that you did a couple of things but, oh, then we see you, you honed in and found something that really fit your interests and your talents and your schedule. And, and that's what you ended up doing. A service can sometimes be found within employment. But keep in mind if you're if you're being paid by say, a homeless shelter or by a food bank, that's I mean, that's still good work, but it's not pure service. But usually that's not the case. And, and I usually see students who are, who are doing this gratis and doing it out of interest and, and commitment. But that does matter too many scholarships, not all, but, but something worth talking about. Related to service is.. Oh, let me say one more thing about service. And this would be something we discuss one-on-one. Organizations look closely at whom you are serving or whom your organization serves. And if it is a self-serving organization, it counts a little less strongly for service. It doesn't mean it's bad. But what I mean by that is say you are a member of a temple or a church or religious organization, and you sing in the choir or the chorus of that organization, That's good. And it also shows some artistic nature and so forth. But you're doing it for an organization to which you belong and no one else is really gaining from that, except the members of the organization. This can sometimes be the case with the Greek system, although there are fraternities and sororities that very much have public outreach and service arms, and then that's not the case. But again, we will talk about this. There can be a lot of things that are service and some of it might be a little more outward directed than not. But the best thing, at least when you and I are working together, is to lay it all out on the table and have a talk about the strengths and weaknesses of your profile. Closely connected to service is leadership. That can look like a lot of things. And the most important point I'd like to make there is that it doesn't have to be with a title. You do not have to be President or Secretary of Student Government. You do not have to be the Vice President of your local whatever organization. If you are, that's great. It makes it a little bit easier for a reader to understand what it was that she did. But I think one of the useful ways to think about leadership is to ask yourself... Is there work that I got done, that deep down I know, wouldn't have gotten done if I didn't do it. Now, if you hadn't stepped in and, and raised money or, or canvassed or got new members or, or did something else, if it weren't for, you, wouldn't get done. I would argue that might be leadership. So that's one question you can ask yourself. And, and again, I'm happy to, to talk about other possibilities. But that gets at leadership that might come about without a title or without obvious leadership markings on it. Another important aspect for these awards is you, is your notion of your future, your academic plans, your career plans. With an eye towards why those plants might matter to anybody else. Why we, why we might care that you want to become a doctor and get a public health degree. Or why we might care that you are an engineer that, that thinks about urban infrastructure. Or that why do the rest of us care that, you know, you're an Attorney who wants to work on civil rights for gay people. It, you know, why did the rest of us care? And again, that's kind of a way of helping you think beyond your own career path. But how it affects the rest of the world. Or it helps you talk about the interface between you as a, as a citizen and a contributing member and everything else. That can sound pretty grand. And I mean, uh, you know, some students and I have joked about what does it take to be a Rhodes Scholar? And you have to have a 4.8 GPA and which there is no such thing unless you're on a 5.0 system. But, you know, and, and save the whales and feed the poor. And you, you know, all this sort of... and dance and sing and, and everything. It's like, yeah, that's not really the case. You need to be able to do a few things. And most importantly, you need to tell us, to tell readers, to tell committee members who select scholars, why you do what you do, why it's important to you, and why it might be important to the rest of us. Many of these programs make no bones about seeing you as an investment. And that might be a hard, it might be difficult to look at yourself that way. But, it helps to put on a hat and I can help you do that at least for a little while. I'll say, well, why would anyone care that I end up as a doctor who also has a degree in public health. Why does anyone else care besides the people who know and love me? And articulating that can be very useful to these scholarship applications. So that's kind of an end to real substantive comment. I want to point out that fellowship advising is done in various offices around Cornell. If you're at Cornell, you know, we're very decentralized university. But when in doubt, I would say, come ask me. But as an example, the Fulbright Scholarship, which is federal money that sends you abroad, is handled by the Einaudi Center. There's something called the Boren Scholarship, which is also, it's a little bit like the Fulbright rates for foreign language study, um, and for specific languages, usually languages that are targeted by the government for political reasons, that's handled by Cornell Abroad. So the best thing to do is as you're looking at the scholarship information, see where the administration for it lives on campus. Keeping in mind that most of these awards don't require anything by Cornell. You don't have to work with me. You don't have to work, work with somebody in the Einaudi Center or Cornell Abroad. You can just apply directly. But there are probably a 20 or so that are well known that do require kind of what we call endorsement or a nomination or stamp of approval by someone in at Cornell. And most of the time that I can provide that attestation. Or if it doesn't go through my office, I can direct you towards the person who can handle that. So I want to say it's it's a 4:30, so we're about halfway through the hour. I'd like to talk about one scholarship just as an example, so that you can see the process and how this might work. It may not be applicable for you, but bear with me and use it just as a, as an example, as I said, and then I'm happy to answer questions after that. So the example I want to take is the Truman Scholarship, which as I mentioned, is federal money for people who are going into public service careers. It has three main legs. And that's always a good thing to look at. What are the, what are the legs, what holds up the application? What are they looking for? And in the case of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, it's looking for academics, leadership, and service. And those are our typical, those are not unusual criteria. The academics has to do with both your past and present academic work and also your long-term goals. So as I mentioned before, if you want to go into medicine, but you see yourself working in public health. Are you thinking about maybe a master's in public health to supplement that medical school degree. Or if you're looking at law school and you want to go into public service. Had you looked at law schools that where that's a strength. I mean, most law school curricula are, are similar, but there are schools where they focus on that a little bit more than, than others. So have you thought about that or again, maybe maybe you're going to get a master's degree jointly with your law degree or, or, or before or after. But it would help you be the kind of public servant you, you hope to become. So, your academic record that will include transcript and of course, letters of recommendation and I can talk about that in a moment. And your academic plans - so that we see you have some sense of how to do what it is you say you want to do. You don't want to give what I call by Miss America answer of like I want to save the world, but have no idea of how you might do that. Let's see. Most folks make inquiries about scholarships. I would say six months before the application is due. Most applications are due in the fall, which means that. You'd probably be contacting me the prior spring. So say there were an application you wanted to complete in the fall of your senior year? Probably the best timing would be to talk to me in the spring of your junior year. And we we know that they're going to be some changes. For one thing, you're going to accumulate more and more material that's applicable. Have more grades, have summer job. But can you might also change your plans and we take that into consideration. But that's much better than trying to work up something at the last minute, because most of the applications or lengthy all of them require personal statements. And those should definitely be well-crafted and well-written and not simply rewrites of med school or law school or graduate school applications. I mean, obviously there can be overlaps amongst those. But to experienced readers and everyone who reads these are, is an experienced reader. It's pretty clear when this essay was written for some other purpose. So anyway, the point is to give yourself time to, to write. Let's see. So let's say you talk to me in April of your sophomore year and said, you know, I and I do plan a career in public service. I'm interested in this Truman Scholarship. I'd love to have $30,000 for graduate school. Like who wouldn't. The Truman even has a question about like... Would you make a good Truman Scholarship applicant? or Would you make a good Truman Scholar? And one of the criteria is, I would like $30,000 for graduate school. So there's one that you can just check off. No, no worries. But you and I would talk about your, your plans, the strengths and weaknesses that you see. That I see. We would talk about possible letter writers. That can be sometimes a bit of an involved conversation. Because sometimes you need a lot of letter writers. With the, with the Truman Scholarship you need three and three to four is typical. But some require only two, some require anywhere from five to famously eight. But that's actually not a requirement, is just an upper limit with a requirement of five. And that's for the Rhodes Scholarship. So there's a lot to, to talk about. Most letters are most everyone to have letters from Cornell faculty. But it does not have to be exclusive to Cornell faculty. It can be faculty who know you from other places. Maybe you did some summer work or maybe you're a transfer student that can be more than fine. I mean, that can show some breadth. It's that can be interesting in an application. People who have supervised you as an in employment as long as they're not writing, just the oh, you did a good job. I mean, we we have to have letters that indicate that they really know you and and aren't just writing like sure hire him. But, but many employers, right? Really fine letters for these applications and show us something about the candidate that we wouldn't see otherwise. So that can be helpful. It can sometimes letters and this is going to depend on the type of scholarship, but sometimes letters from community members, people who've overseen you in leadership or service roles, people who know perhaps a passion of yours. So it could, such as a coach, music instructor, a conductor of an orchestra, a variety of people who know you in, in some other way. And again, whether you would go to say, a music instructor or a choral director or the person who taught you how to throw pots. We would talk about that. I mean, those are typical sources of letters for scholarships where you need a lot of letters, chances are for, say, a very science oriented scholarship that only needs two or three letters. You're not going to go to folks like that. But, I just bringing it up so that you think very broadly and creatively about possibilities. If you are applying to something early in your academic career. So as a junior, maybe, and certainly as a sophomore, then it's possible you would look back to high school and to a teacher or an advisor who knew you really well. I usually advise against that. For seniors who are applying for post Cornell opportunities. Because usually that's just hearkening back to FAR. If however, that's been an ongoing relationship, you know, maybe you had a social studies teacher in high school. You did public service work with that person. And every summer when you go home, you still do public service work with that person. So now that person is known you for several years, some high-school plus your Cornell career. That, that could be a terrific letter because that person knows you over a long period of time, was your teacher and now is someone who either advises you or is just a, a fellow worker on a community project. So there can be a lot of different possibilities. As I said, I'm happy to talk to you about those possibilities for the scholarships that go through my office. I do give you a little one-page memo that I asked you to give your letter writers. So that they are reminded what the letter is supposed to do and they have my contact information and so forth. I mean, it's not anything that's really necessary, but it's just a way for me to reach out to the letter writers without interfering in that process. I do always treat the letters as confidential. Whether you waive your right to see them or not is up to you. And certainly your letter writer can choose to show you the letter if he or she wants to. That's that's private between you and the letter writer, but I will treat them as confidential so I won't share them with you. And I share them only with the campus committee readers. And then of course, obviously with the readers for the, at the national level. Let's see. So going back to the example of the Truman Scholarship, in, in that particular instance, we've got three letters, one academic, one service, one leadership. You and I talk about your career plans. How you see yourself as someone going into public service, whom you might ask for letters of recommendation. We make sure that this sort of fits, you know, the timeline and and so forth. And then sometimes people work a bit closely with me. Maybe show me some material and ask for my advice. You know, like is this a pretty good answer to this question? I can give you some help with that. That will depend a little bit on my workload and how much time you give me a head to read that material. It can also depend on the strictures of the foundation or the scholarship. There are a few scholarship organizations and the Rhodes Scholarship is most famously now known for that, that in the last ten years have put restrictions on that. Basically had said, when you write your essay, don't ask anybody else for help you and you have to sign something saying that you didn't get any help and I have to sign something to that effect. I take that seriously. I expect applicants to take that seriously. There are a few scholarships where they are insisting that you document that you didn't receive any help. But those are exceptions. Most of them let you get some feedback. And, and usually that means you write a draft and say, Hey, does this look good? And and I say, yes, but when we talked, you told me about the fact that you coach swimming and I don't see that anywhere. Is that important to you? Because if it is, maybe you want to include it. I'll give you some sort of feedback, like, like that. I don't do blue line editing. I don't do close... well, I mean, once in a while I see a typo and I say, hey, that's not how you spell the word receive. But, but I don't, I don't have, I don't have the bandwidth for that. So I would expect you to do that or have someone else do that for you. There are before the applications that I handle, there is always a campus deadline, which is usually six to eight weeks, roughly before the foundation deadline. So say with the Truman Scholarship, that's something that's due usually around February 1. I would have an application deadline for you for the campus process, either at the very end of the fall term or very early in January. And then and that's the first one you have to meet. I do ask always for full applications. If you talk to friends at other schools, you might find some fellowship offices have internal application forms that are kinda like partial application forms. They don't make you do a whole thing at a time. But I don't do that. I make you do the whole thing at a time, for a variety of reasons that I won't go into now. So you would submit that. Ask your letter writers to submit their letters. You submit a transcript. And then that, that material goes to a campus committee. I have these are always faculty and occasionally some staff members, depending on their expertise. And they are instructed to select applicants based on the criteria of the foundation. We don't have any preference by college, or major, or year, or anything like that. We pretend we're the Truman Scholarship people and we're out to give out some good Truman's Scholarships. You know, what does the what does the application need to show us? That's how but those folks are going to read those applications. And that's true for, for every scholarship I handle. Those committees change a little bit from year to year, although I do have some faculty members who have served on them for a long time. I can share with you who those faculty members are. I don't keep that a secret. But I don't, you know, I don't expect you to go talk with those people are or lobby those people or anything like that. Most of the campus application processes do not have campus interviews. The Marshall and the Rhodes which are about the well-known scholarships that are due very early in the fall do have campus interviews. Although last year, because of the COVID pandemic, I waved those and kind of it actually remains to be seen how I'm going to handle that this year. But I think I might be waving them again. But but obviously those are those are exceptional circumstances. So there might be an interview, but for most of the applications there is no interview at the Cornell level. If there's an interview later on. So with the Truman Scholarship, you, you get endorsed by Cornell, your application goes forward and then you get really good news and February that you are a finalist. So out of.. umm, properly about 800 applications, they've narrowed down to about 200 finalists and you're one of them. That's terrific. Then I will definitely help you prepare for an interview and also help you think about other people who can work to prepare you. If we're working on campus in normal times, I would bring together some faculty panels, one or two. Mia might be someone who sits on one of those panels for the Truman Scholarship because she knows a lot about public service and she might be someone who helps you prepare for the actual interview with the foundation. But I try to give a lot of support to people who find themselves deep into the competition and, and naturally want a little bit of, of help in preparation for those interviews. Let's see. My office. So right now again, because of the pandemic, interviews have been last year, interviews were conducted remotely. I know that the Rhodes and Marshall, just as examples will be done remotely this fall. Since I'm talking about the Truman Scholarship, if anyone is interested, I don't know. They have not announced yet if they will be handling those interviews remotely, those won't happen until March. I would guess frankly that everything this year will be done remotely. But why I bring that up is if you need to travel to an in-person interview for a scholarship that's handled through my office. Make sure you, you tell me that.In the in the past we've always been able to reimburse people for their travel expenses. I'm not promising that right up front because every year that will depend on my budget and how many people are requesting that reimbursement, so forth. But up until up until the pandemic, we've always been able to do that. So my point is, if you were a college an athlete, we would be paying for you to compete at another school in soccer or football or tennis or, or what have you. You are in some regards, an academic athlete, if you are a Truman Scholar finalist and Cornell is going to pay for you to represent it in that competition. So don't worry about the money part of it. It is the case that we reimburse you. I can't usually or I've never been able to forward you the money ahead of time. But they're not even going to do that for me or for Mia if we're going to conference. So.. Right, Mia, they don't give us the money ahead? So it would be reimbursement, but it's usually turns around in four to six weeks, that's not too, too long. So anyway, if you go to the interview, you do a great job. Within a few weeks they announced the scholars, I mean, sometimes they announce what again with the Rhodes Scholarship, they announce right there after, after everyone has interviewed. But most of the time there's a bit of lag, maybe a week or two or three weeks. And then they announce all the scholars and you say, Hey, I won a Truman Scholarship. They usually tell me too about this. Sometimes even a little early, but sometimes at the same time as they announce it for you. And, and then I would do when you have a party or we go to lunch, we... I do press for you and we're all very happy and thrilled about that. And you go and you thank your letter writers. That's it. That's one thing I want to make sure that you do. And then and after there actually, then it's between you and the foundation. I did this actually in the last month, have a student write to me about a scholarship he had won. And there was there seemed to be some confusion with the with the Financial Aid Office and I needed to get into that a little bit. But usually I let them cut you a check or give money to Cornell and, you know, they get supplied to your bills or however they deal with it. That's that's kind of that's beyond me. But as I said, we we have a party or we have a luncheon, or we do something fun. And that's the, the main thing at along with the publicity. So let me stop because because it's about 10 of 5 and see what questions you have, I would prefer to answer questions that are a little more general or that you could imagine being applicable for, for other folks. And if you have something really personal like, Well, this is what I did. Would I be a good candidate? That would be something that you can e-mail me or or schedule an appointment for. Mia, can I, can I add anything or can I answer any questions you might have? I think you did a good job of proactively answering a lot of the like FAQs. So that was great. I did as you are talking, put in the chat, a bunch of links to different things. So those of you who are just kind of like folding your laundry or whatnot while you're listening. You might want to check out the chat and grab some of those links for things like how to schedule an appointment with Beth or where to get help with your writing. You know, on that more of like proofreading grammar level as opposed to best feedback about content. So put a lot of links in there. Feel free to check those out. I haven't seen any questions in the chat, but Beth and I will stop talking for a second. If anyone wants to unmute and actually asked the question aloud, feel free. That's a lot of information. Yes, it is. I downloaded a lot on you. That's that's fine. Okay. Mia, I'm I'm seeing what you've sent. So that's what's trifold. Yeah. So question about setting up meetings. Essentially, if you'd like to talk specifically about fellowships, the best way is to just go on the Career Services scheduling link that I put in the chat there, the only person that is attached to the fellowships category is Beth. So you can you can schedule right through there. It'll link you up with her calendar directly. If you are exploring different career options or not sure if you want to go to grad school, more of those kind of, I guess a pre fellowship type things. You could also meet with some of our other advisors. Like Beth mentioned, I do a lot of work with students interested in public service, whether that's government or non-profit, sustainability, teaching, that sort of stuff. We also have a pre-law, pre-health. We have lots of different advisors for different things. So as you're not sure yet about whether fellowships is even in near future, you're welcome to meet with somebody else first. And we can always say that's a good question for Beth and you can meet with her as well as if need be. So yeah, that is a great site scheduling tool for any advisor in our office. And keep in mind that you also have Mia and I are both in the Central Office in Barnes Hall, but you also have a career office in each college. So if you're an engineering student, you've got an engineering career services office, if you're in Human Ecology, you have one. So keep in mind that there are other folks, especially maybe early in your career, in your academic career, when you might have a lot of questions that are college specific or major specific. I mean, not academic questions, but, but ones that are career oriented. So there are a lot of, for better and for worse, there are a lot of people to talk to. No shortage of help and we can always refer you elsewhere if need be. So just start somewhere. Don't, don't struggle alone is the bottom line. Right. Right. I can also say since we have a little time, I while I do ask people to send me a resume. I don't really care if it's in rough shape. I'm not doing resume critiques. I'm not saying, oh, well, they didn't have a resume put together. So are they ready? I mean, just, you know, it's just so that I have some information and I can start off and I'm not advising blindly. But don't, don't worry if if there's a problem with it or you don't think, Oh, I've got to first get a resume critique before I talk to the Fellowships Advisor. It it's just going to be an internal thing between the two of us. That's, that's fine. And I'll just say from a colleague perspective, Beth is a very relaxed person. Even though these are really competitive fellowships, she's not going to be like, oh, what a terrible resume. This is a horrible. So I guess I'll just reinforce that, that she's here to help you be the best applicant you can be. So don't, don't feel intimidated just because she does these fancy competitive fellowships. And I'd say Beth is a pretty down to earth person, so don't be afraid to ask questions of any kind. Thank you. Thank you. And speaking of that sort of thing, if... how do I want to put this - separate for yourselves your goals and what you really want, from your confidence level or what at the moment you think you could do. Because I find students, even though they're really bright and really mature, not the best judges of whether they are good for these sorts of scholarships. In fact, the person who waltzes into my office and says, Hello, I'm your next Marshall Scholar. In my head, I'm thinking probably not. And I'm not saying, you know, you need to be shy and self-effacing to win one of these scholarships. But it's a very hard thing for a student to judge. And, and, and I don't have a crystal ball. I mean, I I can't make a prediction, but I can give you some parameters by which he can think about this. And, and if I lean heavily on you and say, you know, I really think you should apply. It's not like I get a $100 bonus for every student I pull into the into the office or anything like that. It'll be because in my professional opinion, this makes sense for you and I guess that would be the bottom line. Is this a sensible thing to do? You know, it's like if you have and I don't mean to hurt anybody's feelings here, but if you have like a 3.5 GPA and you're not sure of your career goals. It's pretty easy for me to say, don't apply for Rhodes Scholarship. That's not within the parameters for you. And that's like, you know, no offense, That's just giving good advice. But if you are on the other hand, looking at opportunities that suit your background, but I'm gonna be happy to, to put those in front of you and help you make the best argument on paper in the application you have. So, and sometimes students do come to me and say, let's then just give it to me straight. I don't care if you hurt my feelings. Just tell me, am I good for this or not? And again, I don't have a crystal ball. I don't make these decisions. I don't make a commit the Cornell level and I will make them beyond that. I mean, I have worked with one of these foundations as a, as a reader for a few years, but I not doing that now. And it's not, you know, it's not something that anyone can count on. But I can say to you, yes, this is a, a good risk to take. It makes sense that you you throw your hat in the ring. It seems like this would be a reasonable thing for you to do. And I'm happy to have a detailed discussion about that. Okay. It's five o'clock. I actually don't have to go until 5:30 or 5:20, lets say because I have another appointment but I do have time if if Mia, if you wanted to stay on with people with few moments were or if we can hang back for a minute and I'm seeing a lot of thank you's in the chat. Oh your welcome. Lots of thanks, But yeah, if anybody has individual questions and wants to hang back, you're welcome to. Okay, good.