The Torske Klubben Fellowship is open to individuals who have an interest in or connection with Norway and/or its culture. Applicants should have a strong, mature, and clearly defined career interest in a specific field, with a sound research or study plan. It provides a stipend of $15,000 for the academic year.
Background
The Torske Klubben, founded in 1933, is a Minneapolis luncheon club of men of Norwegian heritage who are deeply interested in Norway and Norwegian-American history and relationships. The organization funds University of Minnesota graduate fellowships for Norwegian citizens, as well as this award for Minnesota residents who have an interest in or connection with Norway and/or its culture. The overarching goal of the fellowship program is supporting future leaders.
Eligibility
Students currently registered for credit in the University of Minnesota Graduate School who are official state-of-Minnesota residents may apply. The award is open to individuals who have an interest in or connection with Norway and/or its culture. Applicants should have a strong, mature, and clearly defined career interest in a specific field, with a sound research or study plan. Applicants must be able to demonstrate outstanding leadership skills and high academic achievement. Preference will be given to students who earned their undergraduate degrees from a Minnesota college or university, or from a college founded by or associated with Norwegian-Americans, such as Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Recipients are eligible to apply for a second year of support, but award is not automatic.
Selection Criteria
Torske Klubben is interested in supporting students of high academic achievement who show great promise of becoming leaders in their chosen profession and/or in the Norwegian -American community, who have a deep and abiding cultural and/or professional interest in Norway (in a historical or present-day context), and who convey a sensitivity to the future of Norway and Norway-America relationships. Need may be taken into account, all other factors being equal.
Fellowship Amount
A stipend of $15,000 for the academic year. For recipients without another source of tuition support, such as an assistantship, the Graduate School Fellowship Office will provide a Tuition Scholarship for full-time study for the academic year.
Award Policy
Applicants will be notified of the outcome, in writing, by mid-April. Although recipients need not be in residence during the tenure of the fellowship (if, for example, they are conducting research at an off-campus location), they must be registered in the Graduate School for the full academic year.
Application Instructions
Please transmit twelve sets of the following documents to the address below.
1. Torske Klubben Fellowship for Minnesota Residents Application: tkmnapp2014.doc
2. The Project Statement (research or study plan).
*Up to three pages, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman type, with margins not less than one inch.
*This statement should be written in plain English using non-specialized terms that are clear and unambiguous. It should provide sufficient detail to enable reviewers to judge its significance and its feasibility, and should be prepared in four sections:
- A 100-word abstract (summary).
-Background. This should provide a brief overview of the project, placing it in the context of previous work in the profession.
-Goals and objectives.
-Potential significance of the applicant's work. This section should answer the question "So what?" What important new knowledge will be gained; what substantive questions will be answered; and what is the relevance of the project, in the larger context, to the needs of science, technology, the arts, or society?
3. A Personal Biographical Statement.
*Up to three pages, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman type, with margins not less than one inch.
*This statement must be written with great care. It should not simply be a narrative chronological résumé but, rather, it should offer a picture of yourself, conveying a strong sense of who you are as an individual and as a professional.
-It should communicate your personal values and motivation.
- It should describe the influences on your intellectual development that led to your choice of academic discipline and that shaped your long-term goals.
-It should explain your interest in or connection to Norway and its culture, expressing more than a superficial appreciation for Norwegian traditions.
- Above all, it should reveal accomplishment and a capacity for leadership that foretells future promise in the chosen profession.
Advice to the applicant: Carefully review the Selection Criteria section (above). In preparation for writing the Personal Biographical Statement, you may wish to reflect on some of the following questions. What do you believe to be the chief values in the program of research or study that you have undertaken? How will these values affect your professional life in the future? How do you see your plans for graduate study/research affecting your views of relationships between the culture of the United States and the culture of Norway? What traits of good leadership do you most admire?
4. A one-page Statement on Financial Support
(double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman type, with margins not less than one inch.).
The financial statement should briefly describe all prior employment (including graduate assistantship support), listed chronologically, along with all future financial support applied for and/or anticipated. It should also include a summary of any unpaid educational loans or other indebtedness.
5. Graduate and undergraduate transcripts. (Transcripts do not need to be official copies.)
6. Two letters of recommendation.
IMPORTANT: Please provide the following instructions link to your recommendation letter writers:
http://www.grad.umn.edu/fellowships/recommendationletters/tkmn/index.html
