2023 DAAD RISE Info Session

Watch this information session to learn more about the DAAD RISE program and hear from a DAAD RISE alumni! Open to U.S. Citizens and Non-U.S. Citizens, DAAD-RISE offers second-and-third-year undergraduate students in STEM the opportunity to complete a summer research internship at a German university. No German language skills are required, and there are over 500 internships available for this cycle. In their internships, students are carefully matched with doctoral students who serve as their mentors. Previous research experience is not required, but helpful. The application opens on October 15 and closes on November 30. ASU students should apply through ONSA and should contact catherine.salgado@asu.edu

Okay hello everyone we are going to go ahead and get started on today’s session thank you so much for joining us today my name is Katherine Salgado but feel free to call me Katie or Miss Salgado I’m the primary adviser here at ASU um for all things DOD rise which is really

Great um it’s one of my favorite programs that we run here it’s grown exponentially over the past couple years um primarily because ASU students are are such a great fit uh for the program so today’s session is pretty straightforward we have about an hour um I’m only going to be talking for a

Little bit hopefully about 25 30 minutes going into the nuts and bolts of the program um get kind of the FAQs answered and everything on on your half but we also have our lovely alumni who are joining us today and the latter half of the presentation is really their

Opportunity to share a little bit about their dot experience not only the application side of things but but the the technical lab side what was it like living in Germany for the summer tips for applying um and you’ll also be able to ask them questions as well that

That’s by far my favorite part of the presentation I will be recording today’s session as well so it will be available on our YouTube channel by the end of the week so if you know anyone who is interested in the dod Rise program feel free to send them my information send

Them my way the links will be sending out to those who arep to the info sessions as well so that you know anyone who missed today’s session will be able to review it at another time so before we get into the the specifics of the

Program I do like to spend just a minute talking about what our office actually does I you know some folks just kind of stumble upon our office serendipitously you might have gotten an email from me and you’re like hey DOD looks cool but I have no idea what Anza or this office

Even is at ASU so um for those of you who are familiar with Anza welcome you know it’s good to see you again for those of you who are not we are as familiar we are the office of national scholarship advisement so we are located

Um on the Tempe campus in ASU um we are technically located our physical office is located within the Honors College but we service all of the campuses at ASU um undergraduates graduates and even alumni which is pretty cool so if you are currently enrolled at ASU we work with

You so we’re a small office but we are we are Mighty um so if you haven’t heard of us before it’s it’s you know kind of a a hidden corner of the university and in some regards we do our best to try and reach out uh and let students know

About the kinds of opportunities through our office um but we’re highly specialized which is really really cool um we publicize all of the major Awards we work with about 75 or so um specifically for ASU students uh we’re very holistic in our approach approach right so We’ll advise applicants on nationally funded awards

From all campuses starting with um starting with sending out the blast emails to say hey there’s this really cool opportunity based off of what you’re studying you might be interested in it um all the way as you work on your application open an app and start writing start compiling all of your

Materials all of the folks in our office are experts in these individual Awards uh we’re writing specialists in the sense where we read these applications all the time we’re not just managing applications many of us have also either won these Awards uh been panelists uh selection panelists for these Awards or

Combination of those too right so ASU is incredibly lucky that we have the resources to fund an office like this our whole job is to really support your personal professional and academic growth through this experience um a big part of this is essay feedback or material review I will say any sort of

Feedback that we provide on your materials they must be on scholarships that are listed specifically on our website like I said um we are a smaller office but we do service all of the University right so we uh we are limited to the scholarships that are listed on

Our our database you know unfortunately we don’t do like pre-law Premed General scholarship advising for those types of things you probably want to go to The Writing Center or potentially uh handshake Career Services depending on your needs but for anything listed on our website it is fair game we are excited and and

Happy to to help you we get this question a lot about National scholarships right because you the word scholarship sometimes gets a little confusing the difference between a scholarship and a fellowship how are they different from just general financial aid and all of the programs that we work with are highly

Experiential and these are just some of the just the general things that characterize the programs that we work with right the first thing is that they’re competitive in the sense that the application that you submit to DOD or any of the other programs that we work with is generally compete competing

Within a national or an international applicant pool depending on how it goes um now this shouldn’t scare you off necessarily ASU students do phenomenally well at at these kinds of programs the selection rate it varies by program for do specifically it’s anywhere from 15 to 20% I find that’s this ction rate for

ASU students is actually much higher again I think that just goes to the caliber of ASU students the strength of their application as they’re working with us um throughout the course of an application period and just choosing internships that are are well suited to your strengths right um there are these

Awards are also highly specialized they have specific eligibility requirements and they’re highly purposeful so these kinds of scholarships and fellowships always have specific missions and that’s really important as you consider applying to any of these things right it’s not just something that you apply to the night before just because you

Know it sounds like a cool opportunity many of these scholarships are highly focused in the sense in the case of do they’re looking for for folks who are really trying to expand their research opportunities there for folks who are really interested in um German language and culture specifically again you don’t

Have to be a German language minor or or major or anything like that but they want to know why Germany over you know an internship at ASU or anywhere else in the states they want to know in what ways you find it important to be a cultural Ambassador and why you want to

Take your stem research skills abroad as opposed to just staying in the United States um or staying locally right these awards are also fully funded so programs cover a majority of fees including airfare living expenses insurance and food and well of course having a fully funded Grant or an experience is very

Important we recognize especially with you know cost of living going up and that sort of thing um having a fully funded Grant eases a lot of burdens e and evens out the playing field in a lot of ways most of our students who go on these grants the first thing they talk

About is not the money that they received or the you know how much it covered right really the the kinds of benefits of these fellowships and highly experiential programs is the mentorship uh that you receive working with top faculty um advancing your career meeting other people being able

To say you know I worked internationally a lab for a summer um that really sets you up for success as you go into industry as you consider things like uh graduate school whatever it might be that you’re interested in these kinds of opportunities should you go for them and

Even if you’re awarded them um really take it to the next level in terms of um streamlining and advancing your career career and your Technical Training which is really exciting so this is just kind of the overview of national scholarships again this is kind of a big picture in terms of how our

Scholarships are a little bit different from things like financial aid um but we’ll go into that in a little bit more detail okay so like I said this is our office I like to put some faces to names because I do think that’s important um Dr Kyle MOX is our associate Dean and

Director you know we’ll send out emails depending on the kind of program that we specialize in we all have a different set of programs that we tend to be like the primary advisor for um so if you’re interested in do RZ you would be primarily working with me as I am the uh

Sole advisor for all things doise at ASU um but at any point in time you know you might receive an email keep a lookout if you receive an email from Dr Kyle MOX don’t put it in your spam actually consider it right because um we really

Do try and reach out to folks um based off of programs of interest um based off of specializations and you know we’re here to help you um and apply to the awards listed in our database um so we’re always here to to kind of support your

Your goals and that’s the whole point of our office right if you decide to apply to any one of these programs we’re helping you from start to finish and if you’re unfamiliar with our website as well please bookmark us one of the best things to do is visit the

Website Ana o n sa. asu.edu we have a whole scholarship database you can narrow down by field of study um we’ll just be talking about DOD rise today but there are a couple other stem ones postgrad ones if you’ve ever heard of the Goldwater scholarship that’s also very popular with some of

Our stem students so definitely take a look bookmark our page subscribe to our weekly bulletin that is actually a really great way to get to know our office we promise we won’t spam you with information it’s usually about once a week what we tend to do um one celebrate our Scholars uh

In the midst of the Fall applications as deadlines come up and things we send out reminders um any sort of special Awards as well if you know a program comes up with a new award and they’re like hey we have a deadline of four weeks please

Send it to our students we always do things through the weekly bulletin so there’s some really good information and resources in the weekly bulletin definitely sign up for that and you can also make an appointment with myself as you um decide whether or not to apply to

DOD rise and you know you want to do an intake and draft review uh to make an appointment with myself everything can be done directly through our website so definitely have ana. asu.edu on your radar and bookmarked and ready to go so check it out info sessions all that good

Stuff okay uh yeah so let’s get into the the good stuff um about do R so it’s for sophomore and Junior undergraduate students right it’s a summer research internship in Germany basically how it works is that you will be applying up to three internships of you’re choosing um

And you would be matched if you are chosen you’re matched with a doctoral student um who serves as your Mentor so the minimum amount of time to to spend with this program is 10 weeks uh three months maximum anytime after May 15th so May 15th till about August you know up

Until school starts um you have that opportunity if you’re chosen for DOD rise you get to choose with your if you’re matched with a doctoral student you work it out with them your dates um in my experience most people choose the maximum three months it goes by super

Super fast as the alumni can attest um it’s just a great opportunity to maximize that but we do have some students who have their life events you know weddings um family events that sort of thing um just know that it has to be 10 weeks minimum and consecutive right

Right and um most of the projects I would also say are in person um there are very few nowadays that are being offered virtually anymore and that is by and large just the nature the Hands-On nature of the lab work that might be required so every year there’s about 300

Scholarships that are awarded and it’s funded by the German government primarily in order to be eligible like I mentioned sophomore and Junior now I know at ASU that can be kind of tricky with with credits so this basically means um they they use your graduation date to determine second or third year

Status so if you are graduating spring 2025 or spring 2026 you would be eligible fall 2024 would also be eligible right so if you are currently a senior and you’re actually going to be graduating a semester later then that’s that’s a okay the main thing for DOD is

That you go on your Grant over the summer for example and then you return to ASU for at least one semester they just they just can’t have you like graduating for example in the spring and then going on your Grant unfortunately due to how the funding works that’s not possible to

Do the other thing is that US citizens and non- US citizens are eligible so if you’re an international student currently enrolled at ASU you would be eligible for DOD Rise um this is also why this is one of my favorite programs to work with um some of the the programs

That require US citizenship it’s due to the funding source right if it’s through taxpayer or Congress or something um so if you are an international student we get a handful that appli to dot every year so long as you are a second or third year student uh undergrad then you

Would be eligible they also um require a minimum 3.25 GPA but in my experience 3.5 or higher tends to be helpful in terms of um the application process again it’s not the GPA for gpa’s sake really that GPA is mainly um for the purposes of technical skills right they

Really want to know that you’ve mastered some Core Concepts within your degree and your field um so that you’re ready to take on a project that’s a bit more Hands-On um that’s really what the GPA is kind of used to to understand in terms of your preparation for not only

Exper abroad but a more technical experience as well and your major stem major is open biology chemistry physics earth science engineering combination of those uh or closely related fields you know we get like biophysics bioengineer U biomedical all those you know combinations of stem are good to go

Um as long as as long as it’s considered the Natural Sciences um then then all is good okay and the deadline to apply is November 30th 2023 at 3 pm Arizona time so that ends up being you know close to midnight German time all of their times

Are in German but I like to put in a time um just in case right so this application does fall in a busy time of year I recognize that uh the application is also very short right you only have about six or seven weeks to complete this application um which does

Require a little bit of prioritization on your part it’s not impossible to do um in fact I find this application quite feasible um considering the short timeline and turnaround um but it does require you know after this intake after this info session um really sitting down

And thinking what do I want to be doing this summer is this feasible um and you know what are your next steps what are your goals I mentioned before that you apply up to three internships I like to preview this because I think this helps

Um to kind of understand how it works a little bit better better so this year there are 530 available internships offered through DOD rise in order to view what kind of internships are available you have to first register an application right so you can’t just like randomly look at the internships that

Are there and then apply you have to open up an application um and at that point you can start looking through the internships that they have the internships will vary by location field of study and kind of technical skills preferred so you’ll see in the screenshot this is kind of like in the

Portal when you open up your application they’ll have a little button that says find internship offers and then it’ll show you this right so this is um not by any subject area it’s just alphabetical but you’ll start to see some of the titles here um and then to the left hand

Side the different cities right and as you click it’ll have more information about the the mentor the person who is in charge of it what you would be doing what technical skills are preferred etc etc um so it’s actually really exciting it’s not just a general internship that

You just apply to and get matched to after the fact you get to go through this is the fun part honestly is being able to go through all of the offers and really look through okay what projects interest me this is really also um exciting for students who have specific interest in

Technology for example if AI is your thing um there’s all sorts of AI projects going on um and again across Fields across different cities and that’s a big part of the application process and part of my job is to also kind of help you work through your internships internship um options um and

Help you choose up to three if you choose you know you could only choose one if you only see one internship that really interests you that you’re like wow this is really cool and I feel like I would you know be a good fit for it

And it’s just one you’re welcome to also apply to just one um but I always say hey shoot for the moon you can apply up to three um even if they feel like a bit of a reach maybe due to technical skills or just your general interests um you

Might as well right you’re already in in the process so that’s something that we we can talk about more um as we continue on in the process but I always like to preview this for students so you have an idea of like what the internships entail

What that kind of looks like um it does require you to kind of go in and actually start looking at what’s interesting and and see um what you’re what you like um and just know you apply up to three intern ship but you will only be matched with one at the end of

The day so it’s not like you apply to three internships and then you can be matched with all three um basically the The Internship providers will be ranking students you’ll be ranking your internships and as you get matched right then you’ll get pulled out of the the pool based off of

That okay so the perks um one question I get a lot is like do I need to know German do I need to you know be a German minor to do any of these things no no German language skills are required obviously if you are interested in

Learning German great or if you have a background maybe you have family friends there or some sort of tie that’s great um definitely an added bonus but it’s not required in any way um for those who are interested in pursuing language study that is an option through do Rise

Um but again not required a lot of the labs it they depend some of the labs are highly International you know where English is the lingua franka but I have had students who you know were in an all German lab they were the only American student um and that was something that

They had to navigate a little bit obviously they spoke English to them in the lab and that sort of thing um but it just kind of depends right and I think that is part of the process of also understanding The Internship to which you’re applying and finding one that you

Feel like would be the best dued to your your skills and what you’re comfortable with um beyond that DOD rise it’s to me it’s a no-brainer it’s you get a two for one you’re gaining practical work experience you’re you’re working full-time this is not like an EAS you

Know study abroad you know just traveling around you are working in a lab for 40 hours you are completing serious technical work um and gaining valuable work and lab experience but at the same time you’re living in Europe you’re living in Germany it’s incredibly easy to travel around by bus or by train

Um many of our students you know will take the weekends to to travel around Germany to travel around other parts of Europe uh some of them you know you could stay in your city for the whole summer and still have an amazing time so whatever experience you’re kind of

Looking for um this is the two for one right it’s very difficult for stem students just by the nature of the curriculum to often study abroad or take any time off really to be abroad um and then there’s the additional pressure of wanting to have an internship and

Wanting to you know gain that practicality before you grad graduate and for me DOD rise offers that the best of both worlds in this regard um on top of that developing longlasting friendships and Co with colleagues through weekend travel and trips the ASU cohort has been expanding exponentially

In 20122 13 ASU students went to uh Germany through DOD rise this year it was 18 so the number is really ticking upwards um which I think is also an amazing part of the community that has been growing uh community of Scholars and and applicants that have been

Growing um because it just makes it so much nicer uh and faster to make friends and and travel around visit each other to each other cities um and you know do all the fun things that living in Europe provides in terms of the monthly stipend um so you’re given a a monthly stipend

Of 934 so that stipend um is meant to to cover housing and food costs um everything is paid in EUR euros and then you also get health insurance and airfare reimbursement so they cover your airfare and they give you that you know monthly paycheck um it’s meant to cover

You know a comfortable student lifestyle if you are really wanting to live it up in Europe for the summer um you know there are other sources of scholarships and financial aid that are typically offered through your department um if you’re in the on College there are some additional scholarships and stuff like

That that might help kind of pad um the funding so that’s just something you have to keep in mind too in terms of like if you want to travel a ton over the summer or if you’re really sticking to the stien that you’re given that’s something that we can chat more about in

Um a meeting a follow-up meeting of course um most of the things of like additional scholarships for travel related cost and that sort of things um we usually cross that bridge in the spring uh once you know if you’re being matched as well so we don’t want to get

Too ahead of ourselves um but I find that the the dod Rise program itself provides the stien is to live a comfortable student lifestyle you know either on campus or apartment living that’s something that once you get matched you work with your mentor to um to secure um but I find that most

Students will live either on like an apartment housing uh usually the university has a series of apartments for visiting Scholars or International students where you can stay on campus for a small fee or if you prefer to live in a flat with other students off campus

You can do that too um but again that is something that happens once you get matched um and that’s something again part of my role is to help you navigate some of those um things like housing and just making sure you’re you’re set to go once you get matched and you’re set and

Ready to go to Germany there’s also every July a conference in heidleberg where you’re allow where you’re you’re given the opportunity to talk about your research present if you so wish and they give you an additional travel allowance of 20000 EUR to be in heidleberg as well so I

Won’t talk too much about that I’ll let our alumni talk more about that experience but in terms of of perks and how this kind of shakes out in the larger picture um this is kind of like the the broad overview of of do okay so the application as I mentioned is quite

Straightforward very feasible to do within the six to 7even week timeline they require an official transcripts that’s something that you order online through my ASU they do require a copy of your resume or CV um the biggest thing one of the biggest things is the letter of recommendation so they only require one

Letter of recommendation but it must be from a PhD in a stem field and preferably related to your major okay so it really is it has to be a PhD from a stem field unfortunately you know maybe you have a human event teacher in the Honors College or you’ve taken some

Humidities classes um maybe you took you know a German 202 class and you’re like can they write a letter unfortunately no dot is pretty strict on it being a PhD in a stem field um that can be kind of tough especially if you’re a seconde student and you’re just now getting into

Your your core classwork maybe you kind of know a professor that’s something that we can chat a little bit more during our intake meeting as well uh what your options are in terms of recommenders do does accept co-signed letters so let’s say you’re in a lab you

Work maybe a little bit more closely with a graduate student or a postdoc you are welcome to get a letter of recommendation from them so long as someone with a PhD co-signs it right so cosign letters are okay if that’s the case um but preferably it must be a PhD

In a stem field and unfortunately if you don’t have anyone um yet who is able to write a letter of recommendation on your behalf that fits those criteria then it might be worth waiting especially if you’re a second year student it is um likely that you’ll have to wait until

Your third year to apply which is no big deal that happens a lot where students are like oh man like I just really don’t have someone who who could do that I might have someone um if that’s the case don’t worry about it be here next year

Um a lot of students will you know hear about this opportunity in their first or second year and then apply as a junior um but if you do have someone as a you know as a sophomore who can do it definitely throw your hat in the ring

Because you can apply to dot as many times as you like we have a lot of students who reapply if they don’t get it um we also have students who reapply if they do get it so I’ve had students who have won a DOD rise award multiple

Years in a row uh their second and their third year and they’ve they’ve gone two summers in a row to Germany which is really really cool so one letter of recommendation they do require three cover letters one for each project like I mentioned you can apply up to three

Internships so each one requires a separate cover letter um and then there’s also an enrollment verification form which is a form that you get from the ASU registar and a list of courses for the spring so they ask you to just write down in a word doc hey what

Courses are you registered for the spring and you upload that so the majority of the Rev izing and material review that I do with uh DOD rise applicants is really on the cover letters because um You Know cover letters it’s it’s an interesting genre

It is kind of like a cover letter in the sense of like one where you’re applying to a job but there’s some other considerations right there’s cultural considerations because your audience is not necessarily American in fact they’re either German or um International um that’s something in terms of cultural considerations to

Writing a cover letter um there’s also some other things in regards to what kind of technical skills you’re you’re bringing into the picture ways in which you can really strengthen your cover letters to stand out these are the kinds of things that we talk about in our

Drafting and review meetings um so that is also one of the main benefits of applying through our office is that you get kind of the fast trck into like the review of of cover letters to make sure your application’s as strong as it possibly can be

Okay so for timeline I like to give a visual uh of the timeline because again it goes by really quick the application opens October 15 we’re having info sessions virtually all this week October 24th and 26th then you have about six weeks where you choose if you’re going

To apply this cycle you’re going to be choosing your three internships drafting your cover letters and requesting your letter of recommendation and then November 30th the application closes and again that happens you know it falls along Thanksgiving break uh you want to look at your calendar to look at your

You know your midterms any sort of tests that are coming up again it does require a little bit of planning ahead I do not uh recommend that any of you try and um submit you know the night before or anything I mean you’re welcome to but it significantly lowers your chances of of

Winning right students who work early who really plan ahead it’s not about just sitting down for six hours on a Sunday and cranking it out um these kinds of programs and especially the dod Fellowship is about small Cuts right drafting a little bit at a time getting

A little bit of feedback coming back um and meeting multiple times and short bursts on your application materials and that’s really what’s lends yourself to more success and in the five six years that I’ve been working with this program um students who start early and chip

Away at it um have a much less stressful experience um and you know in general just feel more confident about the application that they submit okay so uh in terms of timeline and next steps this is what it’ll look like if you’re applying to dob this cycle so you’re currently here in step

One under info session so you know we’re confirming your eligibility you’re learning about the program you know a little bit about the materials that are required um we’re going to be hearing from alumni in just a little bit and then know General FAQ will also have

Some time at the end to make sure your questions are answered in that regard after the info session if you’re like yeah I’m eligible this sounds like a really cool opportunity your next step will be to open up an application so to register an application you can go

Honestly if you just Google rise Germany uh it’ll be one of the first things that pop up and you’ll be able to select application portal and go ahead and register an application in that way um you can also search available internships at this point you want to

Open up an app in order to see what internships are available and so you’ll start uh narrowing down and ranking your options at this point you know you might have like 10 options or even five right ideally we’re narrowing it down but you’re window shopping at this point

When you’re opening an app you’re looking at what’s available to you um and coming seeing hey actually there’s quite a few internship that I’m interested in it’s looking good right so familiarize yourself with the do portal start W down notes additional questions related to a portal or internship if

Anything comes up your goal is to find internships that suit your interests and skills and just you know keep in mind that three is the magic number you can apply to a maximum of three I’m also going to uh add the links in the chats for your convenience so to register an app

You have the link and then also to make an appointment just do so directly through Ona okay cool okay so you’ve opened up an app at that point you find a few internships you say hey that looks really interesting I’m ready to do an intake so the intake is

Required first meeting with me it’ll be in a small group setting over Zoom um in this session we’ll be talking about the internships of interest that you have found we’ll be talking specifically about letters of recommendation right so maybe you have a few people who could

Write you a letter of wreck we’ll talk about that um maybe you’re you’re like I have this person they don’t know me too well should I still ask them you’re kind of in that phase of like let’s clarify some of these materials um and that’s your opportunity we’ll be going through

The portal together and really sifting through like some of the factors for consideration right so maybe you found two internships that really are cool and you’re like one’s in Hamburg and one’s in Berlin what’s the difference we also talk about you know the cities and kind

Of what we’re looking for if we want a big city experience small City experience that sort of thing it’s also nice I like doing it in a small group setting it’s really um a great way to meet other students to kind of gain a better idea of like what other folks are

Interested in why they’re applying to DOD um again everyone will come from different levels of research experience I’ve had folks who have had no research experience when dot Awards um as well as folks with extensive research experience when dot Awards and anywhere in between

Right so um in that sense a good way to kind of get a feel for which internships are a good fit given your your academic training as well as your your Technical Training okay so when you do an intake with me it’ll be about 45 minutes over

Zoom um you should have an application open at that point at the end of our intake you know you’ll want to decide whether you will officially apply again you don’t have to play in that moment you know it’s not a big deal if you don’t you can say hey I need

Another day or two to think about it just email me it’s all good um but if you are like yes I’m all in I’m ready to apply let’s go um I will add you to our dad canvas page so the canvas page is really a way for me to to keep track of

All of our active applicants the canvas pages is a resource page where I have a ton of stuff you know examples um things to help you know support your cover letters uh you know how to order a transcript all the nuts and Bulls all those nitty-gritty logistical question

Questions that you might have on your application all of that’s in the canvas page right but that’s only for folks who are actively working on applications for this year um unfortunately I do not add you know if you’re a first year student and you’re like I just want to check out

The canvas page unfortunately I can’t add you to it you got to be an active applicant because for my sake I need to be keeping track of everyone who’s who’s applying and who’s not applying right um so after the intake you’re on the canvas page and then it’s drafting so the the

Drafting experience is a follow followup meeting as you draft and revise it’s a rinse and repeat type of thing right because you have three cover letters so um within each meeting we’re only able to revise one cover letter um so that’s why I’m saying like it’s about just you

Know short bursts of applying revising um and being in the meeting right these are also small group settings so no more than four people can sign up at a time over Zoom uh basically you show up you bring a Google doc of your cover letter and you’ll receive comments from myself

I add comments to everyone’s drafts um but we also do some peer review so it’s nice because you are also reading through other people’s cover letters and giving them advice again it’s a great way to meet other applicants uh read cover letters kind of getting an idea a

Lot of students are like oh I really like what they said there or that’s a great idea I forgot to include like my qualifications in this way or that I you know I have a cousin in Germany that I then I you know want to visit you know I

Want to add that you know it’s just a really great way to get a better understanding of your own application and help others with theirs as well right improve your writing and editing skills I think there’s a lot to be said about writing in a more communal aspect everyone’s cover letters is is

Going to look different and sound different and that’s okay that’s great that’s the best part of it um but it’s also nice not to do things in a vacuum I find that many of these these programs it’s it’s easy and oftentimes we’re conditioned just by the nature of the

Academic writing that we do to just write in isolation we type something up real quick and we send it to our professor we upload it to Canvas and don’t think about it we get a grade and we move on but for Fellowship applications and things like that it’s

Quite the opposite right it’s about starting early it’s about getting that crappy first draft in revising um just kind of chipping away at it because again there’s no grade but the reward is is great in the sense where you’re working towards a much longer term goal

Of being able to spend the summer in Germany and that does take time and and we’re excited to help you in that sense okay and this is just a quick preview of the dod canvas page as well so when you’re added to it um we have all these different modules program

Overview additional Insight on selecting an internship cover letters letters of recommendation right um but canvas access is only for those who have completed an intake with me and who are actively applying this cycle um if at any point you’re like hey it’s not going

To work out I opened up an app and I started working but I can’t I can’t finish it no harm no vou we’ll just take you off the canvas page so we don’t pester you with announcements but yeah canvas page is is arguably one of the

The best parts in addition to the group review canvas page is extremely helpful uh to getting your all your questions answered okay so we had like I mentioned we had 18 ASU grantees in 2023 all all different fields of study we’re across Germany just really really cool I’ve enjoyed seeing how the program

Has grown not only at ASU uh and just across you know how the program has dotted expanded as well uh ASU students are definitely on the map for do you know they’re very excited to receive large numbers of applications um from our institution and they’re really keen on collaborating

With us as well so if you’re on the fence at all in terms of applying to this opportunity I strongly encourage you to not count yourself out I mean so long as you are eligible in all of the senses um and you’re looking at internships that seem really interesting

To you I encourage you to really give yourself that chance give yourself that shot bet on yourself uh work with our office because you just never know what’s going to happen right um I’ll give you the little graph I mean it’s really shot up there’s that little dip

In the coid period right where a lot of uh programs were deferred at that time but even since 21 and 22 it’s just shot up like crazy so I’m very excited to work with all of you um should you apply because that’s it’s so fun being able to work with students from different

Backgrounds and uh fields of study as they’re working on their applications okay so I’m gonna give a quick pause right there um if anyone has questions regarding some of the more nuts and bolts of the the application that I didn’t already answer feel free

To throw them in the chat um I am going to uh bring it over to cam and naha are you guys here yes Okay hi guys okay cool um I’m gonna kind of leave it up to you guys I have these questions here if you guys could just just quickly introduce yourselves you know like name what you’re studying all that stuff um and I’d love for us to

Have more of a an open Forum in terms of like just tell us about your internship we’ll start there and then you know as you’re sharing if folks have any questions feel free to throw them in the chat and uh we’ll go from there does that sound

Good okay I can go first hi I’m n and I’m studying computer science um I’m about to graduate this year so I’m a senior and um cam over to you yeah hi everyone my name is Cameron I’m also a senior I’m in environmental engineering um I did Dad rise a summer

Ago so in 2022 um and then I worked with applicants last year and I also work with applicants uh as an official dad Ambassador for other dad programs just as a quick shout out if you’re interested in in Germany but in a different capacity um

Yeah cool thanks y’all um so tell us a little bit about your internship where were you living give us give us the scoop kind of um what was your experience like okay um so my internship was last summer and I was working at the cognizance research group at humble

University in Berlin and our primary focus was human computer interaction and it was a really small research group and they were pretty new so I got which meant I got a lot of focused mentorship which was one of the best parts of the internships for me um and my project was

To work with mixed reality and safety critical environments and specifically that meant um using augmented reality to reduce um the risks of distracted driving and because it was such a small group and specifically inum computer interaction um it’s easy to have a project be almost close to complete uh

Like completing a project in like two months or 3 months is um pretty common in that field so uh my research project was almost like a personal project in terms of I got to um decide everything from like the topic to how I was going to set up the study to how everything

Was going to be run um unlike a lot of other science projects where you know interns play a role in an already existing project I got to start everything from scratch and build it all the way um which is very rewarding um so I got to build a driving simulator an

Augmented reality app and the entire study so that’s kind of my about the internship so I did um a little bit different kind of work mine was more catalysis and Engineering um so I was at Tu fryberg in East Germany kind of North East Germany which is a little bit

Different from all the rest of Germany um but I can talk about some of the differences with like culture later um I was at a reaction Institute so everyone around me was doing a lot of reaction engineering chemical engineering and Material Science um which was just a

Really great kind of um environment to be in and so for my project I was working on developing catalysts to reduce nox and convert it nox is harmful um it causes acid rain and another a number of other um issues for adverse human health effects so I was working on

Converting nox into a ner nitrogen uh one of the big issues is that when you convert nox a lot of the time you convert it to n2o which is another harmful product so we were trying to selectively convert it not to n2o but instead just a nitrogen so I was

Learning about uh how to do synthesis of catalysts which was something I’d never done before a lot of mixing different chemicals together which was just really fun and learning about the whole process um and then a bunch of characterization techniques which have stayed with me throughout this time and I’ve used them

In other research and I plan to use them in grad school as well so I learned a lot of technical skills that I had never done before some I’ve had a little bit of experience um both on Hands-On data analysis characterizations kind of across the board so it was a really

Great um experience and I learned a lot yeah I’d love to also hear just a little bit so technical skills um what was your research experience like going into the application process for both of y’all um I did have a bit of research experience going in um the summer before

I had an Ru um through the National Science Foundation and I worked on a virtual reality project and through the year I also um worked at metor studio lab at ASU but it is important to note that I a lot of the people that I did meet there um did not have research

Experience before this so even if you don’t have research experience just that you’re interested in this field and you have good grades and you know your non research um accomplishments would still be good um for the application yeah so I um did this after my sophomore year so starting a little

Bit earlier um that being said I I think I still had um kind of more than average research experience I started research my freshman year and was published in my freshman year and then sophomore year I had the first semester of research so when I applied I had two semesters when

I got there I had three semesters of research um it wasn’t it was in sort of the same field as air quality remediation or air pollution remediation but um definitely didn’t have anything to do like the technical skills didn’t really cross over a lot so um that being

Said also you don’t really need to have a lot of research experience they really look for drive and um and wanting to be there wanting to do it right and I think that’s a big part of it is just considering you’d be working with a PhD student right so

They’re your Mentor but they also want to make sure it’s less about like just having research experience for the sake of researching experience is not necessarily makes you any more competitive than than the next person it’s also those intangibles of being able ble to work with others being you

Know prepared to be in a lab um being flexible and open-minded and all of those things I think also come into play when it comes to the dod experience and to Cameron’s point right the research that you may be doing may not be directly related to the project that you

Choose or get matched with for DOD in which case you’re still picking up new skills and some students will say hey I actually chose this internship because I think it would be challenging because I’ve never done this before um and those are those are all great reasons too so I

Think that’s also why not coming in with a ton of research experience isn’t necessarily a bad thing or makes you less competitive um I’d love to hear also just what did you do outside the lab work life balance what was it like living in Germany for the

Summer um I think honestly Germany was probably one of the time or when I first really experienced work life balance um I think it’s safe to say that um my co-workers were all amazing we’d get lunch together all the time and then this was my favorite part

We’d have you know we’d come into the lab I mean not too early was around like like 10ish and then we’d get lunch around noon and then between noon and when we leave we’d also have an ice cream break and ice cream is such a big

Part of the German culture and um that was that was great and you’re almost encouraged to take um Fridays off and travel over the weekend and see different places um and I we’d also get dinner together as a research group um so work life balance was was

Amazing yeah I’ll Echo that um without the ice cream though that’s disappointing um but yeah I would get into Lab at around 8:30 to 9:30 in the morning um it definitely got later on as the as the summer went on um and then I leave around anywhere from 3:30 to 5:30

Depending on if I had experience that I was running or just could go back and do data analysis um so very flexible it really depends on your project and how much you need to do kind of in the lab or go out in the field or or you can

Just do it back at your apartment or whatever um work life balance was amazing uh I was also encouraged to take time off and travel I traveled almost every weekend um and so I guess I’ll kind of jump into the next question um I traveled around Germany a lot to a lot

Of different cities um all the big cities and then a lot of the small ones that were close to fryberg um I also went into Czech and went to Prague and then also to Austria and a little bit of a story with with Austria my roommate

And I went to munic and so that’s in kind of Southern Germany and then Austria is very close um I’m a big fan of James Bond I don’t know if anyone else is here but there’s a museum at one of the top of an Alps mountain in

Austria so it’s took a three-hour train from Munich into Austria a 1-hour bus and this was by myself I don’t speak German or anything uh my roommate does but he wasn’t there so three-hour train one hour bus uh and then I took a gondola or two different gondolas to get

To the top of the Alps mountain and went through this Museum um almost before it closed so I had to go kind of quick but it was amazing and then went all the way back on myself and it worked out I lived um it was a great experience that I I’ll

That will stay with me me for a while and I have some different merch that I bought there too um but traveling around Germany was really easy the train system is amazing um and yeah so definitely traveling encouraged um to experience the culture as well as lab

Work I guess I’ll also talk about my uh travel experiences um I did travel a lot but I think not as much as other people who did um I know some people from ASU that did make it a point to go to a different country every

Weekend um and they had a they had a phenomenal time the thing is I don’t know if I can run on that little sleep and usually they take like Fridays and Monday like part of Monday off and travel over the weekend and go straight back into work um I couldn’t do that and

Also another thing is um I lived in Berlin and Berlin is a very happening place I mean it could be a country on its own so um I didn’t feel the need to travel every weekend um there are um my roommate broke Brook actually was also a

Recipient this um this last cycle and she lived in a smaller City so um to see things and you know experience stuff so she had to leave her City so I didn’t feel the need to so she’d come up to Berlin to see me a couple times and that

Was a great time and but I did visit a few different places um we went to Belgium Amsterdam um Poland and um I spent a couple days in Austria in the end um but yeah uh I don’t know I don’t know it was it definitely wasn’t as easy

As it was for Cameron with the train system definitely missed a couple trains it took me it took me a good time to learn that um I don’t think um the states not having very good public s or public transportation helped me prepare for that but um after a couple weeks I

Think I got around to it there was one time when I was trying to go to Newberg where I do have um cousins who live there and in the last like four 4 minutes before the train was supposed to arrive they changed the track in which

It was going to come and I was just casually sitting and you know airpods plugged in and reading my book and this is one of the faster trains that you have to pay for and it’s not covered by your like 449 EUR ticket or whatever and

And I was just like reading my book and I’m like oh wait it’s time for the train to leave and I look over and this train is leaving from the other track and I’m like oh God but there were some interesting experiences but you definitely get get used to it and it was

It was an amazing time traveling yeah I think there were there were definitely delays and we had to Sprint from one train to another but it it generally worked out yeah I mean if anything they make up for great stories so it’s all worth it exactly exactly and

I should have preface my town is very small you can bike across it in probably like 15 minutes or less so we needed to get out of there um it was beautiful though and so we definitely spent a lot of time there but yeah being in a place

Like Berlin there’s a lot more to do and so we went to Berlin as well and it was amazing so it also depends on kind of where you are yeah Berlin was also great because everyone in the program wants to come to Berlin so you naturally get to

Meet all the other interns because everyone wants to come see your place and I think by the end of it I was being a little tour guide of Berlin I knew all the like good food places and what trains to take but yeah so we do have um some questions

About housing they were talking um some folks are asking about paying for housing I’ll just reiterate that and then n I’d love to just hear about um your housing situation as well because you had it’s a little bit different um so in general for housing the stien that

You receive monthly uh the money that you receive part of that is meant to cover costs of housing obviously the size of the city that you live in um will kind of depend on you know cost of living Berlin is obviously much higher in terms of cost of living for example

It’s kind of like living in a New York City or San Francisco an apartment is just going to cost more than living in a slightly smaller town um so in that regard um choosing sometimes a smaller City can be helpful if you’re trying to make your stipend go a little bit

Farther again that’s something that we chat about in our intake a little bit more um but once you are granted the dod rise award you work with your PhD mentor to secure housing um and so usually students will either try and find oncampus housing where it’s like an oncampus apartment that’s available for

International students or visiting Scholars um a lot of folks will choose to live in an apartment to rent a flat with other International students or other German students kind of up to you um but your PhD Mentor is your point of contact to help you secure that as well

As you know we have a our big Network we have a WhatsApp group as folks um figure out housing and whatnot but I’ll let um Nan n and cam kind of speak more to that to terms of your housing experience um housing was I think one of

The most interesting parts of my trip um it was first of all it’s kind of hard to find housing um I’ll preface that outside so definitely try to work with your U PhD mentor to find on campus housing which tends to be cheaper than any other way um but there are also like

Subletting websites um in which you can rent a room for like a couple months um and that is kind of how I um went about my housing uh the picture on the screen there with uh me and this old lady she’s actually my roommate uh or my

Uh flatmate I lived with um she actually just turned 55 I lived with her for three months and she’s German I just rented a room from her um I found um the the listing on a sub wding website which we can talk about down down the line I

Think um and it was it was a great experience um being able to live with someone that is also German but she was very fluent in English so uh there was no problem in terms of communication but she would speak to me in German so I

Could learn German I did know a little bit of German going in so I would understand the basic things and then when she does get like technical i’ just be like huh but um so I my housing I found through a sub lighting website and um

Yeah um my housing so small town um so it wasn’t too difficult to find but also my PhD Mentor pretty much found it for us I think they kind of got housing for all the um the dad interns um my roommate was someone else from Dad uh he

Went to or I think he graduated from Syracuse so also from the US um he spoke fluent German which was amazing um but the cost was around €200 so it wasn’t too much but again that really depends on what you’re living in because that was a very very small apartment um we

Basically shared one room and uh and it also of course depends on your city mine’s a really small City so it’s going to be a lot cheaper um but yeah I would say don’t worry about it much you’re your Mentor will most likely find it for

You or give you advice on how to find it so definitely you don’t need to stress about that right now yeah the housing cost definitely depends on the place I paid closer to 700 EUR a month uh which was which was definitely pricey but I think it was worth it um me

And Simone still keep in touch we talk once in a while and we’d make dinner together her son was a DJ and he’d come over to have some dinner and he’d invite me to these like you know parties that he’s playing at but it was a good time so

Yeah so thank you for sharing that because I do know that sometimes that can be a little intimidating with with housing and whatnot but that is something that you know myself um the other dods cohort that’s something that we work and also your PhD Mentor being the person who’s actually on site in

Germany um offers a lot of support so that is part of their role um in terms of finding you secure and and safe housing um in that regard I’d love to also just kind of round it out anything else you guys any fun stories you have or just advice for students applying and

Choosing their internships as they’re thinking about DOD um especially for those students who are maybe on the fence about whether or not to apply any sort of kind of words of encouragements or or final thoughts that you might have for them would be would be great I would I think personally um

Definitely capitalize on the help from Anza um you know the info session question that you’re attending is great and then we we also help or um they also help with uh looking over your cover letter which was very helpful for me um Cameron actually read part of my cover

Letter I don’t know if he remembers but um so definitely capitalize on all the resources that are available to you and also um apply to all all three options that you have to different three different Labs um it doesn’t ever heard to apply you’re probably only going to

Be modifying your cover letto by a little bit U because your experience is to remain the same so apply to all three and also demonstrate that you’re generally interested in having an experiential learning experience and that you want to learn a little bit more about Germany yeah so this program is really

Unique um I so as far as I think uh Mado said I talked earlier a little bit about gold water and a lot of people kind of go on and apply to goldw um I was nominated for goldw and then uh more recently nominated for Churchill scholarship um both are kind of national

Scholarships and this program the research I did here as well as just the application process writing the essays getting my ideas down and kind of working through editing helped with all of that and kind of both uh writing essays for then these applications but then also the research and having

International experience um and then I’ve met a lot of people who do research um kind of at like a a High um High Achi research at Caltech at Stanford and almost nobody has an international research experience so I really feel unique when I talk to these people um

And so this is kind of something to set you apart especially if you’re applying to grad school um or a PhD somewhere in the future and so I would say absolutely apply their resources here for you I’m always here to read essays um and uh yeah best of

Luck yeah that’s a great Point Cameron is that having this International experience well yes it’s really fun to be living in Europe and and traveling around and stuff is that these kinds of things definitely come up during interviews job interviews um grad school interviews all of these things where

When all things being equal you have the same amount of technical skills as the other semi-finalists in this pool often times being able to point to hey I actually you know went out of my way to try something new to try something different to get outside of my comfort

Zone etc etc those are often the kind of intangible things that will set you apart in other selection competitions admissions uh down the line um Beyond just being a great way to grow personally to grow your confidence you know it’s not the end of the world when

You miss a train even if you feel a little bit silly but at the end of the day you know um it is a great learning and growing experience uh no matter if you’ve never left the United States before or um if you’re really well traveled this program program I found is

A really you know well suited to whatever your research experience skill level is as well as your travel experience um which is really nice and big big shout out to our alumni who are big part of not only referring folks to applying to this program I know a lot of

Folks are like oh someone in my lab one dot or my roommate appli I want to apply um this is you know part of the the cohort of Scholars that we’re building it’s a big part of the community um and I think that’s also part of ASU right is

To go for things to apply for things because you do have the support so you might as well take advantage of that um as well so thank you again um for all your your support and and stories Cam and N it’s really fun and also just so

Cool that you go you come from you know slightly different fields of study uh experiences was you know now you were in Berlin which is you know huge Metropolitan City cam you’re in a smaller City but you still had really unique experiences like that just goes

To show um how fun dot is and you know special it is in that regard as well okay so I want to be cognizant of time and make sure um everything is good on on that sense we do get some FAQs at the end again um in terms of Eligibility

You must be a sophomore junior as related to your graduation year um so we’re looking for spring 25 or spring 26 in terms of graduation you could potentially have a fall 24 graduation as well and that’s okay doesn’t matter if you don’t have much research experience

Uh definitely apply um it you know so long as you are eligible we I’m excited to work with you on your applications to to Cameron’s Point going through this process early is a really great learning experience um because very rarely do we get the chance to even practice or get

Feedback on cover letters on things like this right like especially in your classes um unless you go to the career services to have someone look at it like most of the times you’re if you’re writing a cover letter you’re doing it like a few days before something is due

Um so this is your opportunity to really hone those writing skills that you will be needing later down the line as you apply to jobs as you apply to graduate schools Etc um and this is you know it’s worth throwing your hat in the ring so just a quick reminder of next

Steps as as folks were saying uh intake session um you’ll want to open up an application um you want to open up an application under the the dod rise uh specifically under their website if you Google rise Germany that will be good you’ll want to narrow down your internships uh that

Best fit your field of studying career goals uh to make an appointment an intake appointment with me you will go to ana. asu.edu and click on make an appointment um I’ll also reiterate that in the chat so you guys have that um and then during your intake appointment

We’ll be adding you to Canvas so long as you’re ready to apply and from that point on we’ll be drafting your cover letters and receiving feedback from myself and peers and alumni and all the people who are here to help support you in your application so um anything else

If you have any questions you’re welcome to email me um directly this is what our it looks like so you know when you go to Anza make an appointment uh if you see this book an appointment do rise in my name you’re in the right place so that’s

What it’ll look like when you when you go to make an intake appointment or draft review appointment and for anything else feel free to email me um at katherine. Salgado asu.edu again my name is Katherine Salgado feel free to call me Katie or Miss Salgado um any of those are fine um

But I’m excited to work with you on on your application um especially so thank you so much for um for joining us today um we have a few questions that kind of popped in at the end I just want to make sure we answer them um if you have any

FAQs we’ll go ahead and ask that or answer those now um we have one program or one question that says do number of individuals accepted at each specific program or just depend on the program yeah so um we had some question about selection rates as well I’d say the

National average selection rate would be anywhere from like 15 in terms of like total number of applicants total number of selected it’s usually around 15 to 20% um but again it depends on the number of internships and the internships to which you apply so for example n’s internship might have had 80

Applications and one person gets accepted right that selection rate is much lower than another place that might have five applications and two people get selected so that’s why I’m always a little bit hesitant to like really rely heavily on the statistics in terms of national selection rates um in total

Total number of applicants versus total number of um those selected because it really does do depend on the internship to which you apply and I think that goes back to choosing an internship being open to maybe a smaller City choosing an internship that suits your skills those

Are the things that are more important than necessarily the selection rate because it will fluctuate depending on the city and depending on the project type I’ll add on something too um sometimes you do have to be careful with small cities um ours so mine is a really

Really small University but we had or we were ranked like the fourth for the most number of applications um which is insane when you have universities in Berlin Munich Etc so um don’t think just because you apply to a small University your chance increases by a lot um and so

Just really apply to projects that you want to do rather than looking at you know where’s my best chance and that’s all also how you have the most fun yeah yeah exactly oh sorry go ahead oh I was gonna say another thing with how the selection process works is that you’re

You apply to a lab and the lab ranks the applicants it’s not the program that selects you right so essentially your application needs to appeal to um your PhD supervisor and the professor that or that is you know offering the internship so as long as it’s appealing to them

Your your chances are much higher so that’s another thing to keep in mind no that’s a great point is that this is actually one of the rare opportunities of you know who you’re writing to so often in fellowships and even in things like admissions for postgrad you’re writing to an invisible

Selection committee that could consist of folks that look like your professor or someone on you know whoever it might be right it might be people from all fields of study or someone who’s directly related to your field of study it’s kind of a mixed bag right but in

Terms of selection you actually know exactly who you’re tailoring your cover letter to which is a great opportunity and in our draft reviews I often tell students I was like this is your chance to nerd out a little bit like you have a captive audience who knows exactly what

You’re talking about in in technical speak like you can really Show Your Enthusiasm through the kinds of conversations and the questions that you have and the ways in which you want to learn through this experience and that’s really cool um and that actually is also what helps your application um be a lot

Stronger right you don’t have to have this vague covered up letter that says like it would be a great opportunity and I’m excited that’s not what we’re going for at all and in our draft reviews we do a lot to kind of tamper that kind of vagueness and really go into the

Specifics of why this opportunity is great for you and why you want to be a contributor right we also have a question about are all of the projects listed at universities uh some of them are I’d say majority of them are but they’re again it changes every year the internships

Change every year there are quite a few projects for example in Aerospace that might be at uh the DLR which is the German Space Center um there are a few uh like biomedical ones or clinical ones that are located in hospitals it just depends but I find the majority of them

Are listed through universities but depending on your major you’d want to check out the internship listings and and see how that plays out okay any final questions for the group in terms of selection rates the one thing I will also uh note that was earlier in the chat that I answered but

I just want to make sure it’s uh on our recorded it’s talking about notifications so you will be um submitting your applications by November 30th and then they will be ranking and sending out all of the applications doing the selection process over winter break typically notified in uh February

Or March I find it’s usually in March around spring break time the latest being early April but most folks hear back from do if they’re selected weight listed or not selected pretty early in the spring season which bodess well especially if you’re applying to multiple internships as most people are all

Right so the chat just got pretty Qui it so I will stop there thank you again uh for all of you for uh coming today and especially our alumni for always being so generous with their time sharing their stories and tips and tricks and all that stuff um you might even see

Them at a draft review or two you never know if I can Wrangle them to read Joel’s cover letters that’s always a fun fun part of the job um but thank you again for coming to our info session feel free to shoot me an email open up

An app make an intake appointment with me let’s get started um for those who are especially excited and eligible ready to get going um and I’m excited to work with you on your application so talk to you all soon have a great rest of your night thanks again I see one

Question uh Mr we got a few more for interviews oh for interviews yes um interviews depend I’ll let cam take that one yeah I was also going to say depends um I was interviewed um but definitely quote unquote interviewed it was much more of a conversation

I asked a buch of questions um and you know you can ask us how to prepare for those a little bit later on but I think the main thing is um why you interested have questions ready to learn more um they’re not going to ask you some sort

Of like technical engineering question I mean they could but I highly doubt it um and so yeah much more of a casual conversation yeah interviews depend on the PHD student so it’s entirely up to them if they want to interview you but if they do usually usually that means um

It’s like a zoom meeting and far more casual get to know you type meeting uh more than like a examination of any sort because quite frankly us students are far more generalized in terms of the Core Curriculum here um like German students are highly specialized starting

As early as 18 so that’s also why they tend not to ask as technical questions because they don’t necessarily expect um students enrolled at us universities to to have that level of technical speak quite yet and if you do great but um yeah it tends to be more of a get to

Know you kind of meeting awesome thank you all for joining us have a great rest of your night um and talk to you soon thanks everyone