International Scholarships & Opportunities
GW offers a wide range of scholarships and opportunities for students interested in international travel, research and more such as the Chung-wen Shih Scholarship and Short-Term Abroad Programs. This list will continue to be updated as new scholarships and opportunities arise.
Chung-wen Shih Scholarship
Facilitated by the GW College of Columbian Arts of Sciences (CCAS) and the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), The Chung-wen Shih Scholarship is intended to promote cultural exchange between the East and West; especially in medicine and healthcare, among GW students.
Selected participant(s) will each receive up to $5,000 applied to international scholarly opportunities for the 2021-2022 academic year.
Professor Chung-wen Shih received her Ph.D. in English Literature at Duke University and was a Post-doctoral Fellow in East Asian Studies at Harvard University. She was Assistant Professor of Chinese at Stanford University before joining the faculty at George Washington University in 1971, where she was Chairman of the Department of East Asian Language and Literature for over 20 years. Professor Shih published numerous books and produced several film documentaries on China’s modern writers and the Tang culture. She has been a benefactor of the University for many years. In 2014 Professor Shih established an endowed scholarship under the GW Columbian College of Arts & Sciences. The recipient(s) of the scholarship are current or future George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences medical students, such as Pre-Med students who have demonstrated an interest in integrating traditional Chinese medical practices (example: traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, qigong healing, etc.) with Western Medicine.
Eligibility
- Undergraduate students at George Washington University have accepted admission to GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ MD Program through the early selection process and students participating in the BA/MD program; OR
- Currently enrolled medical students and residents at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Application Materials: Eligible applicants should submit the following materials for review
by the committee:
- Resume
- Official transcripts (undergraduate and graduate as applicable)
- Personal statement describing your interest in East-West cultural exchange,
- experiences in Eastern culture, evidence of interest in integrating Chinese medical practices into Western Medicine, and any relevant travel or academic studies that support these experiences or interests. (maximum of 4 pages, double spaced)
- Proposal with a detailed description of your project that includes objectives and intent of the experience, as well as its content, structure, learning objectives, and timeline
- Provide a budget indicating how you intend to use the funding throughout the project
- Provide a letter of support from your project mentor – to include his/her intent to provide guidance and support through the duration of the project
- At least two letters of recommendation, at least one from a faculty member at George
- Washington University.
- A letter confirming that you authorize the Chung-Wen Shih Scholarship Committee to review GW Financial Aid Account information; this email should include your Name and GW ID number.
- Medical students must provide a Letter of Support from your Career Advisory Dean or the Student Affairs Dean.
Timeline
Scholarship Announcement: Oct 20, 2021
Deadline for Applications: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Decisions Announced: Four to six (4-6) weeks after submitting a completed scholarship application. If awarded the scholarship, please plan for an additional six weeks for funds to be processed.
Reporting Requirements
-
A paper describing the scholar’s project, experience, and any results and implications for the project
- A presentation to the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, which may include faculty, students, and the selection committee
Selection Process and Criteria
The selection committee will be composed of representatives from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Applications will be reviewed and scored based on the following:
- Academic Excellence
- Quality and organization of the proposed project (i.e., potential
- to achieve goals and objectives).
- The educational value of the proposed project
- Relevance of project to the mission of CCAS and students’ long term goals
- Quality of the infrastructure and support by the mentor/host
- organization.
- Potential for Success – will take into account factors such as interpersonal skills, professionalism, and leadership.
Contact
Questions and Completed Application Materials should be submitted to:
Genevieve McKenna
Program Manager
Office of International Medicine Programs
2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 308
Washington, DC 20037
Email: [email protected]
International Media Seminar in Paris (SMPA 3195-10) for STAP Spring 2022
The short-term International Media Seminar program combines the excitement of spending spring break in Paris with a unique learning experience, focused on the changing nature of communications media in a new global environment. During the course of the spring break, students will meet with some two dozen international media leaders — journalists, executives, scholars, and government officials. Meetings are held in classrooms, media offices, production facilities and private homes — offering a once in a lifetime behind-the-scenes experience. Free time is also scheduled into the program so that students have the chance to see the sites and enjoy the city.
The three-credit course, SMPA 3195: "Globalization and the Media," is open to all GW undergraduate and graduate students. The program is taught and chaired by Professor Lee Huebner. Questions about the trip and the course can be addressed to Professor Lee Huebner at [email protected].
Both the course and the Paris Seminar are designed to give undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to study the global media landscape from a truly international perspective — not only in theory, but in fact. By talking with a wide array of experts who live and work in a foreign media environment, students are able to see familiar media issues in a new light — even as they become more familiar with other media cultures.
Disability and the Holocaust in Germany (ENGL 3912) for STAP Spring 2022
In the 1980s, nearly four decades after the formal end of World War II, a group of German and American historians began connecting the genocide of 6 million Jewish (as well as Romany, Russian, and gay) people in the Holocaust to the mass killings of 300,000 disabled people in psychiatric hospitals, clinics, and institutions. The “euthanasia murders” began in October 1939 nearly a year and a half before the advent of the “final solution” in Nazi death camps. The research caused a great deal of debate amongst Holocaust scholars due to the fact that medical killings were treated separately from those prosecuted for Nazi war crimes during the Nuremburg trials. Many believe that physician supervised killings in medical institutions counted as treatment for those classified as “lives unworthy of life” (i.e. those diagnosed with physical, cognitive, and sensory disorders and, in the terms of the time, incapable of productive labor). In 2014, following decades of disability activism, the first state supported memorial to those killed in the T4 program opened in Berlin.
The class will grapple with questions of the relationship of medical murders to Holocaust genocide, the struggle to publically memorialize the T4 killings in Germany, as well as consider how this history affects the lives of German disabled people today. The highlight of our reflections will be a visit to Berlin during spring break to experience the historical sites about which we have been reading: the Topography of Terror, the Jewish Museum, Otto Weidt’s Blindenwerkstatte, The Wannsee Konferenz Haus, the Brandenburg Gedenkstatte, the Psychiatriemuseum, Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and Bernburg Psychiatric Hospital. We will also be exposed to the thoughts of German students studying the T4 program, the poetry of American expatriate Kenny Fries, Disability Studies scholar Petra Fuchs, German Holocaust historian Robert Parzer, and disability tour guide (TBA). Our work will culminate with a collective creative project presented to the Dean’s Scholars in Globalization Council in mid-April.