How to Go About the GHC Application
Part 2 of “Everything you need to know about GHC” series
Now that you know how by chance I stumbled across the GHC scholarship, let’s move on to the application and the do’s and don’ts with regards to the application.
The application process for the GHC student scholarships is pretty simple and hassle free.
So let’s recap what exactly is GHC?
The Grace Hopper Celebration is the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. It is produced by AnitaB.org and presented in partnership with ACM. GHC 18 will be held from Sep. 26–28 in Houston, Texas.
First of all, all you need to do is click on “apply” button on the GHC website. You will be directed to an application portal where you can create an account, fill out your application form and submit your completed application when it’s ready.
Once you create an account with your basic information (name, email address and a suitable password) you can start filling out your application form.
Here is the link to a sample student scholarship form:
So before we dive into it, let’s take a look at what the scholarship offers to the students:
Student Scholarships Include:
- Individual registration for the three day conference. (Getting a ticket is a very competitive process and to put things into perspective, tickets got sold in 20 minutes when the registration opened up this year!)
- Flight to Houston to attend GHC, booked through an AnitaB.org travel consultant (For most international scholars, this is a very important perk as flight tickets can be really expensive.)
- Hotel accommodations arranged by AnitaB.org (Student scholars will be assigned a roommate and this is a great chance to make new friends and forge new bonds.)
- Visa Processing Fee — (GHC will take care of your visa processing fee which is an added bonus for internationals scholars.)
- GHC Stipend — (If used wisely, the stipend will cover transportation costs to and from the airport, baggage fees, meals, and other travel incidentals.)
Moving on to the application, make sure you meet the student eligibility criteria.
Student Eligibility:
- You must be a full-time student enrolled in an accredited degree program at a college or university at the time of the celebration Those graduating prior to the celebration are not eligible unless accepted to another related degree program (such as a M.S. or Ph.D. program).
- Show satisfactory progress toward a degree such as, but not limited to, electrical engineering, human-computer interaction, math, physics, or management information systems.
- Be able to demonstrate an interest in computer science.
- You cannot have been an AnitaB.org-GHC Scholarship recipient in 2017.
- You must be at least 18 years of age by September 24, 2018.
- You cannot accept more than one scholarship to GHC. (Other companies offer scholarships to attend GHC including Facebook, Twitter, Yext etc. More on this later!)
- If you receive a scholarship and do not notify AnitaB.org that you cannot attend prior to the celebration, you will not be eligible in future years as this takes a scholarship away from another student that could have attended.
Applicant Information
Here all you need to do is fill out your basic information including full name, address, institution name and email address. This will hardly take you 5mins!
Demographic Information
Anita Borg Institute is committed towards bringing in a diverse audience and promoting diversity and inclusion.
Here you need to specify your age, gender and answer details about your background. (You can also decline to answer this)
You need to specify your citizenship and U.S. Residency status as shown in the sample application form here.
Education and Career Information
Details including student type ( Freshman or 1st year, Sophomore or 2nd year, Junior or 3rd year, Senior or 4th year), type of degree, graduation date, institution name, area of study (branch) and technical areas of interest needs to be filled out here.
Pro tip: Indian institutions will most probably not be listed in the form. You will have to make use of the option names “other” and manually type out your institution name.
Pro tip: For the question “Does your university use a GPA system?”, opt for the no option as it will disable the option to enter your GPA. You can upload an unofficial transcript of your grade cards to show your grades in the upcoming section in the form.
Attendance and Scholarship Information
Here, information regarding whether you are a previous scholarship winner and or an attendee needs to be entered.
For a first timer like you and me ( when I had applied for the application), just select No to all the questions and move on to the next section.
Essay Questions
This is by a large margin, the most important section in the whole of the application.
According to the application guidelines:
What are we looking for in a student scholar?
Student scholars are active in their community including being involved with campus computing/STEM clubs and working towards the advancement of women in computing.
An understanding of how attending GHC will have an impact on the scholar and any messages/key learnings they take back to share at their school.
The essay questions include:
Q1: Tell us why you want to attend GHC, what type of impact will being at a conference focused on women in computing have on you? (maximum 200 words)
The GHC website guide says:
We strongly encourage you to share any experiences with overcoming unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background. While not an exhaustive list, some examples of unique challenges could include: the quality of your early educational environment, your socioeconomic background, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, having a disability, and other life or work experiences. Please discuss how such factors have influenced your goals and preparation for your career as a woman in computing.
Pro tip: Keep the essay as personal as possible and bring in stories, personal anecdotes, incidents which helped you realise your path in life. Also include hardships and obstacles you faced in your life, be it monetary problems, societal restrictions or behavioural issues like lack of confidence, imposter syndrome etc.
Q2: How will you share your experience at GHC with others? What type of impact will your experience at GHC have on others in your community? (maximum 200 words)
The GHC website guide says:
Please tell us why you would like to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration and how you plan to share your experience with others (including your school community) after attending the conference. This is your opportunity to share any information you believe will have an impact on being selected as an AnitaB.org GHC Scholar.
Pro tip :Here you can focus on giving back to society, coming up with avenues to share your knowledge with others, seeking opportunities to empower women with skills to take on their male counterparts.
CV / Resume and Unofficial Transcript
Here you need to upload your resume and unofficial college transcripts.
Pro tip: Make sure your resume is only 1 or 2 pages long, doesn’t include your pic and lists out all your important projects and positions of responsibility. Start working on your resume as soon as you can. There is no hard and fast rule that needs to be followed. Just make sure you do what interests you and make it a point to include your love for Comp Sci through your resume! :)
Recommendation
One recommendation is mandatory for all student applicants. Only one recommendation may be submitted. AnitaB.org highly suggests that you notify the recommender prior to their receiving the request for your recommendation.
It is mandatory that the recommendation be provided by a faculty member.
Pro tip: Get in touch with your faculty member, preferably meet with them to tell them about GHC and the scholarship. Furthermore, inform them how GHC offers faculty scholarships too.
Acknowledgement
And the final step includes agreeing to all the rules and submitting your application for review!
Yay! That is all!
Seems simple enough, right?
I genuinely hope this post inspires you to apply next year. And there is no better time than now to start preparing!!!
Please feel free to ping me if you have any doubts or queries, I’d love to help you out.
Next post : Community Building: Find your “Women In Tech” Online! (To be updated soon)
