Boren 2016-2017

[TrynaLearnHindi]

Anyone have any info or stats about alternates?

[Streetfoodie]

Got myself a year for Shanghai. Will anybody else be in the area? 

[kellyjean]

I applied to the Mozambique fellowship. I still have not heard anything... is this also the case for anyone else? I read a post previously that claimed in past years, Boren sent no communications to people who were rejected...

[readysetgo]

1 hour ago, kellyjean said:

I applied to the Mozambique fellowship. I still have not heard anything... is this also the case for anyone else? I read a post previously that claimed in past years, Boren sent no communications to people who were rejected...

If you don't find notification in your spam folder, I think I would contact them. People on this board have already received news good, bad, and neutral- Yeah, I feel your pain, other alternates. We are living in the liminal! 

[kellyjean]

I called and it looks like I got it!  They said there were problems with their e-mail being sent out - I think I'm still a bit in shock and won't believe it until I see an e-mail... but I encourage others to call if still awaiting a communication.

29 minutes ago, readysetgo said:

If you don't find notification in your spam folder, I think I would contact them. People on this board have already received news good, bad, and neutral- Yeah, I feel your pain, other alternates. We are living in the liminal! 

 

[XYZ789]

What are everyone's thoughts on fulfilling the ease of service requirement? I've read mixed things and a big part of my decision is the ability to get a federal government job and not have to worry about repaying the award.

[kellyjean]

12 minutes ago, XYZ789 said:

What are everyone's thoughts on fulfilling the ease of service requirement? I've read mixed things and a big part of my decision is the ability to get a federal government job and not have to worry about repaying the award.

I think many factors will play into the ability to get hired and fulfill the service requirement. As a returned peace corps volunteer, I've known many other volunteers who had the same federal hiring preference that the Boren provides, and they still faced months of employment searching and waiting, even if they already lived in Washington D.C. 

Luckily I have a bit of a niche degree (geographical sciences) and will focus in developing a network in country that may be able to assist in hiring back in D.C. I think in general, the more you are able to take advantage of strange opportunities and go where many people rather not, the more unique you will make yourself as an applicant and hopefully improve your odds of being hired.

On the flip side though, some people have told me  if you don't get a standard fed job, you can always be hired be a string of federal contractors and that will count towards the service requirement. A couple people also told me it was fairly easy to prove that you couldn't get hired by a fed agency and that being placed with an educational agency wasn't that tough. I don't  know how much I believe this though.

[XYZ789]

27 minutes ago, kellyjean said:

I think many factors will play into the ability to get hired and fulfill the service requirement. As a returned peace corps volunteer, I've known many other volunteers who had the same federal hiring preference that the Boren provides, and they still faced months of employment searching and waiting, even if they already lived in Washington D.C. 

Luckily I have a bit of a niche degree (geographical sciences) and will focus in developing a network in country that may be able to assist in hiring back in D.C. I think in general, the more you are able to take advantage of strange opportunities and go where many people rather not, the more unique you will make yourself as an applicant and hopefully improve your odds of being hired.

On the flip side though, some people have told me  if you don't get a standard fed job, you can always be hired be a string of federal contractors and that will count towards the service requirement. A couple people also told me it was fairly easy to prove that you couldn't get hired by a fed agency and that being placed with an educational agency wasn't that tough. I don't  know how much I believe this though.

thanks, this is helpful. I am RPCV too and have friends who have government jobs now with the PC eligibility.  I guess it depends on lots of factors and is hard to generalize.

[kellyjean]

13 minutes ago, XYZ789 said:

thanks, this is helpful. I am RPCV too and have friends who have government jobs now with the PC eligibility.  I guess it depends on lots of factors and is hard to generalize.

Oh that's great! Where/when did you serve?

[XYZ789]

1 minute ago, kellyjean said:

Oh that's great! Where/when did you serve?

 

1 minute ago, kellyjean said:

Oh that's great! Where/when did you serve?

I was in Ukraine starting in 2011 and applied for Kazakhstan for the Boren to study russian (because i already studied Ukrainian ). I'm just finishing up my master's degree and so deciding to take the boren would mean delaying my graduation and kind of uprooting myself and plans- i really didn't think i was going to get it. I just got back from Turkey after 6 months and am trying to weigh if taking the boren would mean tremendous things for my career or i could get where i want to go without it. But really being able to speak russian has been a long time goal, so i don't know what to do.

[kellyjean]

2 minutes ago, XYZ789 said:

 

I was in Ukraine starting in 2011 and applied for Kazakhstan for the Boren to study russian (because i already studied Ukrainian ). I'm just finishing up my master's degree and so deciding to take the boren would mean delaying my graduation and kind of uprooting myself and plans- i really didn't think i was going to get it. I just got back from Turkey after 6 months and am trying to weigh if taking the boren would mean tremendous things for my career or i could get where i want to go without it. But really being able to speak russian has been a long time goal, so i don't know what to do.

I think it's safe to say it wouldn't hurt your career, and if it supports a life long dream/goal, I think that's the best sign out there that you should do it! 

[XYZ789]

11 minutes ago, kellyjean said:

I think it's safe to say it wouldn't hurt your career, and if it supports a life long dream/goal, I think that's the best sign out there that you should do it! 

thanks! i appreciate the advice. hope everything works for you as well!

[Miliatasana]

On 4/16/2016 at 1:11 PM, TrynaLearnHindi said:

Anyone have any info or stats about alternates?

Apparently alternate status is a bit tricky. Here is how Boren staff explained it to me: "We don't have a specific system where alternates are called up in any particular order. We try to replace the recipient who drops out with someone who is studying in the same country or studying the same language. If we have a fellow who drops out and they were going to study in South Korea, then we look for Korean alternates. If someone drops out of Vietnam and we don't have an alternate who is studying there, we look for an alternate in the same region."

 

To me that means that alternate status is extremely unlikely to result in being awarded a fellowship, since not only is there no ranked list of alternates, but only those drop outs from your country and then your region matter when calculating your likelihood of getting a positive result.  

[readysetgo]

This alternate is now Morocco bound! Good luck to other alternates!

[kbui]

Were there any Boren fellows that "deferred" a year in the middle of their first and second year for a Boren? I'm thinking about doing it for my MPP, and was wondering if it would be a difficult endeavor or not.