[GEM Fellowship 2020]

I was curious on this catch-22 scenario and how you guys are dealing with it: when I asked for a GEM contract, a university rep replied to me saying that they will draft one if I accept their unfunded MS offer. On my dashboard, it states that they are "willing to admit as GEM fellow". Would it be naive of me to make the leap of faith without an actual GEM contract for me to sign? Am I being too paranoid? Are any of you facing similar dilemmas? Additionally, my GEM dashboard says I need to decide on a school to win it in the first place, but I don't want to lose any leverage. I'm just confused on the order of operations here.

[GEM Fellowship 2020]

41 minutes ago, stafo said:

Thinking ahead here, but at what point are we allowed to pursue other internship opportunities from non-GEM employers for the summer? I have another internship offer that was contingent of me getting a GEM employer to sponsor me or not and since my GEM employer cancelled my internship due to this whole COVID-19 situation, I would rather elect to intern for the non-GEM employer this summer since they have remote WFH options and then continue my internship with my GEM employer next summer. I just don't know how to ask this without coming off as ungrateful. I just really do not want to stay home and do nothing for the summer. 

This seems fine to me, since it's an internship you're taking outside of the scope of fellowship stipulations. The way I think of it:

pre-COVID: internship 2020 and 2021 required

post-COVID: internship 2021 required

Where anything you do outside of that is independent of the fellowship. Now I'm not sure if they might revoke their cancellation if things get better in April. So I would wait as long as possible before committing your 2020 summer to someone. I agree, no need to twiddle your thumbs when you have a non-cancelled offer. Besides, I think your GEM employer would appreciate you coming in with the extra experience!