withoutwords

o snap

It is highly likely the EPA-STAR won't happy this year, professors have tweeted about it, see the 2013 forum, it is highly likely they won't award any to us this year

FYI, Bronda said she would give me updates regarding doing an honorary fellowship. This is what she said below: The idea is making its way through the management chain. Three hurdles cleared, at least one more to go. Yes, there is an actual reason for this. Right now we're at a dead stop due to an essential person being unavailable.

we are also coming up on a year, pretty wild we haven't heard anything still!

That's a tough position to be in. Is it worth it to you to pay out of pocket for your program, because if not I would think you'd really want to know the chances of the program being funded, and when you'd know by. I would try to explain the situation to them to see if they will give you any sort of indication of if they are going to fund the program and a timeframe of when you'd know by, probably phone would be the best since they might not feel comfortable in an email what they actually think.

Call Bronda and Brandon and leave them messages explaining the situation, that is pretty serious

It looks like they went ahead and awarded the GRO fellowships which is a good sign that they are funding what they intended to fund: http://readme.readmedia.com/UNH-Sophomore-Named-EPA-Fellow-Gets-50-000-in-Support/6967689

I emailed Bronda asking if they have thought about doing an honorary fellowship, this is what she said back: Brandon and I spoke yesterday about the possibility of doing something along the lines of what you suggest. Due to doing anything along this line being a rather broad and very public activity, Brandon was going to initiate the discussion by speaking with his supervisor. Please also be aware that right now absolutely no decisions have been made regarding funding

we should all ask them to do that, give an award without the money, it really shouldn't take them too much time you would think

We should start making predictions about when we will hear back, I think the last week of this month.

I know its like just give us something like, "Highly unlikely there will be funds" or "We are waiting until this date for a budget to pass"?

Yeah I feel like it's more likely than not since it is so late in the game, but they were late in the past with a lot of stuff too, like paying fellows so this sort of thing (being months late) may not be totally out of the ordinary and they may just be like "okay we'll just figure this out in 3 months after the deadline"

I got this email from Bronda today saying the same thing: I was waiting on the official language to share with those who had contacted me, but the official language just maintains the holding pattern for STAR fellowships. I'll paste it below, but it can also be found in the "Special Announcements" box at http://www.epa.gov/ncer/fellow/. EPA Fellowship Program Updates as of May 2013: GRO EPA intends to award new GRO Fellowships resulting from the Fall 2013 EPA Greater Research Opportunities (GRO) Fellowships For Undergraduate Environmental Study RFA, subject to the availability of funds. STAR EPA intends to satisfy our commitments to fund existing STAR Fellowships awarded in 2012 and prior years, subject to the availability of funds. No decisions have been made regarding the Fall 2013 EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowships for Graduate Environmental Study RFA. When we receive language regarding actions, I hope to have time to dig through e-mails and let all of you know. I'm sorry you're dealing with an unusual year for the program. Bronda

E3 in CO. I think they have only sent out 1st round rejections, no one has been rejected for a couple weeks so I don't think much has changed.

What could they possibly be waiting for. I don't get how a few days of furlough corresponds to over a month late on decisions! Are they hoping more money falls out of the sky? Give us and answer!

This makes me want to move to another country where they invest in science that might help people

E3 No rejection, in CO. I am guessing it is just first round rejections since there seems there are so many on here w/o rejections.

That confirms what I was thinking that they haven't announced winners yet, once they do we'll hear about it on here, unless they award a very small amount and none of the awardees are on hear or know of anyone who checks this.

If they have been emailing people or calling them I am sure we would have heard on this board by now, I would guess they haven't and I am guessing they are still determining either who is going to get the award, and if they are giong to award it at all.

Where have you read this ?

I don't think they have contacted any winners, two years ago they delayed the announcements by a month and a few days after May 1st posted on there website that people would know by the end of may. I don't think they have sent rejections or acceptions yet.

Remember the emails we got though dated 12/20/12 saying: "Review and evaluation will take approximately 6 months." Unfortunately their website says one thing, but this email says another.

Just curious who was the source of that there was a review panel? A prof? That is a good sign if they are reviewing them.

I checked last year's posts, and this time last year people were hearing back, so I think this means they are definitely behind schedule this year!

NSF ended up being not effected for their fellowships, hopefully EPA won't as well!