ANNOUNCEMENT: Jerry Bender Africa Award

USC Dornsife School of International Relations ANNOUNCEMENT: Jerry Bender Africa Award Last updated: 09/19/13

Award Summary

Professor Gerald (Jerry) Bender taught at the USC Dornsife School of International Relations (SIR) from 1976 until his retirement in 2008. A specialist on Africa, Professor Bender traveled to the continent on dozens of occasions, particularly to Angola and South Africa. He was a generous mentor to many students, and often helped them travel to Washington D.C. and Africa. To honor Professor Bender’s service and legacy, the Jerry Bender Africa Fund has been established to support students looking to follow in his footsteps by pursuing an internship/research opportunity in Africa.

Experience abroad is often one of the most challenging and treasured experiences in an undergraduate career. An internship/guided research project can be a valuable part of a college education and a stepping-stone to prestigious fellowships, advanced degrees, and a successful career after college. Most such opportunities are unpaid, and living and travel expenses are a significant obstacle for many students. This award is offered to cover part of those expenses and allow more IR majors to pursue their interest in Africa.

Application Requirements

Eligible are IR undergraduate majors with grade point averages of 3.3 or higher. Unpaid internships/research anywhere in Africa qualify, except when the student will live with a family member or intern in a business owned by the student’s family. The internship/research must be completed in the summer, and before the student graduates from USC Dornsife. Upon completion, a report must be written and submitted by the student to the place of internship/research and to SIR. Internships provide real-world experience and training in the form of supervised work-experience in a career field. Common internship opportunities that would be appropriate for an international relations undergraduate student can be found in the form of research internships, business internships, government internships, and non-profit internships. Research projects must be based in Africa, must be supervised, conceptually and logistically developed and scholarly in nature. Eligible research projects include: SIR faculty member research assistance, or approved honors program research.

Application procedure: Students may apply at any time, until (February 25th for the first year) February 1st . Applications should be submitted to: [email protected] Submission requirements include:  A letter of application, listing the student’s major, current GPA, and expected graduation date. Identify the sponsoring organization, its mission, its address, the name and contact information for the student’s supervisor, the nature of the student’s work, the number of hours per week, the start and end dates, and why it would be valuable to hold this position. The student may also be asked to provide the name of the faculty member who will supervise the work.  Students should also provide information on other funding applications that they have submitted (students should at a minimum have applied for funding through the USC Africa Fund; the Africa Fund deadline is October 18).  A budget showing living expenses for the internship period, travel to and from the site, and the external resources available if the grant is awarded.

The review committee will identify finalists and notify those students. In order to finalize the award, the School will need a letter from the organization offering the internship/supervisor of research confirming the project plan, and agreeing to provide the School with a simple report on the student’s work at the end of the summer. Students may submit an application that contains all elements except this letter, and provide the student is a finalist.

Within three weeks of the conclusion of the trip, the student must submit to SIR and to the host institution a five page report describing the experience, what was valuable about it, what if anything could have been better, and would you recommend that other students intern at this organization/pursue a similar project? A note of thanks for this grant and trip photographs that we could provide to SIR alumni would be most welcome. Updates, if possible, over the summer are also encouraged.