National Geographic, one of the world’s largest science-, exploration- and storytelling-based publications, has been awarding grants since the year following the society’s founding in 1888.
On Saturday, employees and grantees for the acclaimed magazine spoke on campus to students who are interested in applying for the organization’s Young Explorers Grant.
The workshop, led by Rebecca Martin, director of the Young Explorers Grant, was a mix of informative sessions that ranged from general information to nitty-gritty, sprinkled with a number of success stories from past grantees, in three cases told by the grantees themselves.
“A lot of Young Explorers go on to have their work featured in our magazine,” Martin said. “Their content appears in our educational textbooks, we have them present at international film and photography shows and they’re interviewed quite a lot on National Geographic Radio.”
National Geographic offers three types of $5,000 grants for Young Explorers 18 to 25 years of age:
The Committee for Research and Exploration Grant is for applicants with hypothesis-driven research projects in any field science.
The Conservation Trust is for those with innovative solutions to global and regional conservation issues.
The Expeditions Council gives grants to support exploration and adventure proposals, with a focus on compelling storytelling and media-deliverable projects.
Katia Andressi and Luisa Arendo, program officers for media and scientific grants, respectively, described the process of applying for a Young Explorers Grant.
Andressi, addressing the Expeditions Council Grant, said a high media potential is crucial to that type of project.
“If people associate anything with National Geographic, its great photography,” she said. “That doesn’t mean you need to be a great photographer to apply for the Expeditions Council Grant, but it does mean that your project should have visual promise. Make sure someone on your team has photo or video skills so it can be shared.”
Some people in attendance spoke about receiving the grants. For example, Marty Schnure, a cartographer whose grant money helped fund a three-month field season in Patagonia, Chile, has since founded her own company with her project collaborator.
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“When planning an expedition, do plan as much as you can, but also try to be comfortable with the unknown,” Schnure said. “In any big project, especially an expedition, you have to adapt to changing and surprising circumstances all the time. There are always blank spots on the map, in every sense, but try to think of that uncertainty as opportunity.”
Another past grantee, Viv Pitter, received her grant at 21, and with it established a clean and renewable water source in a rural community in Rwanda.
“My research partners and I decided we didn’t want our research to die in the lab, so we needed to get out into the field and make this system a useful reality,” she said.
National Geographic has given more than 11,000 grants for the research, conservation, adventure and storytelling communities.
For more information about the National Geographic Young Explorers Grant, click here.
Josh Lane is a freelance reporter/photographer for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @photobyjl.
