• U.S. citizenship or permanent residency.
• A graduate degree in a relevant area (such as population and family health) earned fewer than five years ago.

Commitment: Your dedication to a career in international family planning and reproductive health should be clear from both your preparation for the field and the personal statement portion of your application.

Coursework: A degree in public health, while the typical degree choice, may not in its most general form be sufficient classroom preparation for a fellowship. Our reviewers look specifically at the courses applicants have selected within their degree program. You will want to take full advantage of your institution's course offerings in international family planning, reproductive health, and population studies.

Experience: Though coursework is an important element of preparedness for a fellowship, it must be bolstered by relevant applied experience. Whether counseling at a local Planned Parenthood clinic, supporting a faculty member's family planning-related research, or serving as a health volunteer in the Peace Corps, you should have paid and/or volunteer experience in both family planning and in the developing world.

Graduate students seeking additional applied experience may be able to acquire it through an internship funded by the Population Fellows Programs Graduate Applied Project Mini-Grants. Please see this section of our Web site for more information.

Skills: Host organizations are especially interested in candidates who bring highly sought skills to their placements. Skills in demand by host agencies include: needs assessment; program design and implementation; monitoring and evaluation; advocacy; communication (IEC/BCC); contraceptive logistics; training; and grantwriting, to name a few.

Though it is not possible to become an expert in each of these areas in the course of a two-year graduate degree, by becoming proficient in at least some of them, you will position yourself to be more competitive for a variety of Population Fellows Program scopes of work.

Language skills, likewise, are a critical element of competitiveness. Near-fluent speakers of French, Spanish, and Portuguese are regularly requested. Should you wish to increase your competency in one of these languages, we encourage you to tap your local university, community college, and private course offerings.

Finally, the most critical element of success in a fellowship -- as in almost any endeavor -- lies in the area of interpersonal skills. Flexibility, adaptability, professionalism, diplomacy, and resourcefulness are particularly important in prospective fellows.