IIT Gandhinagar Explorer Fellowship aims to engage students with different aspects of life and to increase the societal connection of students with their community. It is intended to introduce students to different cultures, people, and places of diverse India with which they are not familiar. Fellows will make powerful connections and find opportunities to foster dialogue with people from different walks of life. Sharing experiences with numerous people and learning from them about their customs will help fellows realize who they are, what they want to do, and what matters to them. Fellows will get a glimpse of many places and many lives. They will travel fast, “tasting, not savoring“, in order to gain a breadth of understanding. Their journey will spark insight, curiosity, reflection, compassion, and commitment. This is not the usual tourist experience – instead, fellows will roam and get lost, walk off the well-worn path, only to find themselves on unexpected adventures. At times, they will realize their great strengths, other times they will be confronted with sheer humility. In six weeks they will explore a small chunk of the world and a large chunk of themselves.
The Application
Each team applying for the fellowship must submit a write-up of their proposed travel plans which should include goals and objectives, itinerary, budget, and action plan ideas for follow-up activities. Following the travel, each team must submit a report and make a presentation before the IITGN community describing their experiences and analyzing objectives achieved.
Guidelines
The IIT Gandhinagar Explorer Fellowship is open to all regular students at IIT Gandhinagar who are at least 18 years old. More information about the selection procedure is given below. The program is governed by the following general guidelines.
- Fellows must commit to travel in groups of two or three members during the summer break (May- July). In exceptional cases, teams of four students may be allowed
- Fellows must commit to explore six or more states, which should include at least one state each from Southern, Northern and North-Eastern parts of India.
- The fellows must commit to travel for a continuous period of at least six weeks
- Fellows must travel via sleeper class trains and state government buses and must stay in budget accommodation, such as Dharamshala, homestays and youth hostels.
- Fellows are encouraged to organize their travel around a theme (e.g. Cuisines, folklore, oral history, indigenous technology etc.)
Eligibility and Selection
In order to apply for the IIT Gandhinagar Explorer Fellowship, applicants must be a regular student of IIT Gandhinagar and must be at least 18 years old. All valid applications will be scrutinized by concerned authorities. Shortlisted applicants will be invited for an interview by the interviewing committee to make the final selection. The evaluation of the applications will be based on the originality and feasibility of the proposal and performance during the interview.
On selection, an amount in the range of Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 40,000 per person will be given; this number may be periodically increased or decreased to cover for inflation or deflation respectively