AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION MINORITY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM PSYCHOLOGY SUMMER INSTITUTE (PSI) July 12-19, 2015 Washington, DC Contents GENERAL INFORMATION... 2 Eligibility... 2 Award Criteria... 2 Length of PSI... 3 Cost to Attend... 3 PSI Format... 3 List of Required Materials... 3 SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION ONLINE... 4 Steps to Submit Your Application via FAST... 4 1) Register online to use FAST... 4 2) After you register, the PDF Question Form will be automatically emailed to you... 4 3) Complete the online Recommendations screen and send emails to your recommenders... 4 4) Complete and upload the PDF Question Form... 4 5) Upload your application documents online... 4 6) Review the online Check Status screen... 4 7) Submit your application via the online Submit Application screen... 4 How to Use FAST... 4 Online Portion of FAST... 4 Registering For FAST... 4 Navigation... 5 Instructions/Help... 5 Send Links to Recommenders... 5 Upload Files... 6 Submit Application... 6 PDF Question Form Portion of FAST... 6 Required Items... 7 Saving and Printing the PDF Form... 7 pg. 1 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS)
Uploading Your Data from the PDF Form... 7 APPLICATION FORM... 9 OTHER REQUIRED DOCUMENTS... 12 1. Statement of Purpose... 12 2. Concept Paper... 12 3. Curriculum Vita... 13 4. Proposal Verification Acceptance... 13 5. Recommendation Letters... 13 GENERAL INFORMATION The purpose of PSI is to provide advanced doctoral and early career participants with mentoring, educational, and professional development experiences that will advance them in the development of tangible projects, thus furthering their careers in psychology. To that end, PSI is designed to provide opportunities to network with federal and foundation representatives as well as leading ethnic minority psychologists from across the country at various levels. Please review the instructions carefully and thoroughly. Following the instructions will help you put together the very best application possible. At all times, use language that is clear and concise. As a precaution, and for your own future reference, keep a copy of all application materials. Eligibility The purpose of PSI is to provide training to participants who will soon transition or have recently transitioned from graduate school into the early stages of their careers. Therefore, graduate students who have successfully defended their dissertation proposals prior to the close of the applications (May 1), as well as early career psychologists, are eligible for this program. Both applicants who have received an MFP Fellowship as well as applicants who have not received an MFP Fellowship are eligible. Previous PSI participants may not apply to attend an additional year. Some of the grant funding requires that participants must be United States citizens, non-citizen nationals of the United States, or permanent residents prior to the submission of the application. Noncitizen nationals are persons born in lands which are not States but which are under U.S. sovereignty, jurisdiction, or administration (e.g. U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, etc.). Individuals who are not U.S. citizens have to upload with their application any of the following documents that will provide legal verification of admission for permanent residence: a permanent resident card; permanent resident visa (I- 151 or I-551); certificate of non-citizen national status; birth certificate; U.S. passport; or other legal verification of admission for permanent residence. Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible. You may apply if you do not meet these requirements but please be aware that your chances of being accepted are reduced due to funding stipulations by the federal government. Award Criteria The selection of awardees will be based upon the strengths and potential of their concepts, pg. 2 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS)
recommendation letters, and the degree of match with mentor specialties, the goals of PSI and applicant goals/qualifications, and availability. Applicants will be notified by e-mail once the selection decisions are made and they can check their status online. Length of PSI The selected participants will arrive in Washington, DC on Sunday, July 13, and the institute will begin with an evening reception. The following six days of intensive training will be filled with Seminars, mentoring, and time to further develop projects. Participants will return to their homes on Sunday, July 21. Applicants must commit to all PSI events and sessions including opening and closing receptions. Cost to Attend Those participants who are selected to participate will be reimbursed for all reasonable expenses related to PSI. Travel arrangements will be made directly with APA s travel office and directly billed to MFP. An email will be sent after the participation survey is completed by the accepted applicants detailing how to make travel arrangements. Hotel accommodations will be directly billed to MFP and no arrangements need to be made by the participant. Most rooms are double occupancy and will be shared with another participant of the same gender. The majority of meals will be covered by MFP at the Institute. Once the offer is accepted, the participant must complete participation in PSI (travel and attendance). If they are not able to do so, they will be required to reimburse APA/MFP any associated costs. PSI Format In general, the daily schedule will be filled with plenary sessions (covering topics relevant to the entire group) and breakout sessions (covering topics relevant to both research and services. Peer mentoring and one-on-one mentoring will occur during the days and at group dinners. Time will be allotted for participants to further develop their projects. Each participant will be required to give a multimedia presentation of her/his project. Usually 20-25 participants will attend PSI with a larger group of participants joining for the last two days. Some of the sessions will be broken into smaller groups. List of Required Materials A complete PSI application includes the following documents: Application Form Statement of Purpose Concept Paper Curriculum Vita Two Recommendation Letters (one letter must come from the applicant s current advisor/supervisor, mentor or department chair) For predoctoral applicants proof of dissertation proposal defense must be included Permanent Resident Card for applicants who are permanent residents. Non-Citizen Nationals only may submit other legal verification of status. These may be uploaded through the online system (FAST). All documents must be submitted using our online process. Applicants and recommenders must submit the required materials via our web site at http://www.apa.org/pi/mfp Application Deadline for Online Submissions May 1 pg. 3 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS)
SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION ONLINE All applications and recommendations must be submitted via our online system, the MFP Fellowship Application System Tool (FAST). For more information, visit our web site: http://www.apa.org/pi/mfp. DEADLINE IS May 1 * If you or your recommender have extenuating circumstances that require special accommodations, please contact the MFP Office and we will work with you to make sure your application/recommendation is submitted. NOTE: For the 2015 application season only, the FAST system comprises online and PDF question form portions. You must complete both portions in order to successfully submit your application. A new state-of-the-art system is being developed and will be available for the 2016 application season. Steps to Submit Your Application via FAST 1) Register online to use FAST 2) After you register, the PDF Question Form will be automatically emailed to you 3) Complete the online Recommendations screen and send emails to your recommenders 4) Complete and upload the PDF Question Form 5) Upload your application documents online 6) Review the online Check Status screen 7) Submit your application via the online Submit Application screen How to Use FAST Compatible Browsers The online portion of FAST has been tested with both PC and Apple systems on the following browsers: IE7, Firefox 2+, and Safari 3+. Other browsers such as Chrome may work, but FAST has not been fully optimized for them. If you are using another browser, it is highly recommended that you upgrade to one of these browsers to have access to all of the features of this application. In order to work with the PDF question form portion of FAST, you must have Adobe Reader 8 or higher (http://get.adobe.com/reader/). Online Portion of FAST Registering For FAST pg. 4 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS)
You must register in order to begin the application process. You must have a valid email address to register. If you have applied in previous years, you may use the same login; however, your previous year s data will not have been saved. After you have registered you will be able to come back and login to return to your application. Your email address and password are sufficient to login after registering for the first time. Because the system will occasionally send important reminders or news via email, make sure that your email filters will allow emails from mfp@apa.org and from formscentral-receipts@acrobat.com. Navigation Once you have registered, you can logon to the system using your email address and password. You will be allowed to return to update your application any time using your login and password prior to submitting the application. The menu bar to the left of the screen of the application form contains links for all of the sections of the application. You may go to any section of the application using the corresponding link or by using tabs to move from field to field. SAVE your work frequently. You must save your work after completing each recommender s contact information on the Recommendations screen. The system will automatically log you out if there is no activity after 20 minutes. Be sure to save regularly to prevent data loss. The system does not automatically save your work and any unsaved changes will be lost if not saved. On the Upload Docs and Upload Transcripts screens, the Upload files button is the same as Save. If you do not save and go to another screen the data you have already entered will be lost. For each screen, a message will appear at the top of the screen in green: Data was retrieved successfully once your data has been successfully saved. Logout will log you out of the system and you will have to renter your login and password to return to your application. Remember to SAVE your work before logging out. Instructions/Help While navigating through the online portion of FAST, you may access Instructions documents and FAQs by using the Need Help? link in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Send Links to Recommenders As soon as possible upon registering, please complete your recommender information. Go to the Recommendations section, and fill out the contact information for your recommenders. After doing so, make sure to click the button labeled Save Recommender; you will then be able to Edit, Delete, or Email the Recommender. pg. 5 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS)
Once you have made sure that all the information submitted is correct, you may select either the button labeled Email This Recommender or Send Email to All Recommenders, which will generate an email from MFP to your recommenders, asking them to complete the recommendation form. You may choose to send each email request to your recommenders individually or all at once. Notify your recommenders that they will be receiving an email from mfp@apa.org and to have their spam filters allow the email that they will need in order to provide you with a recommendation. If they still do not receive the link, you may log back into your application and request that the link be resent. Check with your recommenders to make certain they have received this link prior to the application deadline. You will be able to send the links multiple times prior to the deadline. Upload Files You will be asked to attach documents to your application. Please prepare your documents beforehand and save them on your computer. These documents must be in Microsoft Word or PDF format and comply with the application s size limitations. Attachments must be uploaded by the deadline. Check Status/Final Status You may check the status of your application at any time by selecting the Check Status item on the left hand menu bar. This will allow you to see which items have been completed and what still needs to be completed. Once your final status has been determined, you may check your final status by using the Final Status tab. Decisions will not be available until June. Please do not contact the office regarding the final decision. Final decisions will not be given out over the phone or email. Submit Application Submit Application will submit your application form. Once you have submitted your application form, you will be allowed to log back in to check the status of your application and email your recommenders. You will not be able to edit your application form once it has been submitted. Application forms will not be accepted after the deadline. Make sure you have clicked the Upload button at the bottom of your PDF question form and received your confirmation email from formscentral-receipts@acrobat.com before the deadline. If you have not completed all the required items in the application, your application cannot be submitted. View the Check Status screen before attempting to submit your application. Once you submit your application or the deadline has passed, you will still be allowed to access the Recommendations, Check Status, and Final Status sections of your online application. PDF Question Form pg. 6 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS) PDF Question Form Portion of FAST
Once you register, you will receive an email with the attached form. Be very careful to not open the attached form in the web browser, but save directly to your hard drive. After saving, use the latest version of Adobe Reader to open the form. If you are unsure whether you have the latest version, please download here; otherwise your form will not upload properly. If you have a Mac, right or control click on the newly saved document, and use the open with menu to select Adobe Reader, otherwise your form will not properly upload. After opening the form, the first row of answer fields should be outlined in red. If this is not the case, the form has not been opened properly. If you need assistance, please contact the MFP office directly. You will be able to print and save your PDF form using the toolbar icon on your Adobe Reader. Once the PDF has been opened properly, copy and paste the Application ID on the top right hand corner into the Application ID Number field in your copy of the PDF question form. You are now ready to complete and save your PDF question form to your computer. You will have the options through your Adobe Reader software to edit, save and print the PDF form as many times as necessary once you properly save the PDF to your computer. Make sure and use only buttons on the toolbar to edit and save. Only click on the Upload button at the bottom of the PDF form when it is in its final version. Required Items Items with required in parentheses are required items and you will not be able to Upload your PDF or submit your application without completing these items. If you try to Upload without completing the required fields, you will be asked to complete the fields highlighted in red before you can click the Upload button again. Saving and Printing the PDF Form Use the save button on your Adobe Reader toolbar to save your edits. Click on the Upload button only when your PDF form is in its final version. You will be able to print your PDF form using the toolbar icon on your Adobe Reader. Uploading Your Data from the PDF Form After you have completed all of your updates to the form, you must click the Upload button at the bottom of the form in order for our system to receive your application information. Click Allow when the Security Warning text box (similar to the one below) is indicating that it is trying to connect to adobeformscentral.com. pg. 7 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS)
A screen (similar to the one below) will appear indicating that you have successfully submitted your PDF form data. Click OK to close the screen. You will also receive a confirmation email from formscentral-receipts@acrobat.com once your PDF is successfully uploaded. NOTE: Your application has not been submitted until you have completed all of the steps listed on page 4 of these instructions. pg. 8 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS)
APPLICATION FORM Screen Question Instructions Name 1 (a) First and Last Name are required. Present Mailing Address 2 (c) Please complete all fields. If your address is outside of the United States, please complete the street address and include the rest in the Foreign Present Mailing Address Box. Email 1 (c) Put the email you used to register for FAST in the primary email box. Contact Number (s) 1 (d) Home phone number is required. Birth Origin 2 (a) Birth origin is required. County of birth is required to be considered for all available spots. Gender Ethnicity and Race 2 (b) 2 (b) Select the response that best fits your gender identification. This question is based on self-definition and identification. Respond to the question related to ethnicity andrace. More than one response is permitted for race. Family Income 2(d) HHS has just expanded the definition of Individuals who come from a family with an annual income below established lowincome thresholds. These thresholds are based on family size, published by the U.S. Bureau of the Census; adjusted annually for changes in the Consumer Price Index; and adjusted by the Secretary for use in all health professions programs. The Secretary periodically publishes these income levels at http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/index.shtml. For individuals from low-income backgrounds, the institution must be able to demonstrate that such candidates (a) have qualified for Federal disadvantaged assistance; or (b) have received any of the following student loans: Health Professional Student Loans (HPSL), Loans for Disadvantaged Student Program; or (c) have received scholarships from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Scholarship for Individuals with Exceptional Financial Need. pg. 9 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS)
Disability 2(e) Individuals with disabilities, who are defined as those with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Doctoral University 3 Complete using where you completed (or are completing) your doctoral degree Employment 4 Dissertation Information 5 Only complete this section if you have already received your doctoral degree. If you have not yet defended your proposal, put the date you intend to defend the proposal. You must successfully defend your proposal prior to submitting this application. If you are predoctoral you must provide documentation of such. See Other Required Documents. Current Institution 6 Predoctoral applicants: enter name of your current doctoral University Early career applicants: enter the name of your current employer. pg. 10 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS)
Screen Question Instructio Project Type. ns Check Research (not services-related) if you plan to develop a research project that does not involve treatment models, treatment protocols, service delivery, program evaluation, policy, or organizational issues. Project Information 7 (a) Check Services Research if you plan to develop a research project involving treatment models, treatment protocols, service delivery, program evaluation, policy, or organizational issues. Check Treatment Model if you plan to develop a project related to creating and/or implementing a model for treatment that is not research-oriented. Check Training Model if you plan to develop a project related to creating and/or implementing a model for training that is not research-oriented. Check Policy if you plan to develop a project related to organizational or policy issues. If you project does not fit one of the above categories, write a brief overview of the project type in the box labeled Other. 7(b) Project Summary Briefly summarize your project (4000 characters or less): Agencies/Foundations List any agencies or foundations (public or private) with missions that are relevant to your project. You are not required to list agencies or foundations. Mentor Matches 8 A mentor list for the current year is available http://www.apa.org/pi/mfp. This list may be updated prior to the beginning of the institute. List your choices for your PSI mentor (we cannot guarantee that you will be matched to your top choice of mentor. We match mentors on a variety of criteria including your preferences included here. pg. 11 (PSI APPLICANT INSTRUCTIONS)
OTHER REQUIRED DOCUMENTS 1. Statement of Purpose Attach a brief statement (1/2 to 1 page) describing why you are applying to attend PSI. Focus on how you expect to benefit from your experiences at PSI. Be sure to provide continuity between your goals and expectations in this section and the ideas you present in your concept paper. Make sure that your name is at the top of the page. 2. Concept Paper The concept paper is the most important aspect of the application process. Your concept paper should be well formulated and presented in sufficient detail so that it can be evaluated for its potential and merit. Be clear and concise, but include sufficient information to permit an effective review. Your work should be related to ethnic minority mental health/substance abuse research or treatment. The narrative should represent your ideas and your project should fit your overall training needs and goals. Considerable time developing your concept paper will be spent at PSI; therefore, the paper you submit as part of this application does not need to be definitive. It does, however, need to be in a format that will allow you and your mentor to work together in fine-tuning your concept. The concept paper should not exceed 5 pages (single-spaced, 12-point font, 1 inch margins), including all tables and figures. The page limit does not include references. Each section should include a clear and appropriate heading (e.g., Significance of the Problem, Goals and Objectives, etc.). Follow the following format: Project Title Choose a title for your concept paper that is descriptive rather than general. The title should not be worded in a way that would easily be misconstrued if quoted out of context. Include the title and your name at the top of the page. Significance of the Problem Discuss the issues that form the basis of the problem and how your project would add to previous work in this area. The problem should be related to ethnic minority mental health/ substance abuse research, treatment, or policy. Describe the relevance and applicability of your project to any relevant agencies or foundations. Brief supporting data may be included in this section. Goals and Objectives State the overall goal of the project. If applicable, state the precise question(s) to be addressed. List any objectives in prioritized order. Methodology/Procedures Focus on the significant points of your objectives. Address the most reasonable questions. Describe how you would conduct the project. Define the participants or target population. If you are proposing interventions, describe their content and how you would implement them. For research-related projects, describe the sources and types of data, including sample size and the duration of the project. Finally, include a brief description of the setting for your project. Budget Include a rough estimate of a budget needed to complete your project. The budget is important in that it will provide the mentors with information regarding your understanding of how to develop a budget. It is acceptable to state that you do not know
how to develop a budget; however, you must still include your best estimate. Evaluation and Analysis Discuss how you will determine whether your original questions have been answered, the potential contribution of positive and negative findings, and the potential practice and/or policy relevance of your project. References Include a bibliography of references that were cited in your paper (in APA format). 3. Curriculum Vita Attach a current copy of your curriculum vita. It will potentially be used to: Help your mentor understand your training experiences, Fine-tune your CV with suggestions from your mentor, and Help you develop professional biosketches 4. Proposal Verification Acceptance Attach a letter or form from your advisor or department stating that you have successfully defended your dissertation proposal before the close of this application cycle (May 1). If your program does not require a proposal defense, you must attach a letter stating such and verifying that you are at an advanced doctoral stage. 5. Recommendation Letters Enter the names, positions, and contact information of 2 individuals who are best able to assess your qualifications for PSI and the potential PSI will have for your career development. Recommenders should be very specific regarding your qualifications and how PSI would benefit you. See instructions above for sending emails to allow your recommenders to upload their recommendation letters and curriculum vita. Predoctoral participants 1 letter must be from your research advisor, major professor, or clinical advisor (whichever person is most applicable). Early Career participants 1 letter must be from your supervisor, clinic director, senior research collaborator, mentor or department chair (whichever person is most applicable). If you have any questions about our application process, you may contact the MFP office at: (202) 336-6127 or mfp@apa.org We wish you much success in your career as you apply for our summer institute!