Annotated HHMI Gilliam Career Statement
By Ya'el Courtney, PhD | Stanford Postdoc, Harvard PhD in Neuroscience
Awarded the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship, 2021
This is the full Career Statement I submitted with my successful 2021 HHMI Gilliam Fellowship application, annotated with commentary about what I was trying to do in each section, why I made the choices I did, and what I'd do differently now.
A few important notes before you read:
The Gilliam application has changed since I applied. See my introduction to these annotated materials for the full list of changes. The structure and substance of a strong Career Statement, though, hasn't changed.
This is an example, not a template. Do not copy my sentences, my structure, or my stories. Use this to understand what a successful Career Statement looks like and how to approach writing your own.
The Opening
I was 15 years old and had recently left a turbulent home environment when I first really understood the power of a mentor's words. I befriended other young people in difficult situations like mine and became aware of our grave lack of understanding when it comes to psychiatric disorders. I grew vocal about my desire to someday pursue higher education to change the way we understand and treat psychiatric disorders, but I was not encouraged in this goal. In fact, one afternoon, a temporary guardian sat me down, looked me in the eye, and delivered this ultimatum: "The way I see it, you have two options. You can either enlist in the military and let them straighten you up, or you'll end up a heroin-addicted prostitute and die on the streets." They told me I was delusional to think I had the background or track record to be able to enter higher education at all, much less succeed. I'll never forget the pain, the defeat, and the humiliation I felt in that moment. I am determined to be the opposite of this demeaning voice in my life and my career. I will be a voice that encourages, bolsters, and propels students from all kinds of systemically disadvantaged backgrounds into the scientific community. I will do this not only by specifically mentoring underrepresented individuals and offering them relentless encouragement, but by using every position I attain to enact change within the academic system.
I opened with a difficult moment from my teenage years because it's the most honest answer to why I care about mentorship and DEI in science. I'm not committed to these things because they're fashionable or because I think I should be. I'm committed to them because I know what it feels like to be told you don't belong, by someone whose job was supposed to be caring for you.
What makes this opening work, to the extent it works, is the specificity. I quote the guardian's exact words, name what I felt, and pivot directly into what I plan to do about it. The pivot is everything. An anecdote without a pivot is just a story. An anecdote that becomes the foundation for the commitments shaping your career is an argument.
People ask me a lot whether they should share something this personal in a fellowship application. My honest answer is that it depends on whether the experience genuinely shaped you as a scientist and a mentor. For me, it did. If you're reaching for trauma because you think reviewers want to see it, please don't.
The Long-Term Vision
My long-term goal is to become a professor and run a lab where I will empower underrepresented students to ascend to leadership positions in STEM. I will be a force at my institution to foster inclusion by increasing the pool of URM applicants at every career level and making sure these candidates are given fair consideration. Beyond that, I will seek to ensure that the environment is supportive so this diversity is retained. It is not enough to simply recruit diversity if the institution is not a place we want to stay. I will make my lab a place characterized by genuine excitement for science, generosity with time and techniques, and kindness and respect for every member. I will also work throughout my life to serve as a representative of science to the public by communicating scientific discoveries and policy recommendations. I have sought through the years to strengthen my skills in education, leadership, and science communication to facilitate these goals.
After an opening like that, the reader needs to know where you're actually headed. So I gave them a concrete picture: become a professor, run a lab, make it a place where underrepresented students can thrive long-term.
I also stated the academic career goal directly instead of hedging. The Gilliam wants to fund people with leadership potential, and the committee wants to see that you've actually pictured the role you're going to play. Naming it isn't a contract. It's just clarity.
The other thing I deliberately did here was distinguish recruitment from retention. A common critique of academic DEI work is that institutions focus on getting underrepresented students in the door and then ignore whether anyone actually wants to stay. Showing I understood that distinction signaled my commitment wasn't surface-level.
If I were writing this today, I might soften "become a professor" to leave more room for non-academic paths. The current Gilliam program explicitly values career flexibility, so something like "lead a research group" would be more aligned. But in 2020, naming the academic track directly was the right call.
Establishing Track Record
I began to develop my interest in education and mentorship as an undergraduate at Kent State University. I worked as a peer tutor and supplemental instructor in a variety of scientific subjects and cherished finding ways to actively engage my students. I started a Neuroscience Club where I taught younger students about career opportunities in neuroscience and connected them to internships and resources. I participated in several diversity-oriented summer programs (BP-ENDURE, Broad Summer Research Program) and have continued to mentor and advocate for all future students who pass through these programs. I served as the president of Phi Sigma Pi national honor fraternity, where I weekly taught modules about conflict management, diversity/equity/inclusion, and emotional intelligence to a group of 60+ students.
I made big claims in the opening paragraphs and now I had to back them up. This whole paragraph is a mini-CV of mentorship and DEI activities, but I tried not to make it feel like a list.
The thing I worked hardest on here was avoiding pure activity-naming. "I started a Neuroscience Club" is forgettable. "I taught younger students about career opportunities in neuroscience and connected them to internships and resources" gives the reader something to picture. Specificity always wins.
I also leaned hard on numbers wherever I had them. "60+ students" lands. "A group of students" doesn't.
Current Activities at Harvard
At Harvard, I work as a teaching fellow for the undergraduate course "Neurobiology of Behavior" and am pursuing a Teaching Certification to grow my skills. My passion for teaching has been well-received by my students. My office hours are attended by double the number of students than are technically in my section! I relish finding ways to make the material exciting and understandable for my students, and seeing their eyes light up when they first appreciate the beauty of the brain in a new way.
The bridge from undergrad activities to current Harvard activities. Short on purpose, because I didn't need to explain to a Gilliam reviewer what a teaching fellow is. The detail I really wanted in here was the office hours one. It's social proof. I'm not just claiming to be a good teacher. I'm telling the reader that students who weren't required to come to my office hours were showing up anyway.
Connecting Teaching to DEI
While being an effective and kind teacher is very important to me, I recognize that if I am to empower other underrepresented scientists someday as a professor, I need to start that work now. As a professor someday, I hope to impart the principles of neurobiology as well as the impact of research on society. In alignment with the values of HHMI, I will train students to think critically about how science is performed and how the future of science can be improved. My trainees will learn that science and society benefit from diversity and will work to remove barriers that prevent marginalized communities from participating in science. The continued progression and enduring societal relevance of science requires that the scientific community reflects the people it serves. To fight racism and advocate for DEI at Harvard, I am an active voice in the Underrepresented Students in Neuroscience group, which has effectively advocated for large-scale changes in our department. I also serve on the Neurobiology Department's Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, with my specific focus being on Outreach. We are working to develop a departmental post-baccalaureate program with a focus on diversity as well as strengthening community classroom and outreach at the K-12 level. To spark further conversations about the ethical responsibilities of scientists, I am an organizing member of the Social Issues in Biology journal club at Harvard, where we gather biweekly to discuss a collection of literature about social justice issues that relate to our careers. This year, we have seen an increase in meeting attendance from 10 to 50 attendees as we lead our Race in Academia series and discuss how what we learn can be applied within our own departments to fight the systemic racism deeply rooted in science itself as well as specifically at Harvard.
This paragraph sets up my future vision as a PI and grounds it in evidence that I'm already doing the work at my current institution.
The "in alignment with the values of HHMI" line is intentional and not subtle. Reviewers are reading dozens of applications. They shouldn't have to figure out for themselves whether your values align with the fellowship's. Tell them.
I also brought back the numbers thing here. Meeting attendance grew from 10 to 50 over the year, which is a 5x jump. That's not just me participating in DEI work, it's me actually moving the needle on it.
External Mentorship
Outside of Harvard, I volunteer with two organizations that seek to combat socioeconomic and systemic inequity in the graduate school admissions process: Cientifico Latino and Project SHORT. I serve as a mentor for both groups, working 1-on-1 with underrepresented minority graduate school applicants each cycle, getting to know them and offering information to demystify the application process, mock interviews, and feedback on written application materials. Right now, I have 22 undergraduate mentees through these programs and through individuals who have sought out my advice of their own accord or who have been sent my way by others. This keeps me very busy with meetings and reading statements, but I am so energized by propelling these kids to the next stage of their career that I wouldn't have it any other way. I start my relationship with each student with an hour virtual meeting where we talk about the journey that sparked their interest in science, their motivations, and their past research experiences. I strive to get to know each student as a human. This enables me to encourage them in areas they are particularly worried about, and to make sure that their written statements represent their stories in the most effective way. When appropriate, I have also facilitated email introductions between my students and faculty that I know and helped them to schedule meetings with faculty of interest at various institutions. I am humbled by the opportunity to already be helping other underrepresented students, and often marvel at the sheer resilience and tenacity that each has demonstrated to get this far. This is my second year helping students through this process, and it is unbelievably rewarding to have watched 100% of my students last year find success in grad school admissions or placement in a post-baccalaureate program. I had mentors like this who made it possible for me to be a PhD student today, and I want to lend the same support to underrepresented students for the rest of my career.
A lot is happening in this paragraph. I'm showing my DEI commitment extends beyond Harvard into national mentorship organizations. I'm showing scale (22 mentees right now). I'm showing outcomes (100% of last year's mentees got into grad school or post-bacs). And I'm showing how I actually mentor, not just that I do.
The detail about starting each mentoring relationship with an hour-long conversation matters more than it might look. It signals that my mentorship isn't transactional. I'm not just emailing them edits on their personal statements. I'm getting to know them as people first, and the writing feedback comes after.
Science Communication
I am also passionate about communicating science within the scientific community and to the public. To continue to improve my skills within the scientific community, I constantly seek out ways to share my work with my field on the national and international stage. I will capitalize on the opportunities here at Harvard to share posters and oral presentations in our weekly departmental data talks and frequent poster sessions. I will present at field-specific conferences like Keystone meetings and Gordon Research Conferences, as well as at larger meetings like the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. However, I also believe it is the responsibility of scientists to conduct public-facing communication about their research in a responsible and clear manner. I am a lead editor for the Science in the News blog and the Harvard Science Policy blog, where we regularly tackle topics about public health, basic biology as it applies to the general population, and specific science policy recommendations. This allows me to serve as a liaison between the sometimes-insular bubble of scientific research and the millions of people who are not intimately familiar with scientific journals and jargon.
A shorter paragraph that adds science communication to my profile. The Gilliam isn't a scicomm fellowship, but HHMI cares about public engagement, so showing I was already doing this kind of work made the application feel more complete.
I deliberately split scicomm into two categories: communicating within the scientific community (conferences, talks) and communicating to the general public (the blogs). They're different skills. Showing I understood the distinction was part of the point
Closing
Collectively, these experiences have shaped how I think about diversity in STEM and how much remains to be accomplished. I am endlessly thankful for the open-minded support of my mentor, Maria. Whenever I come to her to let her know about another outreach endeavor I want to take on, she enthusiastically supports me and respects that science is about much more than just lab work. I am also grateful for the support of my department leadership and administration, who are deeply knowledgeable about the resources here at Harvard and happy to connect me to information that answers the barrage of questions I always have. With support from the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship and its community of fellows and leaders, I will continue to advocate for those who are historically underrepresented in academia. I will accomplish this advocacy through mentoring undergraduate students, engaging in community outreach, and working to create a truly nurturing environment in academia for everyone. I hope to pursue these in conjunction with the Gilliam leadership structure, especially as it provides amazing resources to facilitate conversations and initiatives with my own PI here to start making big changes within our department. Providing students with the opportunity to gain insight into opaque application processes, learn bench techniques, and work closely with mentors is crucial to diversifying and ultimately revolutionizing ideologies within research. I will continue to work tirelessly for inclusion and representation whether or not I receive this fellowship, but I know that I would benefit tremendously from Gilliam's world-renowned training resources as well as the momentum for change that funding can provide. Thank you for your support of underrepresented scientists everywhere, and I hope we get the chance to work together in the future in the fight for a more diverse and welcoming academic scientific ecosystem.
The closing acknowledges my advisor (Maria) by name. This matters for the Gilliam specifically, because the fellowship is a joint application between student and advisor. The closing also lets me show that I'm not pretending my work happens in a vacuum. Maria's support is real and worth naming.
It also makes a direct case for why the Gilliam in particular. I told the committee I'd keep doing this work whether or not I received the fellowship, but that the fellowship's training resources and community would make the work better. That framing matters because it shows I'm chasing the mission, not just the funding.
I closed warmly on purpose. The line about doing this work fellowship or no fellowship takes pressure off the committee while still signaling commitment.
What I'd Do Differently Now
Looking back, I'd tighten the language. There are phrases here ("endlessly thankful," "world-renowned") I'd replace with something more concrete now. The advice I give my own coaching clients is to avoid phrases that could appear in someone else's essay. When everyone says "endlessly thankful," it stops meaning anything.
I'd also cut about 15% of the words. The two-page limit gave me room to be thorough and I used almost all of it, but density is almost always better in fellowship writing.
What I wouldn't change is the opening. Some of my coaching clients ask whether they're being too vulnerable in their statements. My answer is almost always no. The fellowship committee reads hundreds of essays. A specific, true, emotionally honest opening is one of the best ways to be remembered.
Working on your own Gilliam Career Statement and want feedback? I offer one-on-one fellowship coaching specifically for applicants like you. Also see my complete guide to the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship for more context on the full application.
