Graduate Student Travel Scholarships

The ASHE annual conference has evolved into a great resource for graduate student professional development, offering numerous valuable opportunities. Whether it is presenting a poster or paper, networking with faculty members who they have read, attending sessions or a pre-conference, ASHE has been integral to helping aspiring scholars begin their careers.

To support graduate student growth and development, ASHE established the Graduate Student Travel Scholarship program in 2008 and as of 2022, had awarded more than 312 scholarships. In recent years, ASHE members have significantly bolstered their support for graduate student members, enabling us to provide scholarships to a larger number of students

For the 2023 Annual Conference, ASHE is committed to awarding at least 20 $400 travel scholarships to graduate students. Any donations received between now and August 2, 2023 will add to this allocation and allow us to support more students.

Evaluation Criteria | Application Timeline | Expectations of Recipients | Committee | Contact

Evaluation Criteria

To qualify for a scholarship, an applicant must be:

  1. A current member of ASHE.
  2. A graduate student at the time of application and at the time of the annual conference in November.
  3. Traveling to and participating in the annual conference.
  4. A first-time scholarship recipient. Prior recipients are not eligible to apply, excluding scholarships awarded in 2020.

When reviewing applications, the Scholarship Committee will make decisions based on the following preferred and demonstrated attributes:

  1. Significance of the applicant's need for funding.
  2. Significance of what the applicant will gain by attending the conference. 
  3. Applicants who were accepted to present at the conference receive preference in the review process. Note: Proposal decisions will be sent out in early July by the ASHE Program Committee. 
  4. Applicants who serve in a volunteer role for the association (e.g., session chairs) receive preference in the review process.
  5. Applicants who serve in leadership volunteer roles for the association (e.g., Graduate Student Committee) conference receive preference in the review process.

Review Process

  1. Each application will be reviewed by at least two reviewers.
  2. The review is a masked review and identifying information of each applicant should be removed prior to distribution to the committee. Any reviewer who identifies a conflict of interest will have the specific review re-assigned.
  3. The rubric used will be based on the criteria listed above to ensure objectivity and consistency in review.

Timeline

  • Applications for the 2023 Graduate Student Travel Scholarship will open in early June 2023
  • Applications are due on July 13, 2023 at Noon Central/Minneapolis Time
  • Notifications will be sent out in mid-August 2023.

Notification & Fund Distribution

  1. Once recipients are selected, the committee chair will work with the Executive Director to notify recipients. 
  2. The scholarship is to be used by graduate students who are studying at an educational institution that normally maintains a regular faculty and curriculum and normally has a regularly organized body of students in attendance at the place where the educational activities are carried on. Scholarships should be used to support travel to the ASHE General Conference. As such, the scholarship is not taxable as detailed at IRS.gov - Grants To Individuals.
  3. Awardees will receive the scholarship within four weeks of notification of selection. Prior to distributing the check, the Executive Director will confirm conference registration of the recipient. The Executive Director will also confirm attendance after the conference; if a recipient does not attend the conference, the funds will be due back to the Association. 

Expectations of Recipients

  1. Recipients will write a donor thank you letter to be distributed to the next year’s donors.
  2. Serve as a reviewer for the 2024 scholarship process.
  3. The Scholarship Committee will work with the Executive Director and leadership volunteers to determine ways in which scholarship recipients can give back to the association. This may include assisting with attendee check-in at the annual conference, graduate student programming at the annual conference, writing a blog post, and/or serving as a scholarship application reviewer in subsequent years.

Committee

The Graduate Student Scholarship Committee shall determine an application and review process as well as select recipients. There shall be five members of the committee: a chair who will serve a one-year term as vice chair and a one-year term as chair, one member who will serve a one-year term, one member of the Board of Directors who will serve a one-year term, and the Executive Director serving ex officio and without a vote. At least two of the voting members of this committee should be graduate students. Members will be appointed by the Board of Directors at the recommendation of the President who will confer with Graduate Student Members of the Board.

  • Chair: Brandon Smith*, Michigan State University 
  • Member: Ty McNamee, The University of Mississippi
  • Member: Marisa Lally*, North Carolina State University
  • Board Member: Charlie Amáyá Scott*, University of Denver
  • ASHE Executive Director Jason Guilbeau (ex officio, non-voting)

*Indicates Graduate Student members of the committee.

Reviewers

The committee will appoint reviewers from the pool of previous award recipients who are current members of the Association or other reviewers who are current members of the Association as necessary. Reviewers are typically past scholarship recipients.

Contact

If further questions exist, please contact us at conference@ashe.ws.