The UCCS Global Intercultural Research Center announced a new student research grant opportunity for $500. GLINT will award this grant to one undergraduate student engaged in intercultural research with a faculty member who seeks to address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. The deadline to apply is April 1.
GLINT Director Patty Witkowsky spoke about the main goals of the research center through the grant and how connecting with faculty to work on research can positively impact students.
“GLINT started almost eight years ago and is meant to be a research center for intercultural and international research. The purpose of the entire center is to really promote faculty research around global and intercultural issues.
“There’s a lot of work with the undergraduate student research, building up as well on campus. So [this is] just to give another opportunity to support students who are doing research with faculty on global and intercultural topics,” she said.
The GLINT research grant centers around fostering students’ relationships with faculty on campus and promoting a globally and interculturally conscious research environment. Each year, the grant alternates between undergraduate and graduate students.
“We don’t really feel like the undergraduate and the graduate students can really compete with each other; they’re on different levels,” Witkowsky said. “We’re offering for an undergraduate student right now for the eligibility, then next year it will be for a graduate student, and we’ll continue that cycle.”
According to Witkowsky, the grant encourages undergraduate research work on campus and supports students in their global and intercultural research with faculty.
“I think it really helps for students to start thinking about how they can be engaged in generating the knowledge around global and intercultural topics,” Witkowsky said.
With the GLINT research grant being $500, there is not much room for students to conduct research in the field by themselves. However, this provides an opportunity for students to use that money to support their research work with a faculty member.
Getting involved with a faculty member is an integral aspect of participating in the research grant. One way to connect with faculty, Witkowsky says, is through GLINT talks.
GLINT offers three faculty talks each semester. The upcoming GLINT talk is “Naming and Disrupting Whiteness in Education Policy and Practice” and will be streamed on YouTube on Tuesday, March 29.
A goal of the GLINT talks is to allow students to get involved. “If they see a topic they’re interested in, just attending that session. If they are interested in following up with a faculty member after the speech, connecting with them,” Witkowsky said.
“If students need coaching on how to create those conversations — what to say, what sounds right — they can reach out to people on campus, they can go to the Career Center and ask folks, they can go to their advisors [or] they can ask other faculty who maybe they feel comfortable with that are doing that kind of research,” she said.
Eligibility requirements include enrollment in at least six credit hours, minimum 3.0 GPA and sponsorship by a tenured, tenure-track or research faculty member. Research proposals should follow the format of three 300-word sections on: applicant’s academic background and research interest, research area and sponsoring faculty member, and potential impact of the grant for the applicant’s academic and career goals. Proposals should also include a letter of support from the faculty sponsor.
For further guidelines, see GLINT’s undergraduate research call for proposal sent to student emails on Feb. 20. To apply, submit materials to Witkowsky at [email protected] by Friday, April 1, at 11:59 p.m.
