GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS
The Council on Community-Based Partnerships recognizes outstanding achievements in engagement scholarship. Students, faculty, staff and their community partners are honored for excellence in community-based research.
Request for Proposals
The Council on Community-Based Partnerships and the Graduate School are pleased to invite faculty proposals to fund Community Engagement Graduate Fellowships. The selected Community Engagement Graduate Fellows and Faculty Advisors will be recognized during the Excellence in Community Engagement Awards Luncheon.
Guidlines
Three to four awards, provided through the Graduate School, will be made in the 2023–2024 funding cycle. Fellowships carry a $20,000 stipend payable in equal monthly installments over 9 months (fall and spring semesters), a full tuition grant for fall and spring, and a healthcare stipend. The start date for the award payments will be August 16, 2023, ending April 26, 2024.
Faculty members are responsible for completing and submitting the award application and nominating the student. The Council on Community-Based Partnerships will select three to four (depending on availability of funds) winning faculty proposals, with a potential graduate student identified to receive the award. Faculty are then required to confirm the selection of the student and recommend him or her to the Graduate School for approval by the Graduate School dean.
Student nominees must have been officially admitted to the Graduate School prior to the fellowship start date in the fall semester and be in a degree-seeking program. Students must be enrolled full time with 9 hours of graduate credits each semester that they receive the fellowship and not receiving any other fellowship or assistantship during the period of this award. Students must have completed their baccalaureate degree before they are eligible for this fellowship; therefore, those in special programs such as University Scholars are not eligible for this fellowship. To continue to receive the fellowship in the spring the student must continue to make satisfactory academic progress including maintaining a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00.
Please note that any amounts paid to students regardless of their source or nature may impact a student’s personal income taxes or Federal Financial aid. The extent of that impact depends on many different factors. So, the student(s) selected will need to consult their personal tax advisor regarding this award and if your student plans to receive federal loans or aid, he or she should contact the UA Student Financial Aid Office before accepting the fellowship.
Service requirement associated with these fellowships is 20 hours of service per week for the funded faculty member on the community engagement research project.
The funds for these awards will be administered through the Graduate School dean’s office. Once the fellows have been identified and approved as described previously, the Graduate School will prepare the PA forms. Proper routing of the forms may be discussed with Dee Cook, Fiscal Affairs Coordinator at 205-348-9857205-348-1007 or ddcook@ua.edu.
Guidlines
Download a PDF of the rubric used for the Graduate Fellowship applications here.
Outstanding Efforts in Community-Engagement Awards
Subcategories: Faculty or Staff | Student | Community Partner
Nominations for this award should demonstrate how the investigator considered needs, provided unique activity involving the community and the University in collaborative efforts, and how they built capacity within communities rather than merely provided a one-time service. Nominations should demonstrate how the principles of relevance, reciprocity, research, and resilience are applied to their community engaged scholarship activities.
Nominations for this award should demonstrate how the individual or group promotes civic learning and/or democratic engagement. Initiatives and projects in this area should develop civic capacity of students and/or community members through the promotion of civic values, civic knowledge, civic skills, and civic action, which are all necessary for thriving community and democratic society.
Nominations for this award should demonstrate how the educator practices community engaged teaching and learning by going beyond classroom experiences to connect theory and practice for students, collaborating with communities to design, implement and evaluate research solutions to solve problems, and enabling students to reflect critically on their experiences while investing in their own education.