Undergraduate Summer Fellowship
Office of the Dean
College of Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Summer Fellowships support student-initiated
scholarship and creative activities completed under the direction of faculty mentors. Fellowships
include a stipend of $4000 for the student and up to $500 for research related expenses (e.g.,
materials, transportation, field work) needed by the student for the completion of the project.
Faculty will provide mentorship over the summer to help a student develop, execute and analyze
an original scholarly or artistic project. The faculty mentor may be paid a $500 stipend directly
or may choose to have the funds added to their CAS research expense account. Please note that
faculty may only supervise one award-winning student per summer.
Awardees must be majors in the College of Arts & Sciences and faculty mentors must be fulltime CAS faculty during the period of the award. Students are required to work full-time on their
scholarship for a designated period of eight weeks in the summer. The $4,000 award is expected
to cover living expenses during this time. Any summer session courses taken by a student must
fall outside the eight weeks identified as their scholarship period.
Application Requirements
• Applicants must have a primary CAS major with a minimum major GPA of 3.3 and a
minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0.
• Summer awards are made only to students who are returning to AU in the fall.
• All applications must include:
o a cover page with the title of the project, the names and email addresses of the
student and faculty mentor, and the student’s primary major; if applicable include
secondary majors and minors.
o an abstract (300 word maximum) and a short list of key words.
o the proposal itself, limited to 1,000 words (not including references). Describe the
project (exactly what you will do), explain the project’s significance in terms of your
field, and provide information regarding the academic training that will enable you to
undertake this proposed activity.
o a timeline for completion.
o a letter of support from the intended faculty mentor.
• Awardees are required to file final report, co-signed by their faculty sponsor, within 30 days
of completing their scholarly activity.
The scholarship is competitive. The College will make eight or more awards distributed across
each of the Clusters: Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences. The application
review committee will be composed of the CAS Associate Dean of Research, Associate Dean for
Undergraduate Studies, the CAS Research Committee and possibly faculty representatives drawn
from the academic units.
Award winners will be expected to publically present their completed work at the CAS Robin
Rafferty Mathias Student Research Conference in the academic year following the award.
Awardees will also attend a special luncheon. They also may be asked to speak to prospective
students during Preview Days about their scholarship.
Applications should be submitted to the Associate Dean of Research of the College of Arts
and Sciences at casresearch@american.edu by January 31, 2016.