Student Awards and Grants

The Dissertation Research Grant is an award paid by The Graduate School to assist doctoral students with expenses associated with research necessary to prepare dissertations. Awards will be up to $1,000. The tiers will be determined by the rankings of the review committee. The applicant must complete the online application and submit their CV as well as the major professor's statement form to The Graduate School prior to the deadline. 

The application cycle is open.

*Click here to view the fellowship eligibility guidelines (updated 11-6-24) 

The Graduate Student Research and Creativity Award  is designed to recognize the superior scholarship of FSU graduate students. All required nomination materials must be submitted as one PDF packet to James Beck (jpbeck@fsu.edu) via FSU Nifty by the deadline below.

FSU graduate students will be recognized for their outstanding contributions to research and creative endeavors at the Celebration of Graduate Student Excellence held each spring in April. Awards of $1,000.00 will be made to students in three disciplinary categories: Natural and Physical Sciences (includes mathematics and engineering), Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Humanities and Arts.

Criteria

1. Must be an active FSU degree-seeking graduate or professional student in good academic standing.
2. Must show evidence of outstanding scholarly/creative productivity as a graduate/professional student at FSU; if the effort is part of a team the nomination materials must clearly delineate the contributions of the applicant.
3. Must show evidence of national visibility in research/creative activity (e.g., publications, presentations, juried exhibits, or performances). This could also include evidence of recognition and honors in endeavors related to the research and/or creative activities.
4. Winners of the award will be required to complete and submit a video showcasing their research/creative endeavors for the Graduate School’s GradWorld FSU website. 

*Please review the Instruction Form below for more information regarding the nomination, submission and review process. The application cycle for this award is now open.

Sponsored annually by the Graduate School at Florida State University, the Graduate Student Leadership Award recognizes outstanding graduate student leaders who are making a positive difference in their scholarly/creative work, campus, and wider communities. Graduate students who exhibit strong leadership skills are encouraged to apply. The person selected for the prestigious Graduate Student Leadership Award will be recognized at the Celebration of Graduate Student Excellence held each spring semester in April. All nominees are recognized at the event. The Graduate Student Leadership Award recipient will also receive a $1,000 award.

Requirements

Each applicant must be an active, enrolled, FSU degree-seeking or professional graduate student in good academic standing and must provide the following to the Graduate School:

1. A personal essay that includes a rationale for receiving the Graduate Student Leadership Award. The essay needs to explicitly address the evaluation criteria noted in the Instruction Form. Maximum Length is 2 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt. font. Calibri, with 1-inch margins.
2. An up-to-date Curriculum Vitae (CV) or Resume
3. A Letter of Recommendation supporting the student for the Graduate Student Leadership Award. Maximum length is 3 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt. font, Calibri, with 1-inch margins. Only one (1) Letter of Recommendation should be provided by a faculty or administrator who can address the leadership skills and efforts of the student in light of the evaluation criteria. The letter can be co-written. It is strong encouraged that the faculty or administrator sends the Letter of Recommendation to the student so that it can be uploaded into the online application portal via Qualtrics during the submission process. However, if the faculty member or administrator does not feel comfortable doing this, the Letter of Recommendation can be sent via email directly to James Beck (see contact info below). 

General Nomination/Selection Process

An academic department or college may nominate a student of their choosing. Any graduate student interested in applying for the Graduate Student Leadership Award should consult with their program/unit and faculty/staff member who will be writing their Letter of Recommendation. Program faculty/staff are encouraged to identify students within their respective units who demonstrate strong leadership skills through the general competencies and criteria noted in the Instruction Form below.

The number of nominations each department or college (if no departmental subunits) may submit for the Graduate Student Leadership Award will be based upon its number of graduate students. Departments or colleges with fewer than 100 graduate students may nominate one candidate; department or colleges with 100-200 graduate students may nominate a maximum of two candidates; departments or colleges with over 200 graduate students may nominate a maximum of three candidates.

*Please review the Instruction Form below for more information regarding the nomination, submission and review process. The application cycle for this award is now open.

The Graduate School is pleased to announce a revision to the art competition that was established last year to recognize the artistic talents of graduate students at Florida State University. Cash awards will be coupled with an exhibition of the selected works in the Honors, Scholars and Fellows House on the FSU Campus for one year (April 2020-April 2021).

We are looking for high quality works of art that clearly show excellence in visual arts. In addition, the artist’s statement will be assessed for its success in conveying to the judges (and a broad, general audience) why the artist was moved to create the piece, what the artist is trying to convey to the viewer and how successful the statement was in creating a deeper understanding and connection to the specific work presented. Consider the combination of the art work and the statement about the work to be a type of visual “Three Minute Thesis” combo…. bringing to life what the artwork is about.

In the statement, we are looking for the “so what factor.” Questions to consider addressing are: What is this?; Why does this piece matter?; Why is it important?; What is the connection to your field of study and what broader connections can one see in the work?, etc.

While all mediums will be considered, there are limited exhibition spaces in the Honors, Scholars and Fellows House as noted below. The graduate awards will be presented at the Celebration of Graduate Student Excellence held each spring in the month of April. Up to eight applicants will be selected as finalists whose works will be exhibited at the Honors House. From that group, another jurying will select three graduate student winners each of whom will be awarded $500. In addition, there will be a $250 People’s Choice Award that will be determined by the votes cast by the attendees of the opening exhibition. The award winners must agree to display their “winning” art work in the Honors, Scholars and Fellows House and the installation must remain up for one year (April 2020-April 2021). Please note that the three or four winners will be invited to exhibit 2-3 additional works in the Graduate School offices and 4^th Floor Gallery Hall. The other finalists will each be recognized with an Honorable Mention designation and receive a $50 award and are encouraged to provide their artwork for display in the Honors, Scholars, and Fellows House.

The competition is open to all currently enrolled, degree seeking graduate and professional students in good academic standing. Applicants should consider the criteria for submitted artwork noted below under Guidelines.

The identification of the award recipients will be a two-step process. First, a diverse panel of judges (faculty, staff, students) will identify a group of up to eight finalists. The judges will consider technical/artistic merit, personal appeal, as well as the artist’s statement. Second, three graduate student winners will be chosen from this group by a committee of faculty and staff from the Honors, Scholars and Fellows House, and the Art on Campus Director.

*The application cycle for this award is now closed!

Application/Submission Process

Applicants must complete the form. This will ask for:

• your contact info
• student status info.
• image of your work in jpeg format, 1-3 no larger than 2MB
• work specifications and completion date
• Technical description of work (Materials used, size, date made)(Max: 100 words),
• Artist’s statement about the work that includes the conceptual background of work and the ideas/meaning/story of the work. The purpose is to have a broad audience understand the work and create in the viewer a strong connection to the work. Note that while visual quality of the work is an important element, a major part of the award is for the the abiltiy of the artist to convey an Understanding and Appreciation of the Visual Arts to the audience. Artist’s Statement must be MINIMUM:300 words, MAXIMUM: 500 words

If you have questions regarding artwork eligibility or installation, please contact the Art on Campus Director, Professor Lilian Garcia-Roig at lgarciaroig@fsu.edu

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT™) is a research communication competition developed by The University of Queensland, Australia. The exercise develops academic, presentation, and research communication skills and supports the development of students' capacities to effectively explain their research in language appropriate to an intelligent but non-specialist audience.

Doctoral students have three minutes to present a compelling oration on their dissertation topic and its significance. 3MT™ is not an exercise in trivializing or ‘dumbing-down’ research but forces students to consolidate their ideas and crystalize their research discoveries.

All 3MT™Finalists will receive a certificate and a $100 award and are eligible for one of the three awards: 1^st Place ($1,000), 2^nd Place ($750), and the People’s Choice ($500) selected by the audience.

Please click here to view more information about this competition.