Each semester, the Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities (RSCA) office offers the Academic Year Undergraduate Research Experience (AYURE) grant to support faculty-mentored student scholarship.
AYURE Program Funding
- Up to $750 for supplies, participant payments, etc. to carry out the project. For more details, see our chart of purchase types allowed by each RSCA grant.
Eligibility
These competitive grants are open to all undergraduate students and their full-time faculty mentors.
Projects must satisfy these core criteria:
- Through one-on-one training from the faculty expert, the project extends the student’s learning and professional development beyond what is possible in the classroom.
- Projects are also intensive, taking the semester or longer to complete. Mentors should meet at least weekly with their student to discuss progress and problems that arise during the semester.
- The student is involved at a high level in multiple phases of the project.
Most projects involve only one faculty mentor and one student. But we have occasionally supported larger projects with two faculty mentors and/or two students.
AYURE Application
- Spring 2024 AYURE application (WORD).
The Fall 2024 Applications will be announced early that semester.
You might find it useful to consult a recent rubric (AYURE Proposal Evaluation sheet) used by the review committee, these AYURE & SURE Application tips, and the samples below.
Samples of Prior Proposals (pdfs)
- SUREexample_Arts; SUREexample_Arts2
- SUREexample_Biological Sciences; SUREexample_Biological Sciences2
- SUREexample_Humanities; SUREexample_Humanities2
- SUREexample_Social Sciences; SUREexample_Social Sciences2
*These sample proposals were for our summer grant (SURE). That application is very similar to the AYURE one. Each was considered strong by the RSCA Board, though, of course, none are flawless. Note that the application questions in these older samples might be slightly different than those on the current application.
Congratulations to all Spring 2024 AYURE award recipients!
Paula Abruzzo (Psychobiology), ‘25
Faculty Mentor: Giordana Grossi (Psychology)
Project Title: An Electrophysiological Exploration of Orthographic Precision
Trevor Fisher (Cellular Biology), ‘24
Faculty Mentor: Maureen Morrow (Biology)
Project Title: Comparative Genomics of Collimonas Bacteria
Liliana Kershner (Physics), ‘24
Faculty Mentor: Catherine Herne (Physics and Astronomy)
Project Title: Generating Optical Vortices in Calcite Crystals
Kyle Kravitz (Mechanical Engineering), ‘24
Faculty Mentor: Rachmadian Wulandana (Mechanical Engineering)
Project Title: Investigating the Influence of Electrode Geometries on Electrolysis for Coral Biomineralization through Computer Simulation
Julia Lombard (Psychology), ‘23
Faculty Mentor: Glenn Geher (Psychology)
Project Title: Slow Down, You're Doing Fine: Examining the Relationships Between Awe, Time Perception, and Life History Strategy Theory
Lara Palombi (Computer Science), ‘24
Faculty Mentor: Michael Curry (Computer Science)
Project Title: 3D Printer Control Software
Matthew Sandler (Biology), ‘24
Faculty Mentor: Lydia Bright (Biology)
Project Title: Complete Genome Sequence of Paramecium Buetschlii
Ashlyn Scaria (Biology/Sociology), ‘24
Faculty Mentor: Pamela St. John (Chemistry)
Project Title: Quantifying Deuterated BPA Retained in Planaria at Various Exposure Concentrations
Allyson Sheneman (Astronomy and Biology), ‘24
Faculty Mentor: Maureen Morrow (Biology)
Project Title: The effect of the Napanoch Point Forest Fire on Soil Bacteria
