by Applications are open for the Southern Association of Colleges and Employer’s Research Fellowship and Professional Development Scholarships. The applications close Friday, February 28, 2020. To submit an application for either of these opportunities, please visit: https://www.soace.org/research-fellowships-scholarships
Research Fellowship
The Research Fellowship is an opportunity for SoACE to promote and support research and study projects that will further the state professional purpose of SoACE and its members. The research must fall within the mission of SoACE. Last year’s winner, Annie Shealy from the University of South Carolina, is in the midst of her fellowship that will conclude in fall 2021. Her research focuses on providing a better understanding and best practices to employer relations outreach and subsequent strategies. She and her team hope to determine significant factors that can utilize a predictive model to maximize outreach resources and be more effective in targeting companies and industries of good fit. She explains that the fellowship has given her and her team the motivation to dive into data that has been collected in the past and is now being analyzed due to the support of the fellowship. She explains why SoACE members should apply to this opportunity by saying, “It is 100% worth applying! For context, I was in my first 6 months in career services when I applied. I did not think I had a chance of being selected, but it was a fantastic exercise in proposal writing, and it has truly catapulted my learning and development as a career service professional. I mean how often in higher education do you have funds to just research and explore a passion project? I believe if you are on the fence, go for it!”
Professional Development Scholarships
In addition to awarding one research fellowship, SoACE will be offering three scholarships to career service professionals and employer members. Two of the three are Professional Development Scholarships that will provide a maximum of $2000 to be used for a professional development program, event, resource, or certification toward a related activity of the member’s choice. The third is a SoACE Employer Relations Summit Scholarship that will provide a maximum of $1000 to be used for the Employer Relations Summit this summer in Fort Worth, Texas. One of last year’s winners, Katie Ramirez from Trinity University explained the impact the scholarship had with this, “The SoACE scholarship allowed me to attend a specialty conference I never would’ve been able to otherwise. I was able to make some new employer connections as well as gather critical insights for students that I could not have by just visiting websites, making calls, etc. Thank you SoACE!”
Questions? Contact the Professional Development Scholarship & Research Fellowships Chair: Heidi Gilbert, Virginia Tech (hlgilbert@vt.edu) or 540-231-6241.
