5th Annual Summer Grant Writing Institute
30 industrious faculty members from 10 colleges and universities, along with 12 mentors, came together at the Regents' in Oklahoma City for a week to work on grant proposals in July. They created requests for $8.5 million to improve campus programs and conduct research. Colleges represented were CU, LU, NSU, OCCC, OSU, OU, RSC, SOSU, SWOSU and UCO. Sponsors of the Institute included the Oklahoma State Regents, EPSCoR, Chesapeake Energy, and the Noble Foundation. Oklahoma students will reap many benefits from the projects that are funded. Next summer's Grant Writing Institute is July 26-30, and application information will be online at www.okhighered.org. 2010 might be your year to apply for funds for that special project you have in mind!
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Thank you to the 2009 Summer Grant Writing Institute sponsors!
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INTERNSHIPS: A SPECIAL TYPE OF GRANT
There
was a time when an intern job description fell under two words: coffee
run. Interns now have real responsibility. Interns can bring value to a company. With
unemployment numbers skyrocketing, several companies are on a hiring freeze.
Despite this situation, companies should still take advantage of internships. Using interns helps keep grads in Oklahoma and gives students a rich and practical set of experiences. The
Tulsa Chamber of Commerce provides companies with various education tools. One program titled "intern
in a box" informs a company how to properly work with interns. Interns use to just follow people around; now they learn and practice skills and gain an understanding of exactly what the business
does. Unpaid internships are an option when companies a low on funds. Many students want the experience
and are willing to do it for free.
Several
Oklahoma
companies took incentives to keep their internship programs alive. The
International Facility Management Association Tulsa branch developed a program where one OSU student
would have an internship with four local businesses. The IFMA provided the costs of
hiring an intern for an eight-week period. Each company would utilize the
intern for a two-week period over the summer. The project was so successful that they hope to expand it to more students.
The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science
and Technology offers a program that supports college undergraduate internships
in the state by encouraging students to prepare for careers in science and
technology. The Research and Development Intern Partnerships program provides Oklahoma companies
$10,000 to $30,000 per year for one- to two-year projects. The sponsoring
technology based business supplies the required match. OCAST encourages companies to be very aggressive, especially in
these economic times. The development of talent in our industry makes our industry
stronger.
Undergraduate
interns vary in age. Some are at the start of their college learning experience
while others have just graduated. Either way, internships are designed to help
aid the next step. Internships are a great type of benefit to our college programs.
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President Announces Career Grants
Amy Cerato, Ph.D.
On July 12, 2009, President Obama named 100 beginning researchers recipients of the 2008 Presiden- tial Early Career Awards for Scientists and
Engineers (PE- CASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U. S.
government on young professionals in the early stages of their independent
research careers. The recipients of the PECASE awards will be honored this fall
at a White House ceremony.
Twenty of the 2008 winners were nominated
by NSF and were selected from a pool of 455 grant recipients of NSF's
Faculty Early Career Development. OU's Amy Cerato (pictured), Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science is one of these distinguished grant win- ners. She received $400,000 from NSF for "CAREER: The Role of Specific Surface Area and Cation Exchange Capacity in
Under- standing and Predicting Expansive Soil Behavior." More than 2500 proposals
were reviewed for these awards.
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TCC Outreach Center
A converted convenience store that serves as an
outreach center for Tulsa
Community College will
expand dramatically thanks to a $250,000 donation from Bank of America. The
center, at 21st Street
and Garnett Road,
opened in 2007 and hosts GED and English-as-a-second-lang- uage classes. It also
offers some credit courses on site. Its mission includes bringing higher
education information to under- served populations in Tulsa. Beth Shumate, TCC Director of Sponsored Programs, is pictured.
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SWOSU Upward Bound Grant
The SWOSU Upward Bound program received a grant of $378,592 from the US Department of Education. The Principal Investigator is Ms. Jamie Novey, Upward Bound Director. The project supports an
outreach program and a residential summer program to
encourage first generation, economically disadvantaged high school students to
meet the academic and social challenges of higher education.
Pictured are Upward Bound Participants
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SWOSU 40th Annual Jazz Festival Grant
Dr. Keith Talley, Department of Music, pictured, received $6,000 from the Oklahoma
Arts Council
to support development
of appreciation and understanding of jazz among SWOSU students,
faculty and the surrounding public.
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SWOSU Oklahoma Space Grant Consortium
Madeline Baugher, Department of Accounting,
Computer Science and Entrepreneurship, received $32,500 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) through The University
of Oklahoma
for scholarships
for students interested in pursuing space related educational programs and
specific projects created by students and faculty mentors. A few of the
projects to be supported during FY10 are a BalloonSatProject,
a First Tech Challenge Robot Design Competition, an Astronomical Spectroscopy
Project, and a Project to study rocket history, design and flight targeted to
underrepresented groups. Industry Partners are invited to join in
supporting students by partially funding specific projects.
Pictured are Tony Wise, an industry partner; Craig Easter, a SWOSU
student; and Madeline Baugher, SWOSU PI.
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UCO OCAST Aging Research Grant
Dr. Melissa Powers and Dr. Michelle Gray, Kinesiology
and Health Studies department, won a health research grant from OCAST, for
$140,000, for research on Comparison of Traditional
Resistance Training with a Novel Power Training Program among Older Women.
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UCO Olympic Committee Grant
Dr. Greg Farnell, Dr. Paul
House, and Dr. Michelle Gray are continuing a study begun by House, et. al., a comparison of education, income, employment, and quality of life between paralympic athletes and non-athletes.
The grant is for $20,000, for one year from the US
Olympic Committee.
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UCO NSF MRI DNA Sequencer Grant
Dr. Michelle Haynie, Assistant Professor of Biology, has
received $130,006 from the National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation (NSF MRI)
program to purchase a DNA sequencer for research in molecular biology.
Acquisition of this sequencer will provide advanced research opportunities and
stimulate new ideas for collaboration among faculty and students. Dr.
Greg Wilson serves as Co-PI on the grant.
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UCO Contemporary Music Academy
An investment in the University
of Central Oklahoma's Academy of Contemporary Music isn't just an
investment in students, it's an investment in Oklahoma. Organizers prepared for the first class that started in August, and volunteers worked to raise money to cover costs of opening the academy.
They're nearly halfway to their goal of $2 million. The campaign will run through November.
Students can earn a two-year associate's degree of applied science in contemporary
music in performance or music production. That will produce a generation of
artists and people who can help build the music industry in the state. Support include $50,000 from Love's Travel Stops & Country
Stores and a $30,000 grant from the Kirkpatrick Foundation. A portion of the
startup funds, $750,000, was taken from a $3 million unrestricted gift given in
2006 by Troy
and Dollie Smith.
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Dear Faculty and Administrators,
This newsletter contains a series of celebration announcements for those who have worked hard to obtain grants for research and development on Oklahoma higher education campuses. The energy and dedication to seek grants is rewarded with enhanced experiences for Oklahoma students. We hope you enjoy this monthly grants newsletter. If you have news to share with others around the State, send the grant information and a jpg photo to [email protected]. Sincerely, Dr. Linda Mason Coordinator for Grant Writing Assistance
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ECU NSF Future Teacher Grant
East Central University in Ada and eight
high-need service area school districts (Ada, Allen, Byng, Latta, Lexington,
Seminole, Sulphur and Vanoss), announce the Robert Noyce Teacher
Scholarship Program beginning January 2010. The goal of this program is to
recruit teacher scholars from among academically talented students with
strong academic backgrounds and content knowledge in mathematics, during their
sophomore year, who would otherwise not consider K-12 mathematics teaching as a
career. The project received $900,000 from NSF DUE, Division of Undergraduate Education. The project principle investigator is
Robert Ferdinand (pictured), and Co-Investigators are Linda Braddy (pictured), John Bedford, and Heather Hannah (pictured).
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OCU Native American Legal Resource Center Grant
The Native American Legal Resource Center at the
Oklahoma City University School of Law has received a $250,000 gift from an anonymous donor to assist
its American Indian wills program launched in January.The grant will allow students to gain practical experience in what are
often complex areas of law, while members of the 37 tribes throughout Oklahoma get valuable
assistance that might otherwise be unavailable to them.
Five service dates are scheduled for the fall 2009 semester.
The gift came about because of work performed in a 2007 estate case
involving Indian land in the jurisdiction of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. As a result of
the legal work of Five OCU law alumni and a fiduciary trust officer, an
out-of-state beneficiary decided to donate the funds to the NALRC's American
Indian wills program. |
Cameron University President Cindy Ross recently announced a
$15,000 grant from George Moses, Chip Kimball and Cherry Phillips of the
Fannie Elise Smith Charitable Foundation to establish the Fannie Elise Smith
Charitable Foundation Scholarship to assist deserving full-time students
enrolled at CU. Before her death in 2008, Smith served as an Army nurse until her retirement at
the rank of major in 1968.
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ORU Nursing Grant
The Oral Roberts
University school of
nursing has received a $1.1 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the US Department of Health and Human Services to recruit minority and disadvantaged
students to become nurses. Recruitment will focus on rural areas of Oklahoma with the expectation that students
will return to these parts of the state after graduation. Money from the grant will go toward eight $5,000
scholarships and 20 stipends of $300 a month up to $3,000.
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SOSU Native American Excellence in Education Grant
Southeastern
Oklahoma State
University will be
receiving a federal grant of $1.16 million from the U S Department of Education Office of Indian Education over the next four years to continue
its Native American Excellence In Education program. Chris Wesberry, pictured with Choctaw and Creek high school students, is the project director and principal investigator. Co-principal investigators are Dr. Charles Weiner, Assistant Vice President
for Academic Affairs, and Tim Boatmun, Associate Dean of Academic Services.
Involved in the original grant from the Choctaw Nation of
Oklahoma were John Jackson, Angel Rowland and Dana Buchanan. The project, a collaboration between Southeastern and The
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, with the support of the local public schools,
provides support and training for 12 Native American students in completing a
pre-service education program that leads to a Bachelor of Education degree.
According to "Diverse Issues In Higher Education'' magazine,
Southeastern ranks sixth in the nation in producing Native American graduates
in all disciplines combined.
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OSU Mental Health Grant
Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences professor Richard
Wansley was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Oklahoma Department of Mental
Health and Substance Abuse Services to study mental health issues in
correctional facilities. The grant will allow behavioral health students to
study with state Department of Corrections psychologists.
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OSU-Tulsa Energy Research
Oklahoma State University-Tulsa researcher Daryoosh
Vashaee is developing a type of nanotechnology that can convert waste heat to energy.
His process to produce a clean, alternative energy source could reduce the use
of fossil fuels. Vashaee was awarded a $700,000 grant from the Air Force Office
of Scientific Research and a $200,000 grant from the National Science
Foundation to perform research associated with thermoelectrics.
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OSU Biochemistry Research
Junpeng Deng, a structural biochemist in the department of biochemistry and molecular
biology in the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University,
has received a $1.34 million grant
from the National Institutes of Health.Deng and first-year doctorate student Brian Krumm made a
discovery that was the first step toward a pharmaceutical medication for
poxvirus-caused diseases and a treatment for autoimmune diseases. The grant was
issued to continue the research.
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Murray State College Receives Part of ARRA Industrial Grant
An infusion of federal money totaling nearly $900,000 will
be used to jump-start economic development in four rural Oklahoma communities. The state was included
in a nationwide $15.3 million grant windfall for 145 recipients through the
federal Recovery Act, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Rural
Business Enterprise Program funds for education and training, community
development and technical assistance for towns and development agencies. This federal money will help create
new businesses and keep jobs from moving out of Oklahoma.
A $400,000 grant to the Johnston County Industrial Authority
will go toward construction of a 6,000-square-foot building in an industrial
park just west of Tishomingo, announced Cecil Carter, an economic development specialist at Murray State
College who wrote the grant. The building will occupy one of eight underdeveloped sites
in the park, and when construction is completed will house a subsidiary of a
high-tech machine shop. In the southeastern community of Antlers, almost
$100,000 will be used to expand the home base of Mays Home Health Care to add about 2,500 square feet to the company's headquarters. Fort Towson,
in the far southeastern corner of the state, is planning to turn its $300,000
grant into a new building on land owned by the Fort Towson Industrial
Authority along US 70 highway. The Minco Community Foundation Inc. received $87,000 for expansion.
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OCCC Receives Firestone Grant
Firestone, Complete
Auto Care has given $10,000 to Oklahoma
City Community College's
Automotive Department and the Maintenance and Light Vehicle Repair Program. Firestone
will continue to enroll new automotive technicians into the program offered at
OCCC. They find it
highly beneficial to support the program and utilize in the
classroom the services of the program.
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SWOSU NSF LSAMP Grant
Dr. Brian Campbell, of the Southwestern Oklahoma State University Department of Chemistry and Physics, received $12,141 from the NSF Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program through OSU for efforts to recruit minority students
to enter these fields. Pictured are
Dr. Campbell, and students, Lucy Ramon,
Courtney Garcia, and Abbie Ntreh.
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SWOSU Lone Star Athletic Conference Grant
Kelli Litsch, Associate Athletics Director,
Athletics Department of SWOSU received $2,500 from the National Collegiate Athletic Association
through the Lone Star Conference
to support athletic
students and faculty by providing technology equipment for athletic students.
Pictured are student Samuel Burnett and Kelli Litsch.
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Northwest Oklahoma Concert Series Grant
Northwestern Oklahoma State University received $10,800 from the Oklahoma Arts Council to bring
musicians and musical events to Northwest Oklahoma
communities. Dr. Steven Kingsbury,
Chair of Fine Arts and Director of Choral and Vocal studies, is the principal
investigator of the grant.
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NWOSU Social Work Grant
Through the University of Oklahoma,
the Oklahoma Department of Health and Human Services and Northwestern, an additional grant of $3,000 supports students who are pursuing child welfare careers
through financial support as well as employment opportunities. The original
CWPEP grant supports university training and support. The principal
investigator of this project is Ms.
Kylene Rehder, Chair, Department of Social Work.
Shown in picture are Linda Smith, University of Oklahoma
CWPEP Program Coordinator and Kylene
Rehder, NWOSU.
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NSU S-STEM Grant
Northeastern Oklahoma State's Dr. Rick Matzen recieved $144,040 from the National Science Foundation for scholarships for academically talented, financially needy students,
enabling them to enter the workforce after completion of an associate,
baccalaureate, or graduate-level degree in science and engineering disciplines. |
NSU DuBois Chautauqua Humanities Grant
Dr. Jocelyn Payne received $1,000 from the O klahoma Humanities Council to bring a Chautauqua-type event to Northeastern
State University's
Broken Arrow
campus on September 9, 2009. Full-time Chautauquan Charles Everett Pace will
perform as W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963), the first African-American to earn the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard
University. Mr. Pace will
also present a mini-workshop on the historical period in which Dr. DuBois
lived. In a separate, more academically-focused presentation, Mr. Pace will
share insights on the performance skills associated with public presentation of
historical biographical materials. All of Mr. Pace's presentations will be open
to the public, free of charge.
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Grants for Oklahoma higher education are so diverse and provide wonderful programs for students! Good luck to you in pursuing your project dream!
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Sincerely,
Linda Mason
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
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