Professional Opportunities Development Fund

Please submit all correspondence concerning the Professional Opportunities Development Fund to gpscgrant@email.arizona.edu


Guidelines:

  1. The event or project being funded must take place within six months of the date of application.

  2. There is a maximum award of $1,500 allowed for any given event or project.

  3. At least three UA graduate or professional students must be directly involved in the event for which funding in sought.

  4. Any given student can only be involved in one funded project or event per year. (Students may apply as many times as they wish, however.)

  5. Awardees must acknowledge GPSC funding in their event announcements and promotional materials.

  6. A follow-up report will be required of all grant recipients. (Details on the format of the follow-up letter will be provided in the award letters.)

 

Grants will be awarded up to eight times per year. The application deadlines are:

August 15th
September 15th
October 15th
November 15th
January 15th
February 15th
March 15th
April 15th
June 15th

 

Please provide the following, in this order:

  • a synopsis (maximum 2 pages) of what you will be doing and a description of the purpose of your event (or project), a description of how it will encourage professional development for the students involved and what the benefit to the university community will be,

  • a letter of recommendation from a UA faculty member,

  • a list of names of the students (at least three) directly involved in the planning of the event and the number of semester hours they have completed at the University of Arizona,

  • a statement signed by all students mentioned in (iii) stating that they are in good academic standing, and

  • a brief biography of any invited speakers.

 

Send materials to:

Attention: GPSC POD Grants
Administration Bldg. 322
P.O. Box 210066

Applications must be received by 5:00pm on the deadline date. In the event that a given deadline does not fall on a business day, applications must be received by noon of the first business day following the posted deadline.

 

Evaluation Process:

A committee of GPSC representatives, the Appropriations Committee, evaluates the applications. We feel that this is appropriate as the GPSC currently represents a broad spectrum of academic areas. Members of the committee will not evaluate people that they know or anyone from their own department.

Applications will not be considered unless all instructions are followed (i.e., all required parts of the application are present). Only one POD grant per year will be awarded to any individual or group of individuals. Depending on the number of applications, some priority may be given to students in programs with lower resource bases.

The potential positive impact of the event on the professional development of the students involved, the benefit to the university community, and the originality of the event/project will be key factors used in evaluating all applications for funding. The Appropriations Committee will pay particular attention to the degree to which graduate/professional students are involved in the planning and implementation of the event. Applicants are advised to specifically address this issue in the synopsis of the event.

Requests that accurately reflect the resources needed to hold the event (or carry out the project) for which funding is requested will be viewed positively by the Appropriations Committee.

Evidence of efforts on behalf of a group to seek funding from other sources will be viewed positively. Similarly, Groups should not expect the GPSC to fund the entire cost of 'big ticket' events or projects.

 

How to Appeal Rejected Submissions:

  • All appeals shall be submitted in writing to the GPSC Internal Affairs Vice-President within 10 working days of notification regarding a funding decision.

  • An appeals committee shall be formed by the GPSC President consisting of the Appropriations Board Chairperson and two other GPSC members.

  • The appeals committee shall review the appeal and forward their decision to the GPSC for a final decision.

  • All appeals must be initiated by the original POD Grant applicants, and a representative of the applicants must be notified of the GPSC meeting where the appeal shall be heard.