YU Awarding Students $3,600 for Summer Research Scholarship Fund
Yeshiva University will be offering summer research funding for a small number of student positions, YU announced in an email sent to the student body on Monday, March 21. Students must be nominated in order to be eligible for the research funds, either by themselves or by faculty members actively engaged in research projects.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Selma Botman and the rest of the selection committee are looking to select at most 10 students ideally choosing one student from each discipline taught at YU. The disciplines include the sciences, humanities, social sciences and Judaic studies, each with one student from Yeshiva College (YC) and one from Stern College for Women (SCW). There will also be a business discipline in which two Sy Syms School of Business (SSSB) students — one from Wilf and one from Beren — will take part.
The stipend awarded to the chosen students will be $3,600 for a two-month research opportunity. For the possibility of shorter research projects, the stipend will be prorated. In total, the university will be allocating $36,000 to students’ research this summer. The money comes from the budget of the provost’s office.
“The YU Administration wants to provide opportunities for undergraduate research to those students who can not or have not been able to obtain external positions,” said Dean of Science Management and Clinical Professor of Physics Edward Berliner, who is on the selection committee. “Summer research is an invaluable tool for students to discover what most interests them, where they are most talented, and where they can contribute the most. In addition, it gives them an opportunity to interact with scholar practitioners who can help provide guidance and network contact in the years to come.”
Faculty members who nominate students will need to draft a short, two-paragraph summation of the research and the student’s opportunity for growth from said research.
If students self-nominate, they must submit a one-page summary of their proposed research with details including how long their research term will be, what their role will be in the research and what materials they will need. Such students will also need their research summary to be signed by a faculty member agreeing to serve as the student’s mentor over their research. An unofficial transcript must also be submitted to the committee.
Nominations are due by April 6. The March email stated that the committee will meet in mid-April to confirm and conclude their selections and will be announcing the results to students and faculty soon after.
According to Berliner, the committee will be looking for students who have the talent, proficiency and aptitude to construct and complete a research initiative with the help and counsel of a faculty member over a two-month maximum period. The committee will decide on these traits of a candidate in addition to factors including GPA, a letter of recommendation from the mentor and the quality of a proposed research project.
The summer research scholarship fund has been long-standing, starting in 2009, and is making its return since being discontinued from the onset of COVID. This returning initiative will be structured slightly differently than its pre-COVID predecessor. Students are no longer being required to continue their research for eight weeks. Additionally, the committee will consider two students from the same discipline under certain circumstances, such as unsatisfactory candidates or a lack of candidates nominated from a discipline. Furthermore, the committee is allowing faculty members to nominate two students and have the students potentially split the stipend under the condition that each student works a month instead of one student working both months.
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Photo Caption: Nominations for the program are due April 6.
Photo Credit: The Commentator
