The Greyhound Adventure Grant, which has been around for a decade, is offered to University of Indianapolis undergraduate students to help them discover their careers and reach their dreams. The grant has two submission deadline dates, Nov. 1 and March 1 every academic year.
The grants vary in sizes but are intended to help fund Spring Term trips, conferences and any other accepted project. However, the grant has specific criteria the trip must meet to qualify. According to Faculty Chairperson and Associate Professor of Philosophy Jonathan Evans, the experience must fit one of four criteria: It must have a significant service-learning or volunteer attribute; involve advocacy efforts related to social matters, peace or justice issues; be directed at pursuing matters of religion, faith, theology or spiritual or vocational development or be an educational and pre-professional experience related to a human, societal or community need.
Internships generally cannot be awarded grants unless they are international and meet one of the criteria. It cannot, however, fund a study abroad trip.
A student must be a UIndy undergraduate to apply for the grant by the closest deadline in that academic year. The process of applying includes writing a detailed proposal to persuade the board members of its worthiness to be awarded a larger grant.
The lowest amount awarded is 25 percent cost of the total of the trip, while the highest is 50 percent. The highest last year was $1,300.
The process of deciding who receives the grants is divided among six board members, a mix of faculty and staff. They decide in three rounds. The first round is rank ordering after the applicants have been divided among the six members, the second is the amount of money that will be awarded and how to award it and the third is awarding money by making their way down the list of entries.
Multiple grants can be awarded to a student, but not for the same adventure. Currently, there is no rule about how many adventures a student can apply for the grant to help fund. According to Special Assistant to the President for Mission Michael Cartwright, the grant originally was funded by the Lilly Endowment in 2005. UIndy took over funding the grant in 2009, with $15,000 to $20,000 a year. Cartwright said that he was the strategist to come up with funding.
When Cartwright was in charge of the grant, its main purpose was for students to be able to explore vocational and self-understanding internships. It was implemented in the 2005-2006 academic year, but the idea was brought up in 2004.
Once the student returns from a trip, he or she is required to share his or her experiences on the trip within a month of returning. It can be done in many ways, such as a short paper, poster, presentation or blog.
Last year was the first time bigger awards were given for service learning and experience. Evans said he would love to see more money available for students to go on their adventures.
Evans said, “The last thing we want to happen is for our students to not be able to have that experience because they didn’t have enough money.”
