Reimagining Professional Development Award
This award for graduate students and postdocs was created to understand the career and professional development needs of their peers across campus and to design resources and programs to address those needs.
Texas Career Engagement encourages graduate students and postdocs to apply for the Reimaging Professional Development Award that recognizes their ability to design and promote student need-driven programming and resources for career and professional development.
Award recipients will be recognized for their design and creation of resources and programs through July 2023.
Application Deadline: Friday, November 4, 2022 by 11:59 p.m.
Learn More and View Proposal Details
Topics of Interest
Topics of particular interest include but are not limited to:
- Identity-specific professional development opportunities and content for under-represented and underserved graduate students and scholars
- Leadership, followership, and entrepreneurship
- Career-related skill building and filling in gaps in professional training
- Professionalism, business etiquette, and professional communication
- Navigating workplace relationships, including mentorship, menteeship, up-managing
- Articulating the value of scholarly training for professional contexts
Target Audience
Preference will be given to proposals that:
- Serve a cross-section of disciplinary backgrounds beyond one college or school and are specifically targeted to Master’s students, PhD students, and postdoctoral scholars.
- Support historically underserved populations including minoritized ethnic, racial, and religious identities, scholars with disabilities, veterans, LGBTQIA+, parents/caregivers, non-traditional and first generation, and international students and scholars
- Produce “evergreen” content that is accessible beyond one program or moment in time
- Demonstrate an unmet need and potential for high impact
Application Process
Eligibility
Applicants must be enrolled in a graduate degree program or be a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Texas at Austin throughout the completion of the project.
Past awardees are eligible to apply with new proposals, but new applicants will be prioritized to diversify engagement and offer equitable access to this award.
Financial Aid
Individual applicants can request up to $1,200. Team applicants of two or three individuals can request up to $3,000. Applicants need to have room in their financial aid package in order to accept this scholarship. Otherwise, loans may be reduced or funding may not be realized. Please contact Texas One Stop with any questions.
The award is distributed in installments and certain award program milestones must be met, if awarded. Funding could be jeopardized if certain requirements are not met, including finalization of the award project.
Proposal Requirements
The proposal must include the following items:
A PDF that outlines:
- The proposal title
- A clearly defined graduate student or postdoc need.
- Your proposed solution to address the need. The solution must define the format of a digital resource (e.g., video, worksheet, guide, website content, or podcast) or a virtual or in-person program (e.g., one-time workshop, seminar, or series of programs). You are welcome to incorporate other speakers or contributors from UT Austin or beyond in this solution.
- A timeline for execution of the project, including expected date of completion (must be completed by August 5, 2023).
- The targeted population(s) of the project and anticipated number of students served; the project must serve students from more than one school or college.
- The award amount requested for up to $1200 for each individual applicant, $3,000 per team. See an example of different levels of involvement here.
- An anticipated itemized budget for associated costs, up to $1,000 for individual proposals and up to $2,000 for team proposals.
One compilation of less than two minutes per author that includes a bio for each named author(s) and your interest in addressing graduate student or postdoc need.
You can view the proposal assessment rubric here.
Application Timeline
- November 4 at 11:59 p.m.: Application Deadline
- December 2: Award Notification
- January 9: 25% of Award Issued
- Spring and Summer 2023: Award Projects Implemented
- Remaining 75% of Award Issued upon Project Completion
- August 5, 2022: Project Completion Deadline
Sample Proposals
View Sample Proposals:
Contact Us
If you have any questions about the Reimagining Professional Development Award, please contact Brian Fonken.