College of Humanities and Social

Each year, our alumni and friends are called upon to make financial contributions to the university. Although the amounts of these gifts vary, the result of this unified effort is the same: countless students benefit from the generosity of our donors.

CMU’s annual phone-a-thon, special mailings, and fund-raising events give donors the opportunity to designate their gifts to specific departments, programs, or academic scholarships within the university. This enables donors to direct their gifts to the university’s funding needs that are most meaningful to them.

In the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences, the dean designates a portion of the college’s annual gifts to provide funding for two student awards: the Student Paper Competition and the CHSBS Alumni Fund Award.

Both of these awards provide monetary gifts directly to the college’s students, helping them to reduce the financial burden of a university education and devote more time to their studies.

Student Paper Competition

Each spring, the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences hosts the Student Paper Competition, which provides cash awards to undergraduate and graduate students who have written outstanding papers during the preceding academic year.

The undergraduate winners receive $500 and the graduate winners receive $750. In addition, the winners’ names are printed on a plaque that hangs in the CHSBS dean’s office.

All of the Student Paper Competition winners and their faculty advisers are formally recognized during the college’s annual meeting each fall.

Eligible entries include essays, theoretical papers, creative works, research papers, and reviews of research written for classes at the 300 level and above. Students also can enter papers that they’ve submitted to or presented at professional conferences. The winners are selected by a committee of CHSBS faculty and emeriti faculty.

“The college places a high priority on recognizing students for taking the knowledge that they’ve learned in the classroom and applying it to creative academic endeavors,” said E. Gary Shapiro, dean of the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences.

“The Student Paper Competition provides an excellent opportunity for us to reward students for extending their knowledge beyond the classroom.”

CHSBS Alumni Fund Award

The CHSBS Alumni Fund Award will provide a $1,000 scholarship to three incoming freshmen students who indicate a desire to major in one of the college’s academic programs.

The first winners of the award, which was established last year, will be selected this spring for students beginning classes at CMU in the fall of 2005.

Applicants must have a minimum high school GPA of 3.4 and an ACT score of 25 or higher. They also must submit one letter of recommendation from a high school teacher or counselor and an essay indicating their intended major, the reason for selecting that major, and information about why they deserve to receive the scholarship.

Recipients will be selected by a scholarship advisory committee appointed annually by the CHSBS dean.

“The Student Paper Competition and the CHSBS Alumni Fund Award represent excellent opportunities for donors to make a contribution that will directly benefit our students,” said Alison Miller, the college’s director of development.

“Scholarship funds and academic prizes enable our donors to provide much needed financial support directly to our students while also rewarding the pursuit of academic excellence,” said Miller.

Anyone interested in making a contribution to the CHSBS Student Paper Competition or the CHSBS Alumni Fund Award should contact the development office at (989) 774-1788 or CHSBS@cmich.edu.

Link to other CHSBS Student Scholarships

Link to quotes from CHSBS scholarship recipients

Photo gallery of 2007 Student Paper Competition winners

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