Grants & Awards

Feature right image

Honors College grants and awards

A number of scholarships, grants and awards are available to Honors College students.

A limited number of grants of up to $500 are available to Honors students each semester. Selection is based on academic merit, quality of supporting materials and financial need. Grant money is used to support the research efforts of students and can be used for expenses such as travel to conferences or equipment unique to the student’s project.

To qualify, students must be admitted to a college or departmental Honors program. They must be actively engaged in a research project that leads to an individual Honors thesis.

Students who are awarded the Honors research grant agree to submit a final copy of their thesis to the Honors College, and to have their name, thesis title and abstract posted on the Honors website. A student may receive the award once.

Application Deadlines:
October 1 (Fall)
February 26 (Spring)

Apply for an Honors research grant

The Gordon Prize is open to all students in good standing in the Honors College (LLPs and Departmental Honors). It is an endowed award established with the generous donation of Dr. Lawrence A. Gordon, a professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. The award seeks creative and innovative essays or projects that may approach the topic of “Managing Cybersecurity Resources” from a variety of perspectives. The winning entry receives a total award of $1,000.00.

Applications for the 2024 cycle open on Monday, November 6, 2023, and are due on Friday, April 5, 2024.

Read about the 2023 recipient

The Portz Outstanding Honors Student award was established in 1978 in honor of the first director of the General Honors program, Professor John Portz. The award consists of a certificate and a prize of $150. It is awarded annually to students who combine exceptional academic achievement with outstanding service or accomplishments outside the classroom. The award is presented at the fall Honors College Citation Ceremony to one student in each of the Honors College living-learning programs.

Winston familyEstablished by Roger (’76, ’79) and Karen Winston (’75), the annual Winston Honors Writing Awards recognize the best essays, research papers and theses written by honors students.

The Best Student Paper Awards were established in honor of Professor John Portz, the founding director of the General Honors program at UMD. In 2013, Roger, Karen and Emily Winston generously donated funds to support and expand the scope of this award for honors students. There are now three principal categories for these awards: (1) Best University Honors Seminar Essay, (2) Best University Honors Seminar Research Paper and (3) Best Departmental Honors Thesis. These prestigious awards are coordinated by the faculty and staff of University Honors for the Honors College.

The annual Winston Family Honors Writing Awards were established to recognize the writing of Honors students and to acknowledge the central role that faculty members play in mentoring Honors College students. We are grateful to Roger Winston (’76), Karen Winston (’75) and their daughter Emily Winston (’06), whose generous gift provides these merit awards. We deeply appreciate the Winston family’s investment in academic excellence and their commitment to University Honors, the Honors College and the University of Maryland.

Award Application

The student awards application can be found here. Submissions, including the faculty mentor recommendation statement, open on Monday, November 6, 2023, and are due Friday, March 29, 2024 at 11:59 p.m.

Short Essay: Written for an Honors course (H-version, H-Option, or LLP-based course) 1,200 to 2,500 words

Research Paper: Written for an Honors course (H-version, H-Option, or LLP-based course) 2,500 to 7,500 words

Honors Thesis: Culminating research project undertaken in a departmental honors program

Links

Eligibility:

  • Students must be in the Honors College or enrolled and progressing in a Departmental/College Honors program.
  • Submissions for the Short Essay and Research Paper Awards must have been submitted for course credit during one of the following terms: Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024 and Spring 2024. This category is for short literary composition papers on a particular theme or topic. This category is not for research papers.
  • Eligibility for papers written in H-option courses requires successful completion of the course with Honors credit (papers in the current Spring 2024 semester are not eligible).
  • Submissions for Thesis Awards must represent work from the culminating research requirement in the Departmental Honors program during Spring 2024.
  • Students must be currently enrolled in an undergraduate program at the time of submission to be eligible for these awards.
  • Students must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher to be eligible for these awards.
  • Submissions must be in an academic writing format.
  • One submission per student.
  • Single authorship papers.

Faculty Mentors

Faculty mentors are those persons who either taught the course for which a student’s essay or research paper was written (in the case of both the Short Essay and Research Paper Awards), or who are the thesis advisor for the student (in the case of the Honors Thesis Award).

Submissions

Submissions will be accepted through Friday, March 29, 2024 as follows:

  • For all submissions: Students must contact their faculty mentors to request a statement of support. Faculty mentors must complete a Faculty Statement Form by Friday, March 29, 2024.
  • Thesis Award submissions: Complete the Student Application Form and attach in one file a 1-2-page thesis abstract and your completed thesis (or as advanced a draft as you have) by Friday, March 29, 2024.
  • All submissions should be revised, polished, and suitable for consideration by an awards committee comprised of readers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds.
  • Co-authored and/or group papers are not accepted.

Awards Celebration

Winston Award awardees will receive a monetary prize and a certificate. Awardees and mentors will also be celebrated on the Honors College website and social media accounts.

Winston Family Honors Faculty Award

This award recognizes outstanding faculty advising, mentorship and supervision of University of Maryland Honors students. Nominees must be tenure-track or professional-track faculty members who serve, or have served as Departmental Honors directors and/or undergraduate thesis advisors. The recipient will receive a monetary award and a plaque. Department chairs or their designees should submit letters of nomination to WinstonAwards@umd.edu. The deadline is Monday, March 11, 2024. Questions? Please email Traci Dula at tdula@umd.edu.


2023 Recipients

Short Essay

  • Sophia Winner, “States and Elections”

Research Paper

  • Mya Blagmon, “The Manifestation and Effect of Misogynoir in Slasher Films”

Thesis

  • Kassidy Jacobs, “Toxic Legacies: Baltimore’s History of Lead Poisoning and its Impact on Educational Disparities”
  • Sophia Guan, “Functional analyses of PIF3 in the regulation of axillary meristem developmental fate in Fragaria vesca”
  • Allison Godsey, “It’s About Time: Parent-Child Turn-Taking in Early Stuttering”
  • Sriya Potluri, “Age of Infection Modeling for Managing Emerging Epidemics with Limited Testing Resources”
  • Nessia Ferneau, “Barriers to Help-Seeking among Orthodox Jewish Victims of Intimate Partner Violence”
  • Julia Grafstein, “Alienation and Alliances: Transgender Coalition-Building from the 1970s through the 1990s”
  • Sadia Nourin, “Measuring and Evading Turkmenistan’s Internet Censorship”
  • Grant Yang, “Synthesis of Novel 2′-Fluoro-Arabino Nucleic Acid Aptamers Against SARS-CoV-2”

Faculty Awards

  • Bianca Bersani, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
  • Karen O’Brien, Department of Psychology

See the full Winston Awards history

The David Goff Scholarship is awarded to an Honors College student participating in the Integrated Life Sciences (ILS) program who has demonstrated a commitment to pursuing a career in medicine. This scholarship is made possible by the generous donation of Michael and Ellen Glazer in the memory of their dear friend, Dr. David Goff. This scholarship for $1,000 is non-renewable.

The 2023-24 application is available here and is due December 1, 2023. The recommendation form can be found here.

Eligibility:

Applicants must:

  • Be making good progress toward completing the ILS citation
  • Have completed a minimum of 30, but no more than 60, UMD credits, excluding AP/IB credits
  • Have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.75
  • Be strongly committed to pursuing a career in medicine
    (e.g., clinical medicine, medical research, public health or another allied health field)

Application:

Applicants must submit:

  • A curriculum vitae/resume
  • A reflective essay (300-500 words) describing your motivations, current experiences and future plans for pursuing a career in medicine
  • A letter of recommendation from a UMD faculty member or other mentor who is not officially associated with the ILS program or the Honors College. Recommendations should address applicant’s academic accomplishments and co-curricular experiences, with special attention paid to those activities that are preparing the applicant for a medical career. Recommendations are due by Friday, December 1, 2023 and can be submitted by filling out this form.

For any questions, please contact Dr. Najib El-Sayed, director of the ILS Program in the Honors College.