GPSO Travel Awards
Applications for the spring 2012 Travel Awards are no longer being accepted. Please check back in the fall 2012 semester for the fall 2012 Travel Award application.
General Information
The GPSO Travel Award is offered through a competitive process for graduate and professional students at Indiana University Bloomington. It is given to help support travel expenses to conferences at which the student's work will be presented (i.e. speeches, posters or interactive design), or to help support travel to workshops, special trainings, competitions and auditions that will benefit the student professionally. Funds may be used for registration fees, presentation materials, transportation, and lodging/food associated with the conference, workshop, training, competition or audition.
IMPORTANT NOTE: GPSO Travel Awards are awarded as university fellowships; be aware of their total financial aid need and the amount of financial aid you have already received. If you have already reached your financial aid maximum for the current semester, you may be ineligible for this award. More information about financial aid need can be found at the Office of Student Financial Assistance website, and information about how much aid you have already received can be found in OneStart.
**This award is not intended to fund research.** Please see GPSO Research Awards for info on awards for research funding.
This year's spring Travel Awards were given for conferences, workshops, trainings, competitions or auditions occurring between January 1st and June 30th, 2012. If your travel dates are after June 30th, 2012, you will need to apply for an award in the fall 2012 semester.
Priority will be given to conference travel outside the Midwest region.
GPSO Travel Awards are merit-based awards. Non-travel related funding will not be considered when reviewing applications.
Eligibility Criteria
- Full-time enrollment in a graduate or professional degree program at Indiana University at the time of application
- Enrollment in an active GPSO member department. If you are uncertain whether your department is active you can check here to see if your department has a representative who is active within the GPSO. Note: A representative may be serving any program in your department; it does not have to be your specific program.
- Travel must occur within the specified time period to receive the Travel Award.
- Spring awards: January 1-June 30 of a given year
- Fall awards: July 1-December 31 of a given year
- Must NOT be a member of the GPSO Executive Committee, employee of the GPSO, or an active member of the GPSO Awards Committee reviewing applications for this award.
Applicants are limited to a single travel event per semester; this may include multiple conferences/workshops/auditions/competitions being held in a single location.
If you attended more than one conference, workshop, training, competition or audition please choose only one to be considered for this award. We recommend you choose the conference, workshop, training, competition or audition for which you believe you can build the strongest application (and submit only one application package).
If an IUB graduate or professional student is co-presenting with another IUB graduate student and all presenters wish to be considered for funding, each person needs to submit a separate application package. No group applications will be accepted.
How To Apply
Once you begin the actual application you may not be able to save and come back later. We recommend that you have your materials ready when you begin the application. In addition, we have provided a preview application (PDF) if you would like to see the questions before beginning.
The application for the spring 2012 Travel Awards is no longer available. Please check back in fall 2012 for a new Travel Awards application.
Deadlines
The application deadline is February 19th, 2012 at midnight. Your online application must be received by the GPSO office by this deadline.
Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted for any reason.Frequently Asked Questions
A: You can check here to see if your department has a reperesentative who is active within the GPSO. Note: A representative may be serving any program in your department, it does not have to be your speficic program.
A: No, unfortunately our application procedure does not allow you to save and come back later. We suggest having all of your materials ready before completing the application.
A: You must email the Awards Committee Chair at gpsofnds@indiana.edu in order to gain permission to re-submit an application.
A: No, you may only submit one application per award per semester.
A: Yes, you may apply to both; however, you are only eligible to receive one GPSO award per semester.
A: Travel awards will only be awarded when you are traveling to present your work at a conference, workshop, competition or other academic activity. If you are traveling to conduct your personal research and will not be presenting during your travels, you should apply to the research award only.
A: If your travel is taking place between July 1st, 2012 and December 31st 2012, you should apply to the fall award. If your travel is taking place between January 1st, 2012 and June 30th, 2012 you should apply to the spring award.
A: To be eligible, you must be enrolled full-time (8 credit hours or more), except for students who are enrolled in a dissertation credit. Student Academic Appointees (SAA) can be enrolled 6 hours and still be considered full-time.
A: No, you must be enrolled full-time at the IUB campus to receive an award from the GPSO.
A: No, travel grants will not be given to pay towards study abroad programs. Your travel must involve you presenting your academic work at a conference, or you must be traveling to a specific training, workshop, competition or audition.
A: The approximate date that winners will be announced varies each semester, but is typically around week 12.
A: We will announce the award winners on the homepage of the GPSO website and winners will be notified personally by email.
A: Yes, as long as you meet the other eligibility requirements.
** If you have a question that you did not find answered here, you may email gpsofnds@indiana.edu with the Subject line "Travel Award Question.". Please allow one week for a response. **
Review Process
Winners are determined by an anonymous, competitive peer review. Applicants should note that their applications may not be read by an expert in their fields. Award applications should be written with a general academic audience in mind.
- Applications are checked for completeness and incomplete applications are removed from consideration.
- Personal identifying information is removed by GPSO Awards Committee Chair.
- Applications are anonymously scored by at least 2 and ideally 3 GPSO Awards Committee members.
- Scores are on a 50-point scale.
- Applications are scored on several factors including:
- location of event as events outside the local area (Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio) receive preference;
- impact of the travel on the applicant and both its relevance to the applicant's discipline and broader importance;
- applicants role in the event or necessity of travel;
- a well-justified budget;
- the overall quality of the application;
- Scores are standardized for each reviewer and used to rank the applications.
- GPSO forwards the top award candidates to the Graduate School to verify they are full-time IUB graduate students.
- GPSO notifies award winners.
Serving on the Awards Committee
This committee organizes and awards several different funding awards throughout the year, including Travel and Research Awards. The Awards Committee also sends representatives to research-related university committees.
To be eligible for this committee, you must be a graduate or professional student at Indiana University-Bloomington in the Spring 2012 semester. You also can not be applying for a Spring 2012 GPSO Travel or Research Award. By submitting this application, you certify that you meet these criteria.
This application is not an entry into a competitive selection process; all IUB graduate and professional students are welcome to join the committee and review award applications. This application primarily helps the chair of this committee remain organized.
In the spring semester, the Awards Committee reviews applications for Travel Awards and Research Awards. Spring Travel Award applications are due on February 19, 2012. Research Award applications are due on March 11, 2012. Reviews will be due from reviewers about a week-and-a-half afterward each award deadline. Finally, it typically takes only a few hours for each reviewer to review his or her set of applications for each award.
To apply for the Awards Committee, please complete the application here.
Previous Award Winners
Fall 2011 Travel Award Winners
- Sinem Aslan, Education, Instructional Systems Technology
- Lee Anne Bache, English
- Jerillyn Kent, Psychology
- Matthew Hale, Folklore
- Blaire Hensley-Marschand, Geological Sciences
- Rebecca Penny, Biology
- Nick Clarkson, Gender Studies
- Russell Sheaffer, Communications and Culture
- Shu-Yi Wang, Education, Counseling and Educational Psychology
- Madeline Chera, Anthropology
- Jennifer Terrell, Informatics
- Janelle Davis, Early Music
- Francisco Parada, Psychology
- Samantha Schalk, Gender Studies
- Matthew Kaul, English
- Ishani Banerji, Psychology
- John Walters, English
- Richard Bykowski, Geological Sciences
Spring 2011 Travel Award Winners
- Shingo Hamada, Anthropology
- Viridiana Benitez, Psychology
- Alexander Tatarinov, Music Strings
- Philip Haralam, Fine Arts
- Daniel Yurovsky, Psychology
- Jennifer Jones, Communications and Culture
- Jillian Rickly-Boyd, Geography
- Nicholas Hersh, Music Conducting
- Sarah Dees, Religious Studies
- Gwen Arnold, SPEA
- Olga Rass, Psychology
- Jospeh Harsh, Edu. & Curriculum Instruction
- Chelsey Hamm, Music Theory
- Nzingha Kendall, African American & Africa Studies
Fall 2010 Travel Award Winners
- Robert Holahan, Political Science
- Audrey Dobrenn, French and Italian
- Kierstan Connors, Education and Language Education
- Deanna Soper Pinkelman, Biology
- Aleksandra Snowden, Criminal Justice
- Nicholas Belle, Anthropology
- Yunjuan Luo, Journalism
- Janice Levi, African American and Africa Studies
- Curtis Child, Sociology
- Kwan Nok Chan, SPEA
- Craig Howard, Instructional Systems Technology
- Paul Schauert, Ethnomusicology
- Chrystine Keener, Fine Arts
- Justin Rawlins, Communications and Culture
