Scholarships

WGST Scholarships and Awards

Margaret M. Smith Scholarship for the Advancement of Women

This endowed fund is named in honor of Margaret (Peg) Smith, a community feminist, librarian, EMU alumna, and state athlete, by the contributions of friends and family in the celebration of her 80th birthday in 1994. Peg’s love of literature and literacy was legendary, and she paved a path for women with her own life achievements. The fund enhances the educational advancement of women through a scholarship award.

Eligibility: Any undergraduate or graduate student at EMU who can demonstrate:

  1. Financial need;
  2. Commitment to the advancement of women, evidenced in a variety of ways, including but not limited to extracurricular activities or activism, enrollment in a women's and gender studies major, minor or graduate program, or a non-traditional major or minor, non-traditional career choice; and
  3. Minimum GPA of 3.0

Applications due by February 16, 2024. The award range is typically $400 to $900. Multiple awards are given each year. Find out how to apply [PDF]!

Distinguished Leaders Scholarship Award

This endowed fund is named in honor of EMU’s first-generation of women’s studies faculty upon the retirement of several original members, Dr. Daryl Hafter, Dr. Marie Richmond-Abbott, Dr. Rachel Brett Harley, and Dr. Betty Barber. With others, these founders began the first Women’s Studies minor in the state in 1975. The fund enhances the educational advancement of WGST majors through a scholarship award.

Eligibility: Current EMU WGST majors (junior standing and higher) and graduate students, who exhibit outstanding academic success as demonstrated by:

  1. Research project(s) focused on women and gender;
  2. Academic service directly related to the study of women and gender, and
  3. Other measures of academic success (GPA, academic presentations, honors, etc.)

Applications due by  February 16, 2024. The award range is typically $400 to $900. Multiple awards are given each year. Find out how to apply [PDF]!

Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Seetoo Endowed Travel Scholarship

This award recognizes the academic excellence of an undergraduate or graduate student in Women's and Gender Studies with a global perspective, and is in honor of Amy Seetoo's parents, Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Seetoo, who believed strongly in women's education. The award supports research travel or conference presentations that address women, gender, and cultural exchange, transnational feminism, or globalization.

Eligibility: Any Women's and Gender Studies student (graduate or undergraduate) who exhibits outstanding academic success in Women's and Gender Studies at Eastern Michigan University with a focus on women, gender and (1) cultural exchange, (2) transnational feminism, or (3) globalization in:

  1. Research
  2. Academic Service
  3. Other measures of academic success (GPA, academic presentations, honors, etc.)

Applications due by February 16, 2024. There is one scholarship in the amount of $470 for 2022-23. Find out how to apply [PDF]!

Margaret L. Rossiter Award for Outstanding Graduate Paper and Donald Drummond Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Paper

This fund is named in honor of two initial champions of EMU's Program in Women's and Gender Studies. Dr. Margaret Rossiter was a pioneer in the scholarship of Women's Studies, an EMU historian, and the first chair of EMU's Women's Studies Committee in 1973. Dr. Donald Drummond, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, 1966-1986, supported the creation of the program during his tenure as dean. These awards are given for the most outstanding papers on women and/or gender written by EMU students.

Eligibility: Any EMU student (graduate and undergraduate) who has written an outstanding paper (10-20 pages) with a focus on women or gender in the past academic year.

Applications due by February 16, 2024. There is a $100 prize for each award. Find out how to apply [PDF]!

Lloyd-Russell Prize for the Best Paper on Gender or Sexuality

The award is named in honor of Anna Lloyd, former President and Executive Director of The Committee of 200, an organization of top U.S. women entrepreneurs and corporate leaders, and Kathleen Russell, former Assistant Dean of Students, Coordinator of EMU's LGBT Resource Center, and lecturer in the School of Social Work.

Eligibility: Any EMU student (graduate or undergraduate) who has written an outstanding paper (10-20 pages) with a focus on gender or sexuality in the past academic year. 

Applications due by February 16, 2024. There is a $100 prize for this award. Find out how to apply [PDF]!

Christy Rishoi Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Paper

This award is named for Christy Rishoi, a former graduate student and lecturer in the English Department at Eastern Michigan University.  Dr. Rishoi taught a range of classes, but her love remains women's literature and women's coming of age narratives.  She taught her first week of classes at EMU pregnant, and returned in the second week having given birth to her youngest daughter, a Women's and Gender Studies major at EMU.  This fund has been established by her daughter to honor the intersection of Women's and Gender Studies and Literature, and the ongoing role that Eastern Michigan University has played in both women's lives.

Eligibility:  Any EMU undergraduate student who has written an outstanding paper (5-20 pages) that represents the intersection between literature and women's and gender studies in the past academic year.

Applications due by February 16, 2024. There is a $100 prize for this award. Find out how to apply [PDF]!

WGST Student Travel Awards

Graduate students and undergraduate majors and minors in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department are eligible for up to $400 per academic year for presentations at conferences that focus on women’s and gender studies or (with the written support of a faculty sponsor) up to $200 per academic year for conference attendance for the purpose of professional development. In the latter case, the student must submit a report with one week of their return that includes a description of the sessions attended and reflection on how the sessions related to their coursework and/or capstone research. Student travel funding is paid from the Women’s Studies Development Fund and is capped at 10% of the fund total at the beginning of the fiscal year. It is distributed on first-come, first-served basis.

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