Program Structure

The fellowships will fund 12-16 highly-engaged undergraduate research students for summer 2025, including up to eleven students from the colleges of Science and Humanities and Social Sciences, and additional fellows from other USU colleges. Any enrolled USU student, on any campus or online, is welcome and encouraged to apply. Fellows will be funded for a ten-week period (determined by the mentor and student) in the summer of the award year. Each student will receive $4,000 in the form of a fellowship award payment, intended to cover the cost of housing, meals, and other living expenses; the funds will be paid out in three installments, contingent on the student’s ongoing participation.

In addition to participating full-time in research during their fellowship period, participants will attend (remotely, if necessary) periodic meetings in which a variety of topics will be covered, including responsible conduct of research, scholarly publishing, graduate school application, and development of student portfolios for major national and international honors such as the Goldwater, Fulbright, and Udall awards. Students will also have an opportunity to present their research informally at a colloquium at the end of the program. The meetings and the colloquium, which will build an interdisciplinary cohort, differentiate the program from a simple “scholarship.” Fellows belong to a community of researchers at a similar career stage and their identity as a group will encourage their engagement in the longer-reaching goals of the program, namely to develop future research professionals and to position USU students to compete successfully for major merit-based awards.