Emerging Scholars
Students from Université d’Etat d’Haïti at the 20th Annual Conference
HSA established the Student and Emerging Scholar’s fund during the 2006 conference. Since 2008 the HSA board has earmarked $1000 annually for student scholarships ($500 for an undergraduate and $500 for a graduate student).
The Student and Emerging Scholar’s Committee has established the following criteria for undergraduate and graduate awardees:
* Eligibility: Applicants must be full-time students. Full-time students are defined as those who can demonstrate that they have satisfied all academic credit requirements to qualify for full-time status as defined by their respective universities for two consecutive academic semesters or three consecutive academic terms or quarters.
* Undergraduate students must have maintained a minimum 3.0 GPA. In addition, undergraduate applicants must have demonstrated involvement in the Haitian community, which may - for example - include participation in school-related programs pertaining to Haiti or the Haitian diaspora or volunteer activities with Haitian organizations. Undergraduate students are asked to submit an essay describing the applicant's commitment to pursuing Haitian Studies and two (2) letters of reference, one of which should be from a scholar who is willing to serve as a mentor for the student. The scholarship is intended to encourage undergraduate students to attend their first HSA conference, without requiring that they present a paper during their first conference attendance.
* Graduate students must have maintained a minimum 3.5 GPA, while demonstrating that they have or currently are conducting research on Haiti and Haitian diaspora-related subjects. Graduate student applicants are asked to submit an abstract proposal for the upcoming HSA conference, an essay describing the applicant's commitment to pursuing Haitian Studies, and two (2) letters of reference, one of which should be from a scholar who is willing to serve as a mentor for the student. (Graduate students who do not currently have a Haitian studies scholar as a mentor are encouraged to seek recommendations for possible mentors from HSA's Student and Emerging Scholar’s Committee.)
* Use of funds: Scholarships may be applied toward travel and accommodation expenses incurred for attending an HSA conference and/or a specific research project concerning Haiti and/or the Haitian diaspora.
* Graduate students awarded with this scholarship are expected to submit their conference papers to HSA by the final day of the conference. Undergraduate students are asked to submit a one or two paragraph prompt describing their conference experience on the final day of the conference.
Please e-mail your application to the Haitian Studies Association at HSA@umb.edu and to Charlene Desir at Cdesir@nova.edu
