Women's Giving Circle Grants

2022-2023 Grant Recipients

Building Bridges and Redeeming Scholars at OSU

$8,800

This proposal seeks to enable current undergraduate students to learn from and work with formerly incarcerated community members to help create resources and a more welcoming environment for formerly incarcerated individuals who aspire to attend OSU. The project will impact 50-60 students by offering meaningful learning experiences, team building and advocacy opportunities.

 

Career Development Through Experiential Learning

$2,250

The OSU Department of Recreational Sports (“Rec Sports”) is the second largest employer of student employees on OSU’s Corvallis campus employing 400+ students in a given year. The focus on career readiness and wellbeing is integrated within each student role. Two of OSU’s Rec Sports programs use “micro-internships” where students are paid to tackle a specific challenge relevant to their long-term career pursuits. The project will fund 5 micro-internships.

 

Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra – a student symphony experience continues

$10,000

The Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra is a highly regarded ensemble composed of students of all majors, OSU faculty, professional musicians and members of the community. For many years the orchestra has invited OSU students to experience live symphony performances on their own campus and at no cost. During the 2021-2022 school year, funding from the Women’s Giving Circle provided 500 tickets to OSU students. This project will continue to support student access to live music performances.

 

Creating a Dedicated Workspace for Online Writing Consultations

$6,100

After two years of learning from remote delivery of writing support services, the Oregon State University Writing Center is proposing a new functional space that allows them to meet demand for online writing support and improve the quality of current support. The Writing Center provides writing support to students across all majors, levels and campuses. OSU Writing Center seeks funding for new functional space that meets demand for online writing support​.

 

Educational Opportunities Program Advisory Council

$5,000

The Educational Opportunities Program (EOP) currently houses one student-led group: the EOP Advisory Council (EOPAC). EOPAC was established in 2016, in efforts to elevate student voices and develop programming for EOP students in the following areas: student-created program initiatives that directly impact student success, identity development as contributing members of both EOP and OSU communities, and additional activities that increase retention of underserved populations. This program will continue to enhance the OSU undergraduate student experience and improve student retention by providing a stronger sense of belonging and growing peer support among students in EOP.

 

Hatfield Marine Science Center Mind Spa

$3,939

The OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center serves over 200 students each year. Students spend time at HMSC taking classes, completing internships and conducting research. These students traditionally live in communal housing and work in shared student office spaces. We are striving to provide a space modeled after the Mind Spas on the Corvallis campus to provide students a quiet, private space to participate in online therapy, meditate and develop skills to improve their mental health.

 

In Search of Sisterhood

$12,100

The Society of Scholarly Sista’s is dedicated to ensuring that women thrive in academic and civic realms. Strengthening The Society of Scholarly Sista’s, a collegiate organization on OSU’s campus of female-identifying students (with intentional efforts within BIPOC communities), will serve as a platform for retaining and empowering the future leaders. Funding will be used to purchase educational digital platforms, facilitate tutoring sessions and participate in powerful group activities that foster a sense of sisterhood.

 

Molecular biology research and tools for undergraduate students

$1,500

Providing opportunity to gain authentic research experience for undergraduate students in the classroom by incorporating research into the available courses results in positive outcomes in conceptual understanding and skills development such as critical thinking ability and intellectual independence. However, the demand for undergraduate research positions exceeds their availability; specially underrepresented students are less likely to seek out such opportunities. The goal of this project is to make cutting edge molecular biology research and tools accessible to undergraduate students in the classroom. The grant money will be used to purchase specimens, reagents and laboratory supplies needed for the pilot work.

 

SHARP Student Action Committee

$9,000

The Student Action Committee will create an infrastructure to help ensure student voice is embedded in our campus’ prevention and awareness efforts. Specifically, they will coordinate efforts connected to Sexual Assault Awareness and Action Month (SAAM) and help to develop content for a new online learning module that all new students attending OSU will be required to take.

 

Updating Academic Support Material to Meet OSU Students’ Diverse Needs

$10,000

Over the last several years, the Learning Corner has seen an average of 58,258 users and 300,376 pageviews per academic year. It is by far the ASC program and content with the biggest reach across all campuses at OSU and with a following across the US and beyond. This project proposes to make significant improvements to the Learning Corner content through two primary goals: (a) to build a set of content specific to writing and research and (b) to make key updates to existing content by applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and by broadening the range of strategies and tools offered.

 

Upskill Oregon –A Lifelong Learning Network for Mentors and Students

$4,500

The OSU-Cascades Innovation Co-Lab assists innovators while giving experiential learning opportunities to the innovators of tomorrow. Through this project, the Co-Lab will grow its online social network named https://www.upskillor.com, to allow students access to high-profile mentors, career opportunities, online resources and training programs. Through this work, the Co-Lab aims to create an online network for life-long learners, help students across OSU campuses to get the support and paid internships that they need to remain at OSU, and engage students even after they become alumni. The funding for this project will be spent on Co-Lab interns to manage the network and grow the number of students/mentors on the network.