Overview
The SNAME Student Grant Program awards small grants to student sections through an application by student members. Different from the Scholarship Program, this funding mechanism is intended to benefit a larger number of students. Students shall use these grants to pay for costs associated with specific activities or events that enable experiences that contribute to the students’ growth towards a professional career in the marine industry. The goal of this program is to facilitate events and experiences students would ordinarily not have access to or funding for. The maximum grant amount is USD $1,000 and the funds will be managed by the Student Section Advisor or Treasurer of their respective section. There will be a limited number of awardees to ensure that the grant money is not spread too thin among a large quantity of recipients. Rather, larger grants that can have a more meaningful impact will be awarded to a smaller number of recipients. Awarding sufficient funds is more important than awarding insufficient amounts to all eligible applicants.
2023-2024 Granting Priorities
The overarching priority of the Student Grant Program is to help the advancement of SNAME students and sections. Student members may apply for grants to support activities including, but not limited to:
1. Student section professional development activities (such as short courses and guest speakers).
2. Speaker hosting costs.
o Travel and lodging expenses.
o Applicants should be able to show that such an event would be outside of their regular means.
3. Competitions (such as SailBot, Concrete Canoe, Solar Splash, Roboboat, etc.).
4. Student research and/or development projects (excluding labor costs).
5. Trips (such as the transportation costs for a field trip to a shipyard).
6. Travel expenses for SNAME conferences.
7. Student outreach with the intent of expanding membership.
o Such events should both benefit current student members and give other nonmembers the chance to participate to gain exposure to SNAME.
o New member recruitment must be reported in the summary report after the conclusion of the event.
8. Applying for software licenses for student sections to facilitate student projects.
9. Costs associated with student papers (including publication and presentation). These costs may include software access, research materials such as journal access and books, travel/lodging to present at a conference.
Where funds should not be allocated
1. To replace recurring costs for the student section. These would include costs such as:
o Any expenses for Universities to attend the annual SNAME Maritime Convention (SMC) that have sent students to SMC in the past 4 years. Student sections applying for a grant to participate in SMC must show that it is a "new type" of event for the section (i.e. the student section has not attended SMC within the past 4 years.
o Funding will not be granted to cover registration fees for any such conferences, conventions, or events.
o Recurring trips, events or design competitions within the section that are traditionally funded by the university.
2. Funding may not be approved for uses that are too difficult to monitor or report on.
o There should be a tangible way to evaluate the success/outcome of the grant money. Please demonstrate this reporting plan in your application.
3. General education, textbooks, student section operating and entertainment expenses (such as food and drink) or labor.
Please Note: If there has been a change of circumstances which you believe would warrant funding for generally excluded costs noted above, you must adequately explain what has changed and why these funds are necessary. For example, if a reduction in university funding prohibits your section from carrying out an annual event, a section may seek funding to replace/supplement university funding.
Eligibility
This program is open to all graduate or undergraduate students who are SNAME members when their grant application is submitted. Students must be part of an active section at their university with a Student Section Advisor. Applications can be made by one or a group of students. Note that this does not mean all students in the group applying for the grant must be SNAME student members. A Concrete Canoe team, for example, might comprise naval architecture and civil engineering students. In general, such a group should have at least 50% of its participants be SNAME members. Travel funds may only be used by SNAME student members, unless travel is by the group in a car or van.
Students/student sections may be awarded more than one grant in a single year and/or in subsequent years. A grant award does not preclude the student and/or section from receiving a SNAME scholarship, or receiving additional, concurrent, or consecutive grants.
Application Process
Interested individuals shall submit an application online. Applications are due on October 15 and April 1.
Applications will be reviewed by an ad-hoc committee composed of four (4) members of the Scholarships Committee, two (2) members of the Student Section Advisors Committee, and two (2) members nominated of the Student Steering Committee. Award recommendations will be sent to Headquarters within 30 days after the application deadline. Incomplete applications may not be considered. The Executive Committee will have final approval over all awards.
Required Reporting
Grant awardees are required to submit a summary report of the funded activity within 30 days of the conclusion of the activity or the end of the academic semester, whichever comes first. As a rough guide, funding for activities such as meeting attendance or small-scale Student Section Professional Development Activities should be summarized in about 500 words. Larger-scale travel, competition or research work should be summarized in about 1000 words. Pictures and graphics should be included as well. SNAME reserves the right to use photos or recaps of successful grant projects for future promotional use in support of the grants program.
Failure to report will make that student section ineligible for grant funds the following year.
Reports should address the following questions:
o What went according to your plan/proposal?
o What did not go according to plan, if anything?
o What were the outcomes of the grant funding?
o Were there excess funds, materials, or products? If so, how do you plan to use them to further your section?
Program Structure and Process
This program is administered by the SNAME Headquarters staff in consultation with the Scholarships Committee and the Student Section Advisors Committee.
The Student Section Advisor for the awarded student section will oversee the spending of grant funds. It is recognized that in some cases the funding will have to fall inside the school’s accounting system. If this is a requirement, then any university administration fees shall be paid from the grant funds and must be documented on the grant application.
In the event that there are excess funds, materials, or products that result from a grant, the student section will maintain possession of them. However, they will be expected to use any excess funds or materials for SNAME student section needs. Any remaining funds will continue to be managed by Advisor or professional section Treasurer.