Delson Bridge to the Future Fund

Award nominations opened August 19, 2024, deadline: September 30, 2024. Award re-opens August 2025.

The Delson Bridge to the Future Fund assists domestic and international graduate students in the final phase of their graduate education to pay research expenses, publication costs, and other incidentals that stand in the way of completing their graduate studies at OSU.

The award also aligns with and supports development in the OSU Grad Advantage core competencies for graduate students. Nominees are encouraged to complete the OSU Grad Advantage Self-Assessment Tool at the time of their nomination, or in the case of prospective students after they have been formally admitted to gauge their ongoing professional development.

This endowment fund was created to honor Irma Delson who dedicated her many years at OSU to serving students from all over the world. Graduate programs that become aware of emergency situations involving students at the end of their programs may submit requests for limited assistance to offset financial difficulties and promote degree completion.

Award Details

For the 2024-2025 award cycle, the Graduate School plans to offer up to three awards at $1,000 each. Awards will be made on a one-time only basis, typically during a student's final year in the graduate program, and are intended to help offset the cost of degree completion.

Eligibility

Graduate students in graduate degree-seeking programs
Nominees must be in the final phase of their graduate program*
*At least in the second year for master’s programs, or advanced to candidacy for doctoral programs
Nominees who have an extenuating financial emergency impacting their ability to persist

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation of nominations will be based upon the following:

Quality of nominee’s statement of award impact; including specific explanation of the financial emergency
Quality of letter of nomination
Quality of nominee’s CV or Résumé

Nomination Period

The nomination period begins on August 19, 2024. All nominations must be submitted by 5 p.m., September 30, 2024. Awards will be determined in mid-October.

Please note that this posted deadline refers to the date/time by which the Graduate School must receive the final and complete nomination packet and any accompanying materials. Academic units may have earlier deadlines to accommodate their internal selection and nomination processes, so students are encouraged to verify the timeline with faculty and/or their graduate program leadership.

Nomination Procedure

Nominations may be submitted by the nominee's graduate program director, department chair/head, appropriate college leadership, or appropriate leadership in an institutional partner unit. Students may not apply directly for this award. Each unit (as defined by university major code) and institutional partner may nominate no more than ONE nominee (total) per award cycle.

In the nomination form, nominators will be required to prepare/upload the following materials as one PDF document using the following file name convention:
"Nominee's Last Name_Department_Delson.pdf", and upload it through the nomination form:

Statement from the nominee describing how the award will advance their graduate studies at Oregon State University and an explanation of the extenuating financial emergency that may impact their ability to persist if funding is not received; nominees are encouraged to review the Graduate School’s OSU Grad Advantage core competencies and complete the OSU Grad Advantage Self-Assessment Tool to assist in responding to this prompt; 1 page maximum.
Letter from nominee's nominee's major professor, department head, program director, or unit chair/head (a) attesting to the academic merit of the nominee, (b) confirming that the nominee is making satisfactory academic progress with the nominee's anticipated degree completion, and (c) an overview of previous financial support the nominee has received from the unit; 1 page maximum.
A copy of the nominee’s résumé or curriculum vitae.

NOTE to Institutional Partners:

If an institutional partner is submitting the nomination, they must also have confirmation from the student’s academic unit that:

The student is not already being nominated for the same award by the academic unit, and
The student is in good academic standing, making satisfactory progress, and that the nomination aligns with the student’s status in the program.