Delson Bridge to the Future Fund

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.

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 2020-2021 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 term 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 September 1, 2020. All nominations must be submitted by 5 p.m., October 5, 2020. Awards will be determined in mid October.

Nomination Procedure

Nominations may be submitted by the nominee's graduate program director or unit chair/head. Students may not apply directly for this award. Each unit (as defined by university major code) is asked to only make requests for the most compelling circumstances.

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
Letter from nominee's major professor or unit head/chair attesting to the academic merit of the nominee, confirmation that the nominee is making satisfactory academic progress, anticipated degree completion, and an overview of previous financial support the nominee has received from the unit
A copy of the nominee’s résumé or curriculum vitae