Initiatives Student Success Seed Grant

2017 Student Success Seed Grant Application

The Program is designed to support the development, replication, and dissemination of innovative solutions that demonstrate success for addressing  widespread challenges in postsecondary education for students who are at risk for not completing an undergraduate degree. A specific focus of the program is to improve student persistence and completion outcomes at Washington State University. Successful proposals for Student Success Seed Grants will demonstrate a clear plan for securing subsequent major external funding to continue, expand, and advance interventions.

Two stages are awarded under this program: a “Development” stage and a “Scale-Up” stage. Although it is expected that successful proposals will receive both, Scale-up funding is only provided to projects that, following the Development stage, meet reporting and funding requirements, show evidence of promising practices, and have a detailed plan for subsequent major external funding.

Stages

Development stage grants support new or substantially more-effective practices for improving student persistence and completion outcomes at Washington State University. Applications must be based on strong theory and supported by evidence to support the project’s effectiveness and readiness for implementation. The Development stage will boost existing collaborations or create new collaborations among faculty and student service professionals. The project period for the Development stage is 12 to 14 months.

Scale-up stage grants provide funding to support expansion and achieve sustainability of successful Development projects. Scale-up grants provide financial support for evaluation, further research, intervention refinement, and major proposal development. Scale-up grants receive priority status for limited submissions from WSU and assistance from the Seed Grant Management Team (comprised of Student Affairs and the Office of the Provost) in proposal submission and project implementation. The project period for the Scale-up stage is 4 to 6 months.

Competitive Priority

Reviewers will provide a competitive preference for applications that propose to increase the number of undergraduates who participate in research, scholarship, and creative discovery through one or more of the following experiences:

• courses that included a community-based project (service-learning)
• work with a faculty member on a research project
• internships, co-ops, field experiences, student teaching, or clinical placements
• study abroad
• culminating senior experience (capstone course, senior project or thesis, comprehensive exam, portfolio, etc.)