Brigham Young University - Idaho

The Mentored Student Fund (MSF) program is intended to improve the quality of education at BYU-Idaho by providing faculty with opportunities to engage with students in professional development and research activities which directly benefit learning and teaching.

Application & Deadlines

The application form is available to download from this link. Applications are reviewed year-round. Once you have completed the application, make sure your department chair and dean provide comments and their signatures. Please download and return completed applications (scanned copies will be accepted) to:

Maria Nate
Instructional Development
350 McKay
mail stop 0415
natem@byui.edu

Selection Criteria

1. Projects should be Well-Designed and Beneficial. The project should be able to be done with the skills of the research team, in the time outlined, and with the proposed resources. Ideally, the project should benefit both the student researcher(s) / scholar(s) and the faculty mentor(s).  A short note from the department chair indicating the scholarly merit of the project is helpful.

2. Committed Student Mentor(s).  The project must have a faculty researcher(s) / scholar(s) with the ability, commitment and time to effectively mentor the student(s).

3. Broad Support - Support from other sources (like the department and college) is not required but is encouraged.

4. An Element of Buy-in / Sacrifice.  The MSF provides sufficient funding to enable good projects to proceed.  The funds are primarily designed for student travel and for project supplies.  MSF funds should not be used to pay students for the intellectually-rich portions of a project (e.g., data analysis and interpretation, poster or oral presentation preparation, or journal article write-up).

If students are travelling to a conference, please select regional conferences so that as many students as possible can attend. Typically MSF funds will pay for the presenter's costs, and a small portion of the costs of those that are just attending the conference.

Award Disbursement 

Upon approval of the award, you will be notified of the amount of the grant.  The funds will be disbursed to your department on a reimbursement basis.  Within 1 week of the completion of your project, please:

          1.Prepare a short (one paragraph) description of your experience;
          2.Include the account number to which the funds should be transferred.

Completed information should be sent to Maria Nate at the above address.  Once all the information has been received, the funds will be transferred to your department's account.If for some reason you are unable to complete your project, please let Maria know so that funds can be made available for other proposals.Should you have any questions about this process, please call Maria Nate at 496-1157.