Scholarships & Awards

The Boston University Women’s Guild scholarships were established more than 25 years ago to provide both aid and encouragement to women 30 and over enrolled in University graduate programs. Guild scholarships, unlike many others, do not require U.S. citizenship or (recognizing that women often have other responsibilities) full-time enrollment. Awards consist of the endowed Katherine Connor McLaughlin Memorial Scholarship and others funded by donations from Guild members. The total awarded yearly averages about $5,500.

Winners have ranged in age from 30 to 58 and have come from all BU schools offering graduate programs and from many countries around the globe. Extraordinary expenses that awards have helped pay include child care, support of parents and parents-in-law, and treatment of serious chronic conditions, as well as tuition, production costs for thesis films, and travel and other research needs.

The Guild pays printing, postage, and other charges so that all donated money is awarded. A donor may specify that an award be named in that year for an honoree. A donor or donors may choose to endow a scholarship. All Guild scholarship endowments are held by the University and distributed by the Guild in adherence to the donor(s) stated criteria. For more information, please contact buwg@bu.edu. Please send donations to:

Boston University Women’s Guild
P.O. Box 15316
Boston, MA 02215-0006

Congratulations to our 2011 scholarship winners:

Katherine Connor McLaughlin Scholarship

Nancy Scott
DPH candidate, international health, School of Public Health

Elsbeth Melville Scholarship

Lara Durgavich
PhD candidate, anthropology, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Boston University Women’s Guild Scholarships

Lisa O’Brien
EdD candidate, literacy and language, School of Education

Erika Street
MFA candidate, film production, College of Communication

Regina Walton
PhD candidate, religious and theological studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Boston University Women’s Guild Award

Jasmina Hasanhodzic
PhD candidate, economics, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Florence Engel Randall Graduate Fiction Award

Stacy Mattingly, Creative Writing Program, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

Florence Engel Randall Undergraduate Fiction Award

First Place
Glenys Packer, College of Arts and Sciences, English, 2012

Second Place
Liana Harotian, College of Arts and Sciences, English, and College of Communication, film/television, 2013

Third Place
Samantha Rae Madway, University Professors, independent concentration, 2011

Honorable Mention
Julie Hirsch, College of Arts and Sciences, English, 2012
Hannah McKechnie, College of Fine Arts, theatre, 2014

The 2011 competition was judged by Kimberly Elkins, whose fiction and nonfiction have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, Best New American Voices, The Village Voice, Glamour, Prevention, and elsewhere. She was a finalist in fiction for the 2004 National Magazine Award and has received fellowships from the Edward  Albee  and William Randolph Hearst foundations, the SLS fellowship in Nonfiction to St. Petersburg, Russia,  the St.Botolph Emerging Artist Award, and a joint  research fellowship from the Houghton Library at Harvard, the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. She has held residencies at the Millay Colony and Blue Mountain Center and  was the 2009  Kerouac Writer in Residence. Kimberly has taught at Florida State University and Boston University, and  is a visiting lecturer and advisor with the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at the University of Hong Kong.  She graduated from Duke University and BU’s graduate Creative Writing Program.

Boston University Women’s Guild Scholarships

Katherine Connor McLaughlin Scholarship, approximately $1,000
Elsbeth Melville Scholarship, approximately $1,000
Women’s Guild Scholarships, amounts vary

Applications are due March 16, 2012.

Application materials:

• Completed online application
• Two letters of recommendation from BU faculty members, submitted electronically (find the recommendation form here)

For questions, contact Jean Keith at jkeith@bu.edu.

The Florence Engel Randall Fiction Awards

The annual Florence Engel Randall Fiction Awards are administered by the Women’s Guild, thanks to an endowed fund established by the late Ruth Levine, a longtime Guild member; Stewart Randall, Mrs. Randall’s son; and others.

Florence Engel Randall (1917—1997) was the author of The Almost Year, a 1971 American Library Association Notable Book, and five other successful novels, as well as more than one hundred short stories published in both literary and popular periodicals. Her papers are at Boston University’s Gotlieb Archival Research Center. Ms. Randall was vitally interested in the careers of young writers, guiding many from the inception and writing of their work through sale and publication. This annual award honors her contributions to literature through her own work and her support of the work of others.

The undergraduate award winner is selected by a short story competition open to all undergraduate women at the University and judged by a published writer in the BU community. The graduate award is given to the outstanding woman in the Creative Writing Program, as selected by program faculty.

The 2012 Florence Engel Randall Fiction Awards application from is available here. Please address any inquiries to Natalie McCracken (nabigail645@gmail.com or 617-610-9283) or Jean Keith (jkeith@bu.edu or 617-358-6190).