Scholarships and 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. Their average graduate grade point average is 3.8. 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 314
Boston University Station
Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Words from a few of our past winners:

“I am honored to receive this award from the Women's Guild and humbled to be in the company of such a multitalented and diverse group of women. My research and clinical work with male and female veterans with PTSD are both challenging and rewarding; my experiences working at the VA hospital throughout my graduate training have led me to feel a strong sense of honor and commitment for our veterans. I hope to pursue a career in the VA so I can continue this work. It is quite gratifying to receive an award that reflects my graduate school work as much as it acknowledges my role as a mother, wife, and daughter. Thanks very much to the Women’s Guild!”

Erica Jane Wolf
Women’s Guild Scholarship
GRS Clinical Psychology
PhD program

“The Women’s Guild Scholarship was particularly important for me, as it not only supports me in the pursuit of my dreams, but it also supports the notion that a woman in her fifties should not necessarily be ready to be put out to pasture. Thank you so much for your encouragement.”

Leah Ziph-Schatzberg
Women’s Guild Scholarship
GRS Cognitive & Neural Systems
PhD program

“I am so pleased and honored to be chosen to receive the 2008 Boston University Women’s Guild Katherine Connor McLaughlin Memorial Scholarship. Thank you for this significant help with my financial obligations. I am enjoying the program, even though it is hard work, and am grateful for the privilege of studying at BU. Thank you for helping to make this possible.”

Sherri Letchford, PT
Katherine Connor McLaughlin Memorial Scholarship
Physical Therapy
PhD program
Kenya

“Receiving a scholarship from the BU Women’s Guild was certainly a help financially, but, more importantly, it was so nice to be recognized for my work by such an outstanding group of women, and to meet and learn about the accomplishments of other outstanding women at BU, across so many disciplines.”

Susan Bollinger
Helen M. Hennelly Book Prize
School of Public Health—International Health
Master of Public Health program

Boston University Women's Guild Scholarship Application Form

Katherine Connor McLaughlin Scholarship, $1,000
Elsbeth Melville Scholarship, $1,000
Women's Guild Scholarship, $1,000
and other, smaller awards

Applications are due by March 15, 2010.

Submit this application with, if you wish, your resume or CV to buwg@bu.edu. Please ask two Boston University faculty members to send letters on your behalf, with your name on the subject line, to the same address. For questions, call Jean Keith at 617-353-6190 or email her at jkeith@bu.edu.

Name

Date of Birth (must be before 5/1/80)

Citizenship

Student ID Number

Local Telephone

Local Address

Permanent Address

Email Address

School Dept./Program:

Minor

Expected Degree and Date

Major Advisor Telephone

Are you registered at BU this semester?

	Yes
	No

Do you intend to register for next fall semester?

Undergraduate GPA

Graduate GPA

Last fall semester GPA

College(s) attended with major, dates, degrees

Other advanced study (abroad, internships, etc.)

Honors, fellowships, grants, other awards with their dates

Significant employment with organization, position, title, job description, dates

Publications, exhibits, performances, delivered papers, and other activities related to your graduate work, with dates and places

At what stage are you in your graduate work? For example, are you taking courses, conducting research, writing your thesis?

What degree requirements are incomplete?

What are your career plans?

What additional training, residency, internships, etc., will be necessary after graduation to reach your goal?

How would a Guild scholarship help you advance in your graduate studies?

Note: all fields are required.

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 fiction 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 2010 Florence Engel Randall Fiction Awards application is now available for download*. Please address any inquiries to jkeith@bu.edu or 617-353-6190.

Note: *This file can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat. If you need the free Acrobat Reader, please visit Adobe Systems, Inc.