The Pine Honors College has awarded its 2018 Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Grants for the spring semester.

Richard England, the dean of the Honors College, said the scholarship is used to support research of projects in every discipline. Students do not have to be a part of the Honors College to win this award.

Full-time undergraduate students with a 3.0 GPA or higher can use the money from the grant to fund things such as supplies they need or travel for their research.

England said students who apply for this scholarship should be taking research courses often, a faculty member must write them a letter of support, and they also need a research proposal.

“The research proposal is a written document, two to three pages in length, responding to four or five areas we’re looking for, and they upload that to the application website,” England said.

He said the purpose of this grant is to show students how to write a grant application, within or outside of the university.

The awards are selected by the subcommittee of the undergraduate research task force, which is made up of three to four faculty members across the university interested in research.

Rebecca Nelson, a senior psychology major who is a part of the Honors College, won the award for her research on the effect of fidget spinners on auditory and visual attention.

“It’s always amazing to feel like someone approves of my research and is willing to support it,” Noelson said. “It gave me the ability to complete my research and offer incentives to the participants to help.”

Nelson was able to present her research at three professional conferences. These were the National Conference of Undergraduate Research, the meeting for the Midwestern Psychological Association and the Mid-America Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference.

Madison Fisher, a senior psychology major who studied teacher knowledge and attitudes of praise as a classroom management strategy, said receiving the grant has taken a tremendous burden off her shoulders as a student researcher.

“My study required incentives, materials, travel, hotel stays and more. As a college student, this seemed like a lot,” Fisher said. “Receiving the URSCA grant helped immensely to cover this expense and enabled me to complete and present my research at the national level.”

England said there are not many students who apply for the grant, so he will continue promoting it through social media and around campus.

Vince Lovergine can be reached at 581-2812 or vplovergine@eiu.edu.