Allegheny College receives $299K student research grant

Apr. 2—Allegheny College has been awarded a $299,925 grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation to support student summer research projects at the college.

The competitive grant will provide three years of funding to cover stipends for 15 science students to research during the summer break, according to Matt Venesky, associate professor of biology and director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities at Allegheny.

The grant funding also will cover research supplies, summer housing, and travel to conferences for those students doing research during the summer, he said.

The new grant funding provides a greater number of summer research opportunities to science students, Venesky said. The grant also aims to increase participation of first-generation students, historically underrepresented students, and students of color, and to allow faculty to build larger student research teams.

Student-faculty research enables students to gain relevant knowledge, skills and abilities by putting theory into practice and applying their liberal arts education to real-world challenges, according to Venesky.

"It will help us realize our aim of providing research opportunities for every Allegheny student," he said of the grant. "(It) will allow us to build programming that will help summer faculty mentors recruit and provide opportunities to students who are, and have been, historically underrepresented in the sciences."

Allegheny College was on a short list of schools from which the Sherman Fairchild Foundation proposals to support on-campus summer research programs in the sciences, off-campus field research and off-campus summer research experiences for students.

In the summer of 2023, there were 92 Allegheny students across 23 academic departments and programs who participated in the college's summer research program, according to the the college's Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities.

In 2015, the Council on Undergraduate Research presented Allegheny with its inaugural Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishment, recognizing Allegheny as the top baccalaureate college in the country providing high-quality research experiences to undergraduates.