Women's Giving Circle Grants

2020-2021 Grant Recipients

Disability Access Services: Testing Center Improvements

$2,700

The Disability Access Services Testing Center administered 1,947 quizzes and exams and worked with almost 500 faculty to provide alternative testing accommodations for students. This grant will help complete a recent expansion to provide students with lockers, additional noise cancelling headphones and a sanitary system for distributing earplugs. The goal is to provide a safe and quiet testing environment to allow students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge.

 

Military and Veteran Resources Computer Workstation Expansion

$9,000

Military and Veteran Resources Center serves as home base for the military-connected community on the Corvallis campus and is where students access the plurality of resources available to them. They currently have five computer workstations for students, which are at-capacity use. This grant will purchase three additional computer workstations. By increasing the number available, students will have more reason to visit the center and more opportunities to receive support from fellow military and veteran students and the centers staff.

 

Launch Academy, an Inclusive Incubator for OSU Student Entrepreneurs

$9,970

Launch Academy in the College of Business is expanding its efforts to help students of all majors explore entrepreneurship. This renewal of their grant will support a series of nine workshops and provide scholarships for low-income students who wish to enroll in the Launch Academy and earn credit for working on their businesses.

 

RancHER. A field day for women in agriculture

$7,630

RancHER will be the first agricultural field day at OSU to focus on women in agriculture and will highlight women in a field that has been historically led by men. RancHER will provide an educational program for women in the beef cattle industry, focusing on the research conducted by women in agriculture and female students at OSU. The program will educate women in agriculture, creating a program uniquely tailored to this new ascending group in the livestock industry, and will position OSU Extension to better assist this specific population with unique needs. It will also highlight the current research, outreach, and other educational programs at OSU to increase the community awareness in a rural community distant from the Corvallis campus.

 

Grace Hopper Conference Scholarships

$12,500

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is the world’s largest gathering of women technologists, attracting over 18,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The conference offers an exceptional opportunity to connect with a global community of academics as well as one of the largest career fairs, where companies like Google, Microsoft and Nike seek potential interns and new hires. The OSU Women’s Giving Circle is funding conference registrations for students in engineering from both the Corvallis and OSU-Cascades campus to attend.

 

Model Sets for Chemistry Teaching Assistants

$7,200

Thousands of students take general and organic chemistry each year. The majority of students in these classes struggle with spatial visualization. Atoms and molecules are too small to actually see, yet it is important for students to be able to visualize what atoms and molecules look like. This grant will allow the purchase of model sets for use by general chemistry and organic chemistry teaching assistants to show three-dimensional representations of orbitals and molecules to students in their recitations.

 

Survivor Advocacy & Resource Center (SARC) Survivor Fund

$10,000

The Survivor Advocacy and Resource Center (SARC) provides confidential advocacy services to OSU students, faculty and staff who have been impacted by sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, stalking and gender-based harassment. Often, advocates are working with people in crisis who have immediate financial needs related to their safety. This grant will create a Survivor Fund that will be used solely to support student survivors in such emergencies.

 

Sources of Strength

$2,000

Sources of Strength is a strength-based comprehensive wellness program that focuses on suicide prevention.  This grant will bring the Sources of Strength program to OSU and will be used to provide the structure, training and framework to create and run a peer-to-peer mental health promotion and suicide prevention program. The program will create and facilitate mental health promotion and suicide prevention programs and activities each term that are open to all OSU students.

 

Positive Youth Development Coaching Certificate

$6,180

There are 3.5 million youth coaches in the United States, who go on to impact an estimated 40 million youth in the nation as coaches, teachers and mentors. Of those coaches, 2.5 million are volunteers, and 90% of the volunteers are untrained. This grant will support OSU KidSpirit in creating a Positive Youth Development Coaching Certificate and will be available to all OSU students through the College of Public Health and Human Sciences. Students will gain mastery in evidence-based positive youth development theories and techniques. Research shows that youth who engage in positive youth programs experience an increase in confidence, character, connection, competence and caring.

Trinocular compound microscopes to enhance student learning experience in science courses

$4,678

Mammalian histology is a branch of anatomy that teaches students about minute anatomical structures such as cells and tissues of the body that can only be seen through the aid of a microscope. Students in this course, and other courses in this Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences, have been using microscopes that are dated, in need of repair or sometimes short in number compared to the class size. This grant will purchase five Accu-Scope EXC-120 LED trinocular compound microscopes, and the department has committed matching funds to purchase an additional five. These microscopes will facilitate student learning during laboratory hours because they are high quality microscopes engineered for education.

 

Supporting Undocumented/DACAmented and Mixed-Status Students

$805

The Dreaming Beyond Borders Resource Center increases support for OSU students who are undocumented, DACAmented, and/or come from families of mixed immigration status. The center also aims to provide educational and experiential learning opportunities to the OSU community about issues related to immigration. This renewal grant will provide direct financial support for students who are renewing their DACA application.