Beverly Sears Graduate Students Grants

Since its inception in 1985, the Dean's Small Grants Program has awarded grants to over 1,500 students. Funding has been provided largely by annual gifts from a total of 2,500 individual donors. In 1999, in recognition of her longstanding loyalty to and efforts on behalf of the Graduate School, the program was renamed the Beverly Sears Graduate Students Grants, and an endowment was created to become a permanent funding vehicle for the grants.

With the creation of the Endowment, donors now have a variety of ways in which to make gifts to fund student grants. Gifts can be annual gifts for use in the current year, Endowment gifts, increasing the principal of the Endowment, and/or a combination of both. For instance, those who wish to make a Millennium gift can contribute $2,000, earmarking $1,000 as an annual gift and $1,000 to be added to the Endowment.

For those who wish to make named grants, the gift for any semester's award must be at least $1,000. The academic discipline of the recipient may be specified or left open to all competing students.

Likewise, one can have a named grant established in perpetuity within the Beverly Sears Graduate Students Grants Endowment. The 4% income off a gift of $25,000 would provide one $1,000 named grant each year. Again, the academic discipline can be specified or left open.

While the Endowment clearly honors Bev Sears, it is her wish and the intent of GSAC that donors to the Endowment be able to establish named grants in the memory of those whom they choose. Any gift of $25,000 or above will carry with it such recognition if desired.