Grants and Writing Resources for Clarkson University

A sophomore searching for biomarkers that could identify breast cancer early took the undergraduate top honor in the Pitch-Off at Clarkson's Research and Project Showcase on April 17, 2026. The graduate winner was a physician assistant studies student whose master's project examined how screen time affects children. More than 550 students presented that day, before 75 faculty and alumni judges.

The Showcase and the Expo

The Research and Project Showcase (RAPS) runs in spring and summer, and the Ignite Project Expo in fall. Students give poster or oral presentations at the undergraduate or graduate level, sorted into subject categories that have included biomedical and health sciences, environmental science and wargaming. Top scorers in each category give a pitch in a final round, with separate undergraduate and graduate Pitch-Offs awarding first, second and third place.

Special awards go to work in areas such as sustainability, commercialization and community engagement. A Creative Expression Award joined them in 2026, sponsored by University Libraries and the Department of Arts, Culture and Technology. Spring RAPS also hosts STEM QuESTS, a challenge sponsored by the Institute for STEM Education in which students design and deliver hands-on lessons for regional K-12 classrooms. A Spring 2025 finalist received a $1,000 cash prize.

Honors Research Funding

Honors students can spend ten weeks of summer research with a faculty mentor after their first, second or third year, and the program pays for on-campus room and board. Incoming Honors students get a five-week version before their first year. Both programs end with a presentation at the showcase.

The Honors Educational Enhancement Scholarship (HEES) provides up to $1,000 per academic year, and up to $2,000 over a student's time in the program, for research supplies and travel, conferences, unpaid internships and study abroad fees. It will fund one conference attended as an observer; a second requires a presenter's role. Travel to present an Honors capstone at a conference qualifies even after graduation.

Prizes and Graduate Funding

Student awards are presented during the Celebration & Recognition of Excellence Weekend (CREW) each spring. The 2026 list included the Stig E. Friberg Award for Undergraduate Research in chemistry and biochemistry and the Craig Woodworth Award for Undergraduate Research in Bioscience. Graduate honors that year included an Outstanding Graduate Research Award in biology and an Outstanding MS Thesis award from the Institute for a Sustainable Environment. Chemical and biomolecular engineering gave the Dr. Lewis J. Derzansky Memorial Graduate Scholarship Endowment.

At commencement on May 9, 2026, two graduating seniors received the Levinus Clarkson Award and the Frederica Clarkson Award, $1,000 each, for strong scholarship joined to promise of professional achievement.

Clarkson offers assistantships to master's and PhD students. Merit scholarships for in-person graduate programs can cover up to 30% of tuition.

Writing Help, Capstones and Theses

Peer consultants at the Writing Center meet students in person or over Zoom for 30 to 60 minutes and take walk-ins when the schedule allows. Their list of documents runs from lab reports and conference posters to honors theses and graduate school essays.

The Honors capstone is a written manuscript of original scholarship produced with a faculty mentor. Students propose it in the spring of junior year, and both an independent reviewer and the program director must approve the proposal.

Under the Clarkson Regulations, thesis and dissertation work carries an S grade for satisfactory progress until the Graduate School accepts the final document, when the grade becomes a P. The library keeps honors theses, master's theses and doctoral dissertations in print, and Clarkson dissertations from 1997 on are available to the campus community as PDFs through ProQuest; the library's theses and dissertations page links both. Authors set distribution rights and any embargo on the Student Copyright Form.

When a capstone manuscript, thesis or showcase paper is through its last round of faculty comments, our editors can give it a final edit for grammar, consistency and format. See our Clarkson University dissertation and thesis editing and Clarkson University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• ESL Academic Writing: Overcoming Common Grammar Habits
• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter
• The Results Chapter: Presenting Data with Forensic Clarity