Grants and Writing Resources for Elizabeth City State University
About 420 people applied for the 2026-27 Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals, and 65 Americans were chosen. One is an ECSU aviation science major who expects to graduate in May 2028. The U.S. Congress and the German Bundestag sponsor the yearlong exchange. Her cohort left for Germany on July 29, 2026. The year includes a two-month intensive German course, study at a German university and a professional internship, and participants live with host families.
Research and Where It Goes
Undergraduate research at ECSU is open to every undergraduate, and the university defines it as an inquiry that makes "an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline." Undergraduate Research Week, held in April 2026, brought presentations, a digital poster display, workshops and guest speakers. ECSU belongs to the Council on Undergraduate Research, and its research page points students to the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium and the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research.
Course work can reach a national database. Students in BIOL 499, Biological Research, extracted DNA from one of the oldest oaks on campus and annotated its chloroplast genome, and in June 2026 ECSU reported that the genome had been accepted into the NCBI database, making ECSU the first HBCU in the American Campus Tree Genome Project. That April, a double major in aviation science and unmanned aircraft systems presented a study at a national conference in Los Angeles on whether AI tools can read students' written reflections for signs that they need support. The Department of Aviation paid for the trip.
The Honors Thesis
Members of the Honors Program can hold a University Honors Grant of up to $2,000 a year, based on need, with a 3.25 cumulative GPA. They write a thesis approved by a committee of three faculty members: the advisor and two others in the major or a related field.
The thesis guidelines set a rule of thumb of at least 25 pages, Microsoft Word, Times New Roman and double spacing, with MLA, APA or Chicago style chosen with the advisor. Students register for HON 410 in their last semester and defend the thesis orally, and committee members score the defense with a rubric. The guidelines call it appropriate to declare, in the preface or an optional acknowledgments section, the help received in preparing the thesis, editorial help included. Approved theses go to NCDOCKS, the North Carolina Digital Online Collection for Knowledge and Scholarship.
Graduate Study
ECSU's graduate programs include master's degrees in biology, mathematics, education and school administration. Depending on the program, students finish with a thesis, a project or a practicum. Many programs offer graduate assistantships that carry a stipend.
In February 2026 the Council of Historically Black Graduate Schools gave its Distinguished Thesis Award to an ECSU applied mathematics master's student for a thesis testing how well the university's math placement exams predict success in later courses. It was the first such award in ECSU history.
Writing Help and Scholarships
The Center for Writing and Research, in Room 143 of E.A. Johnson Hall, offers peer tutoring along with help on essays and revisions, outlines, source selection, citation, and MLA, APA and Chicago formatting. Creative writing, cover letters and resumes are covered too. Students can book an appointment or walk in, and a writing lab has printers. For research questions, the G.R. Little Library runs an Ask a Librarian service and lists departmental liaisons.
The ECSU Foundation awards endowed scholarships through the AcademicWorks portal, matched to major, residency, subject interest, talent and academic performance. North Carolina students with financial need may also receive a UNC Campus Scholarship of up to $3,000 a year.
For a final edit of an honors thesis, master's thesis or class paper, our editors check grammar, consistency and format, and honors students can declare that help in the thesis preface or acknowledgments, where the guidelines say editorial help may be declared. See our Elizabeth City State University dissertation and thesis editing and Elizabeth City State University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.
From Our Writing Guides
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Managing Editor of Editors For Students. Links checked October 2026.
Editors For Students is an independent editorial service and is not affiliated with Elizabeth City State University, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your ECSU writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.