Grants and Writing Resources for Ferris State University

Eight Ferris students in Television and Digital Media Production won national and regional awards for film and video work from the past year, Ferris reported in June 2026. Their entries took first place for Public Affairs/Community Service in the NATAS College/University Student Production Awards, and a student documentary on the program's 50th anniversary placed first in the Michigan Association of Broadcasters student awards. In February, Ferris students won 20 Print Excellence Awards from Graphic Media Alliance, six of them Gold.

Research Funding

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs pairs students with faculty mentors through the Summer Student Fellowship. Fellows work full time for ten weeks and receive $5,700, and free on-campus summer housing is available. The research or creative work must be carried out entirely by the student. Mentors can request up to $500 for project expenses, and fellows report their results at the symposium with a short podium talk and a poster.

Conference travel has several sources. The Bulldog Student Travel Award gives undergraduate, professional and graduate students up to $1,500 to present scholarly or creative work, online or in person, when the accepted presentation includes at least one Ferris faculty co-author. The College of Arts, Sciences and Education offers a Student Research Grant for short-term projects that faculty and undergraduates take on together, along with a Student Travel Grant for its students. Honors students can apply for Honors travel stipends for conference presentations and study abroad.

Where Students Present

Student research and creative work goes on display at the Celebration of Student Research and Creative Activities, a symposium with a student poster session and project presentations. The 2026 Celebration was held on September 18.

For students who write, the Department of English, Literature, and World Languages brings regionally and nationally known authors to campus for Writers in Person, an annual series of free readings. A discussion period follows each reading, and visiting writers often teach in classes on the day of their event.

Help With Writing and Theses

The Writing Center in Room 120 of FLITE, the campus library, gives free consultations to Ferris students in every major. Its consultants include students and faculty, and the faculty hold advanced degrees in English composition or related fields. Consultations cover lab reports, research papers, scholarship applications and grant proposals. Students can meet in person or book an online consultation.

Master's students must submit a copy of the thesis to the library collection before graduation. Graduate theses, dissertations and capstone projects go into the Ferris Institutional Repository, hosted through JSTOR, and the library's theses page explains how to search work from 2013 on and older theses in the catalog. A student can restrict access for up to two years when the work is tied to a publication, patent or grant. In the Doctorate in Community College Leadership, the dissertation is built into the three-year, 61-credit program, with dissertation credits in every term.

If a Ferris thesis, dissertation or course paper needs a last check of grammar, consistency and format, our editors are available. See our Ferris State University dissertation and thesis editing and Ferris State University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• How to Avoid Academic Dishonesty: Citing and Quoting Sources
• The Literature Review: Avoiding Intellectual Overwhelm
• Methodology Chapter Secrets: Building the Architecture of Your Argument