Grants and Writing Resources for St. Thomas University
In January 2026 a team of St. Thomas seniors tied for first place worldwide in the Business Strategy Game, an online simulation in which more than 10,000 teams from business schools in 30 countries run virtual athletic footwear companies. A second STU team placed 73rd, and both finished in the top 1%. In April the College of Law Trial Team, after reaching the final round of the National Trial Competition and winning three competitions during the 2025-26 year, was invited to the Top Gun National Mock Trial Competition at Baylor Law School, which brings together advocates from 16 trial advocacy programs.
Law Reviews and the Write-On
The Intercultural Human Rights Law Review has published an annual volume of human rights scholarship since 2006, and Volume 21 appeared in 2026. A student editorial board runs it with two faculty advisors, and the review also hosts an annual symposium. Invitations go to the top 15% of the first-year class and to winners of the 1L Legal Research and Writing book award. Members meet the J.D. Writing Requirement through the review with a paper of at least 25 pages and 125 footnote citations, submitted in five parts every other week, and the Student Articles Editor gives a Bluebook exam that is graded anonymously. International Law is a pre- or co-requisite for membership.
The St. Thomas Law Review exists to build the analytical, research and writing skills of its members. It publishes a professional journal with an online companion, and its most recent issue is Volume 38, Issue 2, from fall 2025.
Essay Prizes and Fellowships in Human Rights Law
Several LL.M. awards in Intercultural Human Rights are decided on written work. The Therapeutic Jurisprudence Award, named for Professor Amy Ronner and Dr. Michael Pacin, pays a first prize of $2,500 and two second prizes of $1,250 to full-time students whose essays show an understanding of therapeutic jurisprudence. The Gillen-Massey Intercultural Human Rights Scholarship, open to LL.M. and J.S.D. students, asks for an essay of at least 1,000 words on human rights or human trafficking as presented in the film TRAPPED: Lessons from the Trenches. For the Arya Laghaie Indigenous Peoples' Rights Scholarship, worth $1,000 a year, applicants send a resume with either a statement of service to indigenous communities or an essay of up to 2,000 words.
The W. Michael Reisman Fellowship in International Law gives two students up to $10,000 each for travel and living costs during a legal internship abroad in any international law field. The Reisman Fellowship gives preference to students pursuing human rights work.
Doctoral Programs and the Dissertation
The online Ph.D. in Theology and Leadership runs 54 credits, 12 or more of them for a dissertation meant to contribute to the life of the Church and the academic community. Students pick a three-, four- or five-year track and have up to seven years to finish. The Ed.D. in Educational Leadership starts its online dissertation in the first year. For doctoral research in the Doctor of Business Administration, candidates may write a traditional dissertation or choose action research or journal articles, and coursework can take as little as a year before the dissertation begins.
The College of Law's J.S.D. in Intercultural Human Rights ends with the rigorosum, an oral defense in which candidates explain what their research adds for decision makers, practitioners and the legal literature.
Once a committee approves a dissertation or thesis, the student uploads it to ProQuest ETD by way of the library's Dissertations & Theses page. Published STU dissertations can be searched in ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. Research with human subjects needs Institutional Review Board authorization first.
Tutoring and Citation Help
Tutoring at the Glenn Hubert Student Learning Center, on the second floor of the Main Library, is free to all STU students, and walk-ins are welcome. Its English tutors include a professional tutor, a graduate assistant and a peer tutor. The center also provides Grammarly and Knack, a service for booking STU tutors online or in person. The library's Style & Citation Guide names APA 7th edition as the preferred style at STU and recommends RefWorks or Zotero for managing references.
Law students take a three-semester Legal Writing Program taught in small sections, with a capstone semester in appellate advocacy and oral argument. After the first year, the Academic Success program runs an Upper-Level Workshop series of practical exercises in analysis and writing.
Honors and Campus Writing
In May 2026 the honors program became the John J. Dooner Honors College. It had more than 70 students the previous December and expected more than 100 by fall. Admission to the Honors College calls for a 3.5 GPA, a letter of intent, a recommendation and an interview, and funded research appears among its program highlights. Eye of the Bobcat, STU's arts and culture magazine, joined the English Department in running the second annual Fall in Love with Writing workshop in October 2026, a generative creative writing session that closed with access to tutoring and career services.
A write-on paper, an LL.M. essay or a dissertation headed for ProQuest can come to our editors for a final check of grammar, consistency and format. See our St. Thomas University dissertation and thesis editing and St. Thomas 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 St. Thomas University, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your St. Thomas writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.