Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Akron
UA's Geo-Challenge team won its first national title in March 2026, taking the Geo-Wall competition at Geo-Congress 2026 in Salt Lake City in its fifth year at the event. Sixteen finalists were chosen from more than 30 teams. Four Akron students designed and built a miniature mechanically stabilized earth wall and finished with 480.0 points to Cal State Fullerton's 472.3. A second UA team placed third nationally in the Geo-Video event for the third year running.
Prizes for Papers and Poems
The Department of English gives cash prizes for student writing. The Cathryn C. Taliaferro Shakespeare Essay Prize is open to undergraduates and graduate students, who enter a Shakespeare paper written for a UA English course in the last two years, in MLA style with a Works Cited page. The Mary Mostenic Award for Composition works by nomination. A composition instructor contacts the student first, and only nominated writers may enter.
The Marian H. Smith Short Story Prize and the Sam Ella Dukes Memorial Poetry Prize appear on both the undergraduate and graduate award lists. Graduate students can also compete for the Donald A. and Laura Jane Keister Memorial Essay Prize in Literature.
Where Student Work Appears
AshBelt is UA's student-run literary journal, and it publishes creative work by UA undergraduates only. Any registered undergraduate in any major may submit. Psychology from the Margins is a peer-reviewed journal run by students. It takes manuscripts from undergraduates and graduate students on the history of psychology, with attention to stories that other historical accounts left out.
Law students edit the Akron Law Review, the School of Law's flagship journal since 1967. Its three issues a year include an annual Intellectual Property Edition, which was previously published as the Akron Intellectual Property Journal.
Research and Conference Funding
Students in the Williams Honors College complete an Honors Research Project, exploring a topic in depth with a faculty sponsor. For travel, Graduate Student Government offers Professional Enrichment Grants to graduate students who attend or present at a national conference or event. The Department of Psychology Travel Award, created in 2007, helps psychology undergraduates and graduate students pay to present research at conferences or attend workshops and colloquia.
Most graduate support comes through teaching and research assistantships, which cover tuition and pay a stipend for a 20-hour workweek. Some faculty offer non-service fellowships funded by external research grants. Doctoral students are pointed to outside sponsors for dissertation research, and the Office of Research Administration runs grant-writing workshops for them. The School of Graduate Studies notes that a grant application often takes 12 to 18 months from preparation to award notice.
Help With Writing and Theses
The Bierce Writing Commons in Bierce Library, Room 68, offers free one-on-one sessions with faculty and peer consultants. Its mission statement counts first-semester freshmen and chemical engineering graduate students revising journal submissions among its writers. Enrolled undergraduates can also send drafts to the Online Writing Lab, run through the Ohio eTutoring Collaborative. A tutor usually comments within 48 hours, on up to three drafts of a paper.
Finished theses and dissertations go to OhioLINK as a single PDF. The School of Graduate Studies checks the file against its formatting guidelines and sends it back with comments for correction before approval. Since January 2023 the PDF must also meet OhioLINK's Minimum Digital Accessibility Standards, which require alternative text for figures and at least one heading level. The School posts a Word template, a signature page template and slides from its formatting workshop. Where a department style guide conflicts with the School's guidelines, the School's guidelines apply.
Before a thesis goes to OhioLINK or an essay goes to a prize committee, our editors can give it a final edit for grammar, consistency and format. Visit our University of Akron dissertation and thesis editing and University of Akron 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 the University of Akron, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your UA writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.