Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Missouri
Two Mizzou juniors received 2026 Udall Undergraduate Scholarships, two of about 65 awarded that year. One, a double major in environmental sciences and journalism, works at the Center for Agroforestry on using plants to clean farm soils contaminated with explosives such as TNT, and reports on science and rural issues for KBIA public radio. The other works in a School of Natural Resources lab, where he has georeferenced white oak trees and studied how site conditions affect mycorrhizal suitability.
Presenting Undergraduate Research
Spring brings Show Me Research Week, where undergraduates, graduate and professional students, and postdoctoral fellows present their research and creative work. In April 2026 it ran three days of poster and oral sessions in Memorial Union North, a sidewalk symposium and an art and design showcase at the Columbia Art League, along with an awards ceremony and closing reception.
Students in languages, literature, history, philosophy and the arts have a separate venue inside that week. The Humanities Symposium takes posters and student panels, and the 2026 edition was co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities. The Office of Undergraduate Research also runs a Fall Research Day and a Summer Forum, and helps students find faculty mentors through ForagerOne.
Prizes for Poems, Stories and Essays
The English department's creative writing awards are open to undergraduates in any major. The George A. Mahan Poetry Award, the George A. Mahan Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Margery McKinney Short Fiction Award each name first and second places. First-year students can enter the Sibyl Pommer First-Year Poetry Award, established in 1961. English graduate students compete for the Frances W. Kerr Awards in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. Applications for most of these go through Scholarship Universe.
The Literature Emitting Diodes (LED) Writing Competition takes unpublished writing of up to 500 words from undergraduates, and jurors from the English Graduate Student Association choose a winning piece to be shown on an LED sign. For class writing, the Mahan First-Year Writing Award judges papers written for ENG 1000; its 2023–24 call offered $300 for first prize and $200 for second.
Dissertation Fellowships
PhD students past their comprehensive exams can apply directly for the Pillars of Discovery Summer Dissertation Writing Fellowship. For summer 2026 it offered up to eight fellows a $7,500 stipend and tuition for one credit hour of doctoral research enrollment. Fellows set milestones, join a structured writing community and report on their progress at mid-summer and at the end.
Students who plan to defend within the academic year can self-nominate for the Dissertation Year Fellowships, the Gamma Alpha Gamma and the Raymond White. Each pays the equivalent of the minimum stipend for a quarter-time assistantship, in two lump sums, on top of a student's existing assistantship or other support.
Travel Money and Thesis Awards
The Graduate School's travel scholarships pay up to $500 for airfare or ground travel, either to present at a professional conference or, for doctoral students past comprehensive exams, to carry out dissertation research. A student can receive one of these two during a Mizzou career. PhD students can also seek a John D. Bies International Travel Scholarship of up to $4,000 for archives, libraries, professional meetings, archaeological or geological sites, or internships outside their country of origin.
Finished work can win a Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award or Distinguished Master's Thesis Award, with honoraria of $1,000 and $500. Judges weigh clarity of writing alongside scholarship, methods and contribution to the field. The doctoral winner goes forward to the CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award.
Writing Center and Thesis Submission
The Writing Center works out of 100 Student Success Center and the Writing & Research Hub in Ellis Library 115. Graduate writing support includes free tutorials of up to 50 minutes in person or by Zoom, and written feedback through the Online Writery on theses, dissertations, publication projects, NSF-GRFP applications and job market documents.
Funding shared by the Graduate School and the Writing Center lets DANG run twice each academic year. It is a five-day dissertation writing week with snacks, coffee and lunch provided, and in one week, 18 participants wrote 354 pages.
Theses and dissertations are submitted through Canvas, and Graduate School staff check each one for compliance with university guidelines. Once the Graduate School accepts the final version, it becomes a matter of record for the university and can't be corrected. Completed work is archived in MOspace.
An accepted Mizzou dissertation can't be corrected, so the final edit for grammar, consistency and format belongs before the Canvas upload, and our editors handle that pass for theses, award entries and essays. See our University of Missouri dissertation and thesis editing and University of Missouri 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 Missouri, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your Mizzou writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.