Grants and Writing Resources for the University of North Carolina Wilmington

Two members of UNCW's class of 2027 won DeJoy-Woś Scholarships in June 2026. One studies political science and criminology; the other is an Honors English major. The award pays in full for the TFAS Academic Internship Program in Washington, D.C., which pairs an internship with courses through George Mason University. Earlier that year UNCW reported that undergraduates had spent a week on Harker's Island making Tales from the Mariners: Core Sound Documentaries, an anthology of 12 films about the Down East coastal communities.

Where Students Present

The Showcase of Student Research and Creativity closes each fall and spring semester in the UNCW Library. Undergraduate and graduate students from every discipline bring posters, talks, exhibits and performances, and the public is invited. CSURF, the Center for the Support of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, prints the posters.

In spring 2024 graduate students competed in the Graduate School's Three Minute Thesis, explaining their research to a general audience. That year's prizes were funded through the Dr. Ralph W. Brauer Fellowship, and first place went to a master's student in marine science.

Research Money for Undergraduates

CSURF runs most of it. Research Supplies Grants of up to $500 are offered for fall, spring and summer work. Travel grants reimburse up to $1,000, one per fiscal year, either to present at a conference that has accepted the student's abstract or to reach a field site or archive the project depends on.

Rising juniors and seniors with a faculty sponsor can enter the UNCW Fellowship Competition for Research and Creativity Fellowships worth up to $3,000 in tuition waiver for the following year. Applicants submit a written proposal and sit a 15-minute interview that opens with a five-minute presentation. There were 8 fellows in 2025-2026 and 11 the year before. For awards outside UNCW, the National Fellowships Coordinator advises on the NOAA Hollings, Udall, Fulbright and James Madison programs.

Journals and a Small Press

The Department of Creative Writing lists Ecotone and Chautauqua as student-staffed journals. Ecotone, founded in 2005, comes out twice a year and sets literary writing beside scientific writing. Its pieces have been reprinted in the Best American anthologies and the Pushcart Prize.

Both journals come out of the Publishing Laboratory in Kenan Hall, a classroom for graduate and undergraduate students that is also a working small press with the Lookout Books imprint. Students there learn editing, design and book production on the lab's iMacs, printers and perfect binder.

Writing Help, Travel Grants and Theses

Writing Services at the University Learning Center, DePaolo Hall 1056, offers individual or group appointments in person or by Zoom, and a drop-in Writing Lab. Papers sent to the Online Writing & Learning service usually come back by email within three to five days, with comments on the three concerns the writer names and on other patterns in the draft.

Graduate students who are active members of the Graduate Student Association can apply once a year for a GSA travel grant of up to $350 for a conference, a workshop or thesis research. Thesis and dissertation writers start the Format Approval and EDT Submission forms on the Graduate School's forms page; the advisor signs the first, and the second records how the finished work is released online. Since 2008 the Graduate School has required electronic theses and dissertations, which the library makes available through its catalog.

A thesis headed for format approval, or a paper headed for the Showcase, can go to our editors first for a final edit of grammar, consistency and format. See our UNCW dissertation and thesis editing and UNCW essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• How to Write a Personal Essay: Reflection & Growth
• Treating the Personal Statement as a Scholarly Defense
• The Results Chapter: Presenting Data with Forensic Clarity