Grants and Writing Resources for Wake Forest University

A member of the Class of 2028 took the core-level prize in the English department's D.A. Brown Essay Awards for 2025-26, announced in June 2026. The winning essay, written for ENG 150, is titled "Underlying Connotations: Natasha Trethewey's 'Beyond' as a Linguistic Challenge to the Katrina Narrative." In fall 2026, more than 100 students presented at the 20th URECA Day, with projects that ranged from paper wasps and face recognition to axolotls and human healing.

Summer Fellowships and Conference Travel

The Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Center funds summer work with a faculty mentor. Its Wake Forest Research Fellowship carried a $4,000 stipend for summer 2026 and runs at least 10 consecutive weeks. It also covers the student's share of a double room on campus if requested and adds up to $500 for supplies. Rising second-, third- and fourth-year students with a 3.0 cumulative GPA apply with a Reynolda College mentor's consent. Fellows take no summer classes, hold no other job, and present at URECA Day in the fall.

Shorter projects in the humanities, literature and fine arts fit the Wake Forest Arts and Humanities Research Fellowship: $2,000 for at least five weeks, up to $500 in supplies, and housing for one summer session. Students presenting at a professional meeting or the National Conference on Undergraduate Research can ask for a Starr Travel Grant of up to $700.

Prizes in English

For the D.A. Brown Essay Awards, English faculty nominate the best essays from their lower- and upper-level literature courses, and one winner is chosen at each level. The department's spring 2026 awards added the D.A. Brown Award for Excellence in Creative Writing, the H. Broadus Jones Shakespeare Prize, the Bashir El-Beshti Prize in Renaissance Studies and the Robert N. Shorter Medieval Prize.

Several scholarships go to rising senior majors. The Beulah Lassiter Raynor Scholarship is set aside for majors from small towns in North Carolina. In the M.A. program, an outstanding second-year student receives the H. Broadus Jones M.A. Student Award for Excellence in English.

Graduate Research Funding

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences offers the Richter Scholarship for globally oriented independent study, and its funding has traditionally favored research projects in other countries. Awards for 2026 ran up to $7,500. Applicants on the Reynolda Campus must be full-time with at least a 3.0 average, and they send a budget and a single-spaced proposal that describes a substantive research project. Travel typically lasts two to nine weeks, and most successful projects run three to six. Each scholar files a final report.

For conference presentations, the Alumni Travel Award had a maximum of $800 for 2026-27, one award per student per year, first come, first served. It is meant to add to money from an advisor or department. Graduate students and postdocs also present at Research Day, which in April 2026 combined data blitz talks, poster sessions and a 3 Minute Thesis competition at Wake Downtown.

Tutoring, Theses and the Law Review

Peer tutors at the Writing Center, in Room 426 of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library, meet writers in person or online. The center is open to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff. Its student FAQ sets the terms: tutors read a draft with the writer, teach strategies for finding grammar errors, and, in asynchronous appointments, leave comments in place of direct changes. Students can book up to two 60-minute or four 30-minute sessions a week.

Arts and Sciences graduate students submit an electronic thesis or dissertation after the defense and final revisions. It goes into the Wake Forest ETD collection, which ZSR Library maintains in WakeSpace, and into ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and authors can embargo the full text for six months, one year, two years or five years. Law students edit the Wake Forest Law Review, which first appeared in May 1965 as the Wake Forest Intramural Law Review with nine articles by board members and other students.

Once a Richter proposal, a literature essay or a thesis bound for ProQuest is in final form, our editors can check it for grammar, consistency and format. See our Wake Forest University dissertation and thesis editing and Wake Forest University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• How to Write a Literature Essay: Mastering Close Reading
• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter
• ProQuest Readiness: The Final Mechanical Audit