Grants and Writing Resources for Westminster University

In July 2026 a Westminster rising junior won the 120th Utah Women's State Amateur Championship at Oakridge Country Club. The win carried an exemption into the 2026 U.S. Women's Amateur at The Honors Course in Tennessee.

Grants for Undergraduate Research

Westminster lists its campus research grants on one undergraduate research page. Every applicant must be an undergraduate with a faculty mentor, most grants call for a project plan, and the Undergraduate Research Faculty committee makes the selections. The Honors Summer Undergraduate Research Experience asks for a 250-word abstract, a description of the research process, an impact statement and two faculty letters. Applicants need at least four Honors classes and can't hold a summer job of more than 20 hours a week.

The page lists smaller grants too. Environmental Center Project Support pays up to $500 for a campus or community environmental project and is open to any student. The same page names Gore math and science grants, Provost's Office summer grants, independent research grants in environmental studies, and work-study jobs as research assistants.

The McNair Scholars Program

Westminster hosts the only McNair Scholars Program in Utah. It takes sophomores, juniors and seniors headed for graduate school who are first-generation and low-income or come from groups underrepresented in graduate study. Students from Westminster, the University of Utah, Salt Lake Community College and the College of Southern Idaho get preference. Scholars spend eight weeks in a Summer Research Intensive, working 30 to 40 hours a week on an independent project, and the grant listed as McNair Summer Research carries a $2,800 stipend. GRE classes run during the summer, and scholars take WRIT-301 in the spring.

Papers by earlier scholars are posted in the McNair Research Journal, which collects work from the program's first ten summer intensives, 2004 to 2013.

Honors Prizes and Travel Money

The Honors College gives the Katherine Metcalf Nelson Writing and Creative Arts Awards to the best essays and creative work from Honors courses, in four categories: first-year seminar, sciences, social sciences and the arts. Entrants must be enrolled in the Honors College and submit a 200-level seminar paper that earned an A or A-, as a PDF with every name removed. The Honors Council then picks one Best Honors College Submission of the Year from the winners.

A student presenting research at a conference can receive one reimbursement grant of up to $1,000 from the Honors College Student Research Fund, after completing three 200-level Honors seminars, or two for lateral entry students. Recipients turn in original receipts and a one-page reflection. The Honors Degree ends with a senior project or thesis on a topic in the major, advised by a main mentor and at least one reader, alongside the HON 403 Capstone Conversation. For national awards such as Fulbright and Truman, students can book time with the Office for Fellowship Advising, which is housed in the Honors College.

Writing Help and Graduate Theses

Consultants at the Writing Center, on the main floor of Giovale Library, come from biology, business, English, history, philosophy and other fields. Students earn the paid consultant job by taking LMW 310: Theory and Teaching of Writing. Sessions run in person, online or by e-consultation, where a student uploads a draft with the assignment and gets written and video feedback within two business days. Consultants teach editing and proofreading skills and leave the editing to the writer.

Graduate students file an electronic copy of their project or thesis with the library through the thesis submission form. After the advisor and dean approve it, the work goes into the Westminster University Institutional Repository, and the author keeps ownership. On the funding side, the Westminster Alumni Scholarship pays Westminster graduates $1,000 for each fall, spring and summer term of a graduate degree, up to $6,000. Two students in each incoming Clinical Mental Health Counseling cohort receive $1,000 a semester for up to six semesters.

Before a graduate thesis goes to the advisor and dean, or an Honors senior project to its readers, our editors can check its grammar, consistency and format. See our Westminster University dissertation and thesis editing and Westminster University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• How to Write a Critical Essay: Mastering Academic Critique
• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter
• Treating the Personal Statement as a Scholarly Defense