ACRE Interim Session – Albright College

ACRE Interim Session

Find out more about the Interim ACRE program and begin your application on our Canvas page!

ACRE Deadlines (2023-2024)

January Interim

  • Application deadline: October 7, 2023 (Saturday)
  • Notification date: October 27, 2023

Albright College is seeking outstanding Albright undergraduates, working with a faculty member, to participate in its Interim Creative Research Experience Program. This program is designed to foster undergraduate scholarship, creative activity and research during the January interim. The goal of this program is to provide students with the opportunity to engage in an in-depth learning experience that complements the breadth of the liberal arts curriculum. Through this experience, students will increase their skills in their chosen field, foster professional relationships with faculty, and advance their knowledge in the chosen project area.

There are two ACRE tracks, as described below.

  1. ½ ACRE: Student recipients will each receive a $600.00 stipend. Recipients are expected to expend approximately 20 hours per week for a period of 3 weeks working on the project.
  2. FULL ACRE: Student recipients will each receive a $1200.00 stipend. Recipients are expected to expend approximately 40 hours per week for a period of 3 weeks working on the project
    NOTE: Faculty and students do not have to do the same track; however if a student selects the ½ ACRE track, then the faculty member cannot select the full ACRE track. Faculty can work with a maximum of TWO students and are eligible for one full stipend amount regardless of the number of students they are working with (i.e. a faculty member cannot do two full ACRES). If a faculty member is applying with two students doing two related projects, each student must apply separately and each application/project must be a stand-alone project.

Housing and board will be available during the regularly-scheduled interim term. In addition, limited funding is available for expenses associated with the project, such as supplies and travel costs. Student-faculty applicants can apply for up to $300.00 for project related expenses.

The program does not exclude any proposal types and welcomes students and faculty from all disciplines to submit proposals. Some types of projects appropriate for this program include, but are not limited to:

  1. “Stand-alone” project. A complete project that can be completed in an abbreviated time frame.
  2. Preliminary Work for future project. Applicants would use the interim to execute a critical first step to a larger, later project.
  3. Wrap-up of Previous Project. Applicants would use the interim to complete a previous project, such as final writing, submitting the project for external presentation or publication, or additional investigative or creative work.
  4. Course-related work. These projects would involve a student and faculty member working on course development collaboratively. Such projects might involve the development of a new course, significant revision of an existing course, creation of new course materials, incorporation of service learning into a course, and the like. The project description should include a clear statement of how this project will fulfill the goals of the program with regard to student learning and experiences (see above).

Requirements

  1. One collaborative application should be submitted for each student-faculty team. The application form can be downloaded from ACRE Canvas page.
  2. Student must be a sophomore, junior or senior currently enrolled full-time at Albright and in good academic standing.
  3. A recipient cannot participate in classes during the interim session.
  4. Remember that any proposed work involving human subjects (e.g. interviews, physiological or psychological testing) needs prior approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Proposed work involving use of vertebrate animals requires prior or pending approval from the Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC). The absence of prior approval from the IRB or ACUC requires detailed justification and a time-line for submission of materials to the IRB or ACUC is required with your ACRE proposal. Please be aware, however, that any ACRE funding will be contingent on the eventual approval from IRB or ACUC before the relevant work is conducted. Please find the appropriate forms here.
  5. By the report deadline, each student-faculty team is required to submit an electronic report through the ACRE Canvas course on their project. The following should comprise this report:
    1. An abstract summarizing the project. This abstract should be no more than 100 words and should be written in a style suitable for the general public for publication in on-campus and off-campus media outlets.
    2. A full report on the project, describing what occurred, key outcomes and current status of the project, and future plans concerning project. This report should be no more than 1000 words, excluding any enclosures, tables, etc.
    3. A current resume for the student and CV for the faculty.

The following additional materials should also be completed.

  1. A completed “Release of Materials” form, allowing the College to catalog your project in the library.
  2. A completed, confidential questionnaire evaluating the program. A link to the survey will be sent to you for completion.

Selection Criteria

The learning opportunity for the student.

The collaborative nature of the project (note: consideration is given to variation in meanings of “collaboration” across different disciplines of study). Collaboration can mean many different things across disciplines, but the committee considers collaboration to mean research done jointly by the student and faculty, rather than the faculty solely teaching material to the student.

The degree to which the project complements and engages existing literature, studies, methods, or creative practices within the field of endeavor.

Appropriate scope of the project (Does the scale of the project justify the time and expense claimed in the application? Is successful completion feasible?)

The probability of the project resulting in a significant publication, presentation, exhibit or performance for the student. The completeness of the proposal and the extent to which it follows the guidelines specified on the application form. After meeting the fundamental requirements set out in the selection criteria there are secondary considerations that applicants should consider:

  • Prioritization of awards may include consideration of the number of previous ACRE awards (interim or summer). This prioritization would favor applicants who have not previously applied for an ACRE award and only apply when meritorious awards would be denied due to insufficient funds. Exceptions can be made in cases where a student is proposing a fundamentally different project from previous ACRE project(s).
  • In the rare cases where two equally weighted proposals must be decided upon due to funding constraints and one discipline (natural sciences, social sciences, or humanities) is under-represented in any given round then the under-represented discipline can be prioritized.