SOURCE grants encourage extracurricular scholarly pursuit

SOURCE grants are administered by Western’s Research Council (WRC) and encourage research, scholarly inquiry and creative activity by undergraduate students. The fund is open to any student and provides aid for both research and travel.

Western prides itself on high student initiative and providing close interactions among students, faculty and staff. The WRC is particularly interested in continuing to foster these pursuits and interactions with SOURCE grants.

“[Pursuing individual interests] is what Western is all about,” said Chevy Mohr, who used his SOURCE grant to travel to a sustainability conference last year.

Mohr applied twice and failed on his first attempt.

“I framed my first application around how it would benefit me,” he said.

Mohr changed his application the second time around by including how his attendance at the conference would benefit Western in addition to himself. This new perspective not only earned him funding but also changed his perspective on his role as a student at a small university.

Mohr shared his experiences and information from the conference with his environment and sustainability (ENVS) classes and is working on implementing topics discussed at the conference into Western’s sustainability coalition.

“I now look at how I can give back [to Western]… how I can use my experiences and enter a leadership role,” he said. “I don’t think this sort of student contribution would be as beneficial at large school.”

The next SOURCE application deadline is March 15th.

Story by Peter Noon. Photos by Taylor Cull, Marketing Communications.