Take it Up a Notch Teaching Grants
Goal: The overall goal of these grants is to support ongoing innovation in teaching and learning at StFX. A particular emphasis is on improving student learning experiences by ensuring all students are reflected and respected in our course content – especially Indigenous students (and even more specifically, Mi’kmaq students), Black students, students who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+, and international students.
Process: Successful applicants will work with the Teaching & Learning Centre (Coordinator and Summer Students) over a 6-month period to cultivate their idea and plan for implementation in the fall term.
Eligibility: Tenured or tenure-track StFX faculty are eligible to apply. Part-time academic instructors or limited-term faculty who have at least one year remaining in their contract are also eligible to apply.
Expected reporting/sharing: Successful applicants will be required to create and submit a brief report that summarizes the changes made to their courses prior to the start of the fall academic term. Successful grant applicants will also be invited to share their learning in a panel at an upcoming Teaching Retreat. Finally, successful grant applicants are recommended to provide further follow up regarding how the changes made to their courses influenced their teaching and the students’ learning experience via a ‘coffee break’ chat, brown bag lunch, or other informal format, and/or more formally at a teaching conference.
The total Take it Up a Notch Teaching Grant funds to be allocated are $4,000.00 per year. The maximum funding per teaching grant project is $3,000.
Application Details
To apply for this grant: Submit the Take it Up a Notch Teaching Grant Application on or before February 1, 2024.
Information required for this grant application:
- Name, faculty/school, department, rank, position, co-applicant’s information (if applicable)
- Course(s) involved: name, number, calendar description, required/elective, number of students, frequency
- Why are you interested in making changes to this course(s)? What changes do you think are needed in this course(s)?
- Proposed budget: possible types of expenditures include Undergraduate Assistants, Other Research Assistants, Library Resources, Travel and Subsistence, Expendable Supplies, Meeting Costs, Other (please specify).
Selection Criteria:
- Applications must be complete.
- Rationale for application must be relevant to the goals of the Take it Up a Notch teaching grant.
- The application must be expected to have a positive impact on teaching and learning at StFX.
Direct any questions to Jack Rice, Interim Coordinator, T&L Centre.
3M National Student Fellowships
The call for applications for the 3M National Student Fellows was recently posted. We are hoping that you can help us identify potential student applicants. We are looking for students who are innovators, entrepreneurs, and builders. We are looking for students who saw a gap and filled it by creating something that didn’t exist before. We are looking for students who are working in the margins, who are doing things despite the conditions they work in. We are looking for students who have impacted positive change and helped solve problems in creative ways. Students who fit this description may not come forward to nominate themselves but would apply if they were encouraged to do so. That is where you come in.
Please help us to identify students who would be good candidates for the 3M National Student Fellowship, which recognizes visionary student leaders from across Canada who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and innovation by addressing current needs in higher education or society.
To be eligible, students must:
- be a current full-time diploma or undergraduate student at a Canadian postsecondary institution.
- have completed at least one full semester of study at the time of nomination (January 2023).
- be willing to submit a 15-page dossier (including reference letters) to the 3M selection committee by January 31, 2023.
Award recipients receive $1000 and national recognition, in addition to other honours listed here.
Elizabeth Yeo, Vice President of Students, is the institutional 3Mchampion. Please send any student names to her @ @email. You can also send student names to Erin Austen @ @email.
Past 3M National Fellowships
3M National Student Fellowship
Congratulations to Ben Boudreau who was invited to join the 2022 3M National Student Fellowship.
Volunteer. Academic. Entrepreneur. Coach. Generous. Kind. Thoughtful. Energetic. Inclusive. Leader. Innovator. These words describe Ben Boudreau who is the founder and creator of “X-Ring boxes,” a keepsake box to hold and protect the StFX grad ring. During this past year, he used profits from his X-Ring boxes to create a ‘Pay it Forward’ bursary to purchase an X-Ring for an anonymous fellow classmate, recognizing the financial barriers faced by classmates. Ben has served on several StFX student panels, as a recruiter, executive for student Orientation, Fit4Life & Fit4Men leader, Antigonish Multisport leader, and Celtics Soccer board member who has worked to integrate off-campus students into campus events. As such it is clear that Ben exemplifies a 3M National Student Fellow in ‘outstanding leadership in their lives and at St. Francis Xavier University…and embraces a vision of education that enhances their academic experience and beyond.’ Ben’s leadership and innovation extend far and wide. Congratulations Ben!
2021 Recipient:
Devon Parris, BA 2021, English
2020 Recipients
Adelaide Strickland
Development Studies and English
Claire Ainslie MacDougall
Physics and Mathematics
Emma Kuzmyk
English and Political Science
2015 3M National Teaching Fellow
Ann Bigelow is Canada’s godmother of Service Learning, a teaching method that combines theory with reflective practice. Students participating in Service Learning complete a placement in the community either at home or abroad, such as working on fair-trade coffee projects, tilling community gardens, or facilitating English lessons. They learn first-hand about history, politics and culture; they see their own communities differently, and for many their participation in service learning, either course-based or immersion, is the defining change point of their university experience
2010 3M National Teaching Fellow
Angie is an activist and personal role model who was the most influential force during my time at St. FX.” Many students echo this view, saying they have been inspired, even transformed, by this charismatic teacher of human kinetics who embodies and celebrates their own aspiration to wellness, energetic enquiry, and social engagement. She lives out her university’s traditional commitment to service-learning and social justice, as she challenges her students to become advocates for health promotion in their communities and in the world.
Contact
4130 University Ave
Antigonish NS B2G 2W5
Canada
