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Awards and Scholarships

Psychology Department Awards and Scholarships

Awards and Scholarships

The Stephen and Phillip Deibler Memorial Scholarship

Download Application (Deadline Friday, March 1, 2024 by 4pm)


The Department of Psychology is pleased to announce the Stephen and Phillip Deibler Memorial Scholarship Award. The Deibler Scholarship for $1,000 is awarded annually to a graduating senior Psychology major at USF who plans to pursue graduate study in Clinical or Counseling Psychology or to a first year graduate student in clinical psychology at USF. 

Recipients will be chosen on the basis of the following sources of information:

  1. High grade point averages both in Psychology and overall
  2. Evidence of career-related activities both within the University (including participation in the Psychology Department's Honors Program) and in the outside community
  3. Letters of recommendation from professors or others (e.g., employers or supervisors in Psychology-related fields) who can address your qualifications for this award
  4. Personal statement
  5. Evidence of application and admission to a graduate program in Clinical or Counseling Psychology

A committee of three members of the Psychology faculty will review applications. If funding amounts allow, awards can be given to multiple eligible USF undergraduate students and first year clinical psychology students.

Please email all required materials to Victoria Nelson.


Undergraduate Awards and Scholarships

The PAR Scholarship for Excellence in Psychology

Download Application (Deadline Friday, March 1, 2024 by 4pm)


The Department of Psychology is pleased to announce the PAR Scholarship for Excellence in Psychology. The PAR Scholarship for $5000 will be awarded to an exceptional undergraduate Psychology major at USF who will be graduating in the Spring or Summer of 2025 and expects to pursue graduate work in Psychology. This scholarship can be used to help defray the costs of the recipient's undergraduate education for the 2024-2025 school year.

Recipients will be chosen on the basis of the following sources of information:

  1. High grade point averages both in Psychology and overall

  2. Evidence of career-related activities both within the University (including participation in the Psychology Department's Honors Program) and in the outside community

  3. Letters of recommendation from professors or others (e.g., employers or supervisors in Psychology-related fields) who can address your qualifications for this award. Letters can be sent via email directly from the letter writer to Victoria Nelson.

  4. Personal statement

A committee of members of the Psychology faculty and staff will review all applications and select a recipient.

Please email all required materials to Victoria Nelson.

Jose Antonio Rojas Memorial Scholarship 

Deadline Friday, March 1, 2024 by 4pm

The Department of Psychology is pleased to announce the Jose Antonio Rojas Memorial Scholarship. The Jose Antonio Rojas Memorial Scholarship for up to $1,000 ($500 awarded in the Fall and $500 in the Spring) to an undergraduate student who is active in the Hispanic community, with preference for those active in the Puerto Rican community, and preference for a first generation student. The scholarship was established by a psychology alumna of the undergraduate and graduate program as a way to honor her father’s dedication to the education of and professional advancement of students involved in the Hispanic community. 

Recipients will be chosen on the basis of the following sources of information:

  1. High grade point averages both in Psychology and overall (minimum of 3.0).
  2. Financial need (as defined by FAFSA. Students must have a FAFSA on file for the year they will receive the scholarship.)
  3. Evidence of activity in the Hispanic community and/or activity in the Puerto Rican community, and first generation status (Please include this information in the personal statement mentioned below).
  4. Career-related activities both within the University (including participation in the Psychology Department's Honors Program or the Undergraduate Psychology Association) and in the outside community (Please include this information in the personal statement mentioned below).
  5. Personal statement – (500 words or less) Please explain your activity in the Hispanic community and/or your activity in the Puerto Rican community (past, present, and future) and please comment on whether or not you are first generation status in college. Please include comments about your career-related activities both within the University and in the outside community. Finally, please comment on your career plans.
  6. One letter of recommendation from a professor or other (e.g., employers or supervisors) who can address your qualifications for this award.

A committee of three members of the Psychology faculty will review applications. If funding amounts allow, the funding will be provided in the Fall and Spring to the same recipient (pending continued eligibility). Students from USF Tampa and St. Petersburg campuses are eligible.

Please email all required materials to Victoria Nelson.

Ronald J. Ovarlet Scholarship in Psychology

Deadline Friday, March 1, 2024 by 4pm

The Department of Psychology is pleased to announce the Ronald J. Ovarlet Scholarship in Psychology. The Ronald J. Ovarlet Scholarship in Psychology for $1000 is awarded once a year based on financial need with special consideration for students who are working part or full-time. A separate $500 book award can go to the same student so long as it does not interfere with any other financial aid the student receives.  

Recipients will be chosen on the basis of the following sources of information: 

  1. Minimum 2.75 GPA 
  2. Financial need (based on FAFSA) 
  3. Evidence of part-time or full-time employment 
  4. Personal statement 

A committee of three members of the Psychology faculty will review applications. Students from the USF Tampa campus are eligible.

Please email all required materials to Victoria Nelson.

The Outstanding Psychology Student Award (USF St. Petersburg campus Students Only)

Deadline 4/26/2024

Outstanding Psychology Student Award 2024-2025

The Outstanding Psychology Student Award provides support scholarships for full or part-time junior level undergraduate students, pursuing a Psychology major in the College of Arts and Sciences on the USF St. Petersburg campus.

Review of applications and selection of the scholarship recipient will be conducted by the USF St. Petersburg College of Arts & Sciences Scholarship Committee.

APPLICATION AND ELIGIBILITY

  • Students will be evaluated on academic merit and must:
    • Be a junior USF St. Petersburg campus psychology major
    • Complete written responses about why they are suitable for the award
    • Have a letter of recommendation from a USF St. Petersburg campus Psychology faculty member sent to the review committee chair, Max Owens: mjowens@usf.edu

THE AWARD

  • The student who receives the award will receive $500.
  • The student who receives the award will receive an individual plaque and will also have his/her name engraved on a plaque in the Department of Psychology.
 

Graduate Awards and Scholarships

Professor Charles D. and Carol Spielberger Endowed Fund Award

Deadline: None


The Professor Charles D. and Carol Spielberger Endowed Fund Award is an annual award given to a graduate psychology student(s) studying the relevance of planned or on-going research in the priority fields of study, which are Emotions, Personality, and Clinical and Health Psychology.

The Professor Charles D. and Carol Spielberger Endowed Fund Award will be used to provide summer funding for incoming graduate students. This award will be given to an incoming clinical psychology student who plans to study in the priority fields of study, which are Emotions, Personality, and Clinical and Health Psychology.

The award will be $5000 which will be deposited to the student's OASIS account prior to the summer during which it will be used.

Guidelines for Selection

Clinical faculty will select one or more incoming clinical graduate students for this award. If there are no appropriate incoming students worthy of this award, then clinical faculty have the option to provide the award to a clinical psychology graduate student already in the program.

Criteria for Selection

Clinical faculty will make this selection based on the priority fields of study, the incoming applicant's credentials (including but not limited to GREs, GPA, research productivity, and letters of recommendation), and the competitiveness of the applicant for selection at other programs. Thus, the Spielberger Award will be used as a stipend enhancement in order to make the admissions offer more competitive.

Walvoord Verizon Wireless Work-Family Research Endowment in Honor of Dr. Tammy D. Allen

Download Application (Deadline Friday, March 1, 2024 by 4pm)

In cooperation with Verizon Wireless, a USF alum has established a research endowment to support work-family research conducted by USF psychology graduate students. The endowment honors Dr. Tammy Allen for her dedication to mentoring graduate students. The purpose of the award is two-fold: 1) Facilitate work-family research by underwriting the cost of research materials, and 2) Encourage research that results in manuscript submission to an appropriate peer-reviewed research journal. The $1000 scholarship will be awarded annually.

Recipients will be chosen based on the following criteria:

  • Students from the industrial and organizational area are eligible. Projects that involve students from other areas working with an I-O student as collaborators are welcome.

  • Preferred proposal topics will focus on organizational and work-family variables (submissions addressing other areas of the work-family domain may also be considered).

  • Research topic contributes to the work-family literature by examining new relationships and/or concepts, driving theoretical development, and proposing high-quality/advanced methodology.

  • Research will be carried out as part of thesis, dissertation, or other graduate student-led research.

  • Application describes a research project that the student has not already carried out (although prior pilot work is encouraged).

  • Research will be supervised by a USF psychology faculty member.

Please email all required materials to Victoria Nelson.

The Eve Levine Graduate Teaching Award

Deadline Friday, March 1, 2024 by 4pm


The Eve Levine Graduate Teaching Award is awarded annually to an outstanding graduate student instructor in the Psychology Department. The award includes a cash award, a certificate, and the winner’s name on a plaque displayed in the department. In order to be eligible, you must have been the primary instructor in two or more courses between Spring Semester 2022 and Fall Semester 2023.

The application deadline is Friday, March 1, 2024. Please submit to Victoria Nelson a portfolio documenting your teaching accomplishments. This portfolio should be submitted as a .pdf document and should be no longer than 30 pages and contain a statement of your teaching philosophy and items such as syllabi, teaching materials you developed, course evaluations, and evidence of efforts to improve your teaching effectiveness (e.g., participation in teaching workshops and NITOP). A letter of endorsement from your advisor or area director is also desirable. If you have had a faculty member observe and evaluate your classroom teaching, please have this person write a letter. If you have a teaching website, you may submit a link as a supplement to your portfolio document. For more information on preparing a teaching portfolio, you may contact the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. *Preference will be given to applicants who have not received this award in past years.

If you have enjoyed teaching, we encourage you to apply for this award. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Please email all required materials to Victoria Nelson.

Stefanie and Adele Gilbert Award for Research on Women

Deadline Friday, March 1, 2024 by 4pm


The psychology department is seeking applications from graduate students for the STEFANIE AND ADELE GILBERT AWARD FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN. This is an annual award given to a person who completes research on issues of relevance to women. Graduate students from all areas of psychology are eligible to apply. The winner of the award will receive $300.

Guidelines for Submission of Proposal

  1. Entries may be submitted only by those who have completed a research product within the past 12 months. Research products include, but are not limited to, a thesis, a dissertation, a manuscript submitted to a journal, a conference poster proposal, and a conference presentation proposal.

  2. Each entrant should submit an application that is not to exceed three double-spaced pages. The application should include a description of the research and how it relates to issues of relevance to women. The entrant should also provide a copy of the entire research product.

  3. The name of the entrant, current mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address should appear on the title page of the application.

  4. The entrant must provide a letter of support from his or her research adviser; the letter should specify the date that the research product was completed.

Criteria for Evaluation and Submissions

  • The degree to which the research addresses a phenomenon that is of significance to the field of psychology and relevant to women in particular.

  • The extent to which the research shows appropriate consideration of relevant theoretical and empirical literature. This should be reflected in both the formulation of hypotheses tested and the selection of methods used in their testing.

  • The degree to which the research has produced findings that have high levels of validity (i.e., internal, external, construct, and statistical conclusion).

  • The extent to which the author (a) offers reasonable interpretations of the results of his or her research, (b) draws appropriate inferences about the theoretical and applied implications of the same results, and (c) suggests promising directions for future research.

  • The degree to which the research yields information that is both practically and theoretically relevant and important.

  • The extent to which ideas in the research product are logically, succinctly, and clearly presented.

Please email all required materials to Victoria Nelson.

Richard Labarba Memorial Scholarship Award

Deadline Friday, March 1, 2024 by 4pm


The psychology department is seeking applications from graduate students for the RICHARD LABARBA MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP AWARD. This is an annual award given to a person who completes a research project in developmental psychology or developmental psychopathology and who (as lead author) submits the manuscript from this work for publication in a national scholarly journal. The research does not have to be part of a thesis or dissertation project, but it may be. Graduate students or recent graduates (who graduated within one year of the award deadline) from all program areas within the USF Department of Psychology are eligible to apply. The winner of the award will receive $100.

Guidelines for Submission of Proposal

  1. Entries may be submitted only by those who have completed the research and have submitted the manuscript for publication within the past 18 months; an individual can only apply once for consideration for this award for a given study.

  2. Each entrant should submit the manuscript to the Awards committee, along with a brief explanation of how this work meets the criteria for this award (see evaluative criteria 1, 3, and 5 below). The entrant should also provide documentation that the manuscript has been submitted for publication (e.g., an acknowledgment from the journal noting the name of the journal and the date on which the manuscript was received by the journal.

  3. The name of the entrant, current mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address should appear on the title page of the manuscript.

  4. The entrant must provide a letter of support from his or her research advisor. In the case where there are multiple authors from a research group, the research advisor should confirm that the student submitting the application is the lead author and is primarily responsible for the work completed on the project. If two or more students collaborated on the project, only the lead author should apply for this award and the research mentor should confirm that the student is the lead author.

Criteria for Evaluation and Submissions

  • The degree to which the research addresses a phenomenon that is of significance to the field of developmental psychology or developmental psychopathology.

  • The extent to which the research shows appropriate consideration of relevant theoretical and empirical literature. These aspects should be reflected in both the formulation of hypotheses tested and the selection of methods used in their testing.

  • The degree to which the research has produced findings that have high levels of validity (i.e., internal, external, construct, and statistical conclusion).

  • The extent to which the author (a) offers reasonable interpretations of the results of his or her research, (b) draws appropriate inferences about the theoretical and applied implications of the same results, and (c) suggests promising directions for future research.

  • The degree to which the research yields information that is both practically and theoretically relevant and important.

  • The extent to which ideas in the research are logically, succinctly, and clearly presented.

Please email all required materials to Victoria Nelson.

Professor Paul E. Spector Endowed Award

Deadline: None 


The Professor Paul E. Spector Endowed Award is open to full-time graduate students studying Industrial and Organizational (I-O) Program in Psychology at USF Tampa campus.

Guidelines for Selection

I-O faculty will select one or more accepted I-O graduate applicants to be offered this award if they enroll in the USF I-O program. If there are no appropriate accepted applicants in the priority fields worthy of this award then the I-O faculty may provide the award to accepted I-O applicants who are outside of the priority fields.

Criteria for Selection

I-O faculty will make this selection based on the competitiveness of the applicant and priority fields of study including students conducting research applying psychological/organizational principles to study one of the following topics: job stress, occupational safety, occupational health, workplace violence/aggression, counterproductive work behavior, and organizational research methodology. In summary, the Professor Paul E. Spector Endowed Award will be used as an enhancement in order to make the admissions offer more competitive.