Application and Selection Information

UPDATE: Application deadline extended to Friday, December 18, 2009, 5:00 pm EST.

Submission Information

*The following are required documents to apply for a Walmart Minority Student Success Initiative grant:

Sample Proposals

Below are two sample proposals that have been funded from the first cohort. Please allow these proposals to serve as guides to developing a strong application.

Walmart Minority Student Success Initiative Sample Proposal #1
Walmart Minority Student Success Initiative Sample Proposal #2

Send the complete application by e-mail or mail to: Walmart Student Success Initiative Awards Institute for Higher Education Policy, 1320 19th Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036 or walmartinitiative@ihep.org.
All application submissions will be acknowledged by e-mail within three days of receipt. If you do not receive an e-mail confirmation that your application has been received within that period of time, please contact Shannon Looney, IHEP program coordinator, via e-mail (slooney@ihep.org) or phone, 202-861-8223 ext. 203. Application deadline is December 18, 2009, 5 p.m. EST.

Application Details*

The purpose of the Walmart Minority Student Success Initiative is to increase first-generation student success and degree completion through faculty-driven, academic-focused practices focused on student learning. IHEP and the Walmart Foundation are seeking MSIs with innovative approaches to academic interventions, targeted to first-generation students and directed by institutional faculty and academic affairs staff.

Institutions interested in being selected for the Walmart Student Success Initiative Award should submit the following:

1) A cover letter from the institution’s president affirming the institution’s commitment to the proposed activities and agreement to comply with the award requirements.

2) A completed institutional statement of commitment listing the names and contact information for the five members that will participate throughout the project, and an affirmation of commitment to detailed project requirements signed by the president and team leader.

3) A proposal, no more than 8 pages in length (12pt font, single spaced), that includes the following. Grantees should also review the selection criteria and frequently asked questions to inform their proposal responses. Institutions should NOT include identifying information in the body of the proposal or their applications will not be eligible for consideration:

Project Description (no more than 200 words): Describe the proposed initiative, highlighting the degree to which it is faculty-driven and its intended impact on participating first-generation students.
Goals for Participation: What are the academic and student success goals for this project? How do these goals support broader institutional goals articulated in the campus mission statement, strategic plan, or accreditation plan? How do these relate to other stated institutional goals about improving the academic success of first-generation students?
Current Practices for First-Generation Student Success: What practices are already in place for serving first-generation students at your institutions? To what degree do these current practices include faculty? How do these practices currently work together? How do these practices improve the retention and graduation rates of first-generation students? How do they currently support and improve student learning outcomes?
First-Generation Student Data: What data is currently being collected about first-generation students at your institution? How many first-generation students do you serve? What are your current first- and second-year (by semester, if available) retention rates and/or graduation rates for first-generation students compared to the other students you serve? What gaps exist for supporting these students and what evidence was used to determine the gaps? What national datasets about student success or student engagement does your institution participate in? How will this data inform your work?
Proposed Program Activities: Describe the specific project activities that will support sustainable and systemic success for first-generation students. When outlining project activities, include the following information:

How the activities are based in or support classroom learning.
The role of faculty in developing and implementing the activities.
How these activities enhance or compliment existing institutional programs or academic practices designed to serve first-generation students.
How the program activities will be supported throughout the academic year and sustained beyond the grant period.

What changes will need to be made to the ways institutional departments and programs currently operate in order to craft a cohesive strategy for supporting these students.

Note: These plans will be significantly refined after institutions are selected and begin work with the initiative. However, these initial ideas should provide guidance for your work and help project staff and consultants understand the ideas you have about what will work within the context of your institution.

Outcomes: What are the anticipated short-term and long-term outcomes of your proposed project? How will these be measured over time?
Financial Need: What other funding strategies does your institution have in place to cover fist-generation student support activities? In what ways does current funding not cover this needed work, and how will participation in the Walmart initiative help meet this need? What other funding has been explored to support this work?
Budget Narrative: Include a brief narrative description of your institution’s proposed budget for this project, referencing the budget categories below.

4) A proposed budget. Please do not provide any identifying information because it will disqualify your institution from consideration. If selected, this budget will be refined as part of your institution’s participation in the 2010 Summer Academy. Selected institutions will receive grant awards in two payments: $50,000 in spring 2010 and $50,000 in spring 2011. Please plan your budget accordingly.

Personnel: Include personnel expenses directly related to the project. Institutions may use grant funds to pay salaries and fringe benefits for release time for current employees or for new positions. Please note in proposal plans to sustain new positions at the conclusion of the grant as part of your budget narrative.
Program Costs: Include expenses related to activities outlined in your institutional action plan such as meeting expenses and costs associated with new services.
Administrative Expenses: Include expenses for supplies, materials, postage, telephone, printing, and any other anticipated administrative costs.
Travel: Include transportation, lodging, and any other expenses incurred during travel. Travel must also include money for attendance to the 2010 and 2011 IHEP Summer Academies. Participating institutions will be expected to pay registration and travel expenses for at least two team members for each Summer Academy. Registration will be, at minimum, $1000 per person in 2010 and $1000 per person in 2011; travel will be, at minimum, $2000 per person. Institutions may want to budget more per person to account for unanticipated annual price increases.
Other: Be specific.
Indirect: This line cannot equal more than 10% of total anticipated expenses.

Selection Process

IHEP staff and members of the Walmart Minority Student Success Initiative Advisory Board will review all complete and eligible applications. To ensure a fair review, all applications will be considered without identifying information. Therefore, it is important that institutions do not provide identifying information in either the body of the proposal or the proposed budget. Any application with identifying information in the proposal or the budget will not be eligible for selection. As part of the selection process, reviewers will consider the selection criteria below and will seek balance between institutional type and geographical distribution in making their award decisions.

Selection Criteria

Please note that incomplete applications, and applications from institutions that do not qualify as MSIs under the program’s eligibility criteria, will not be considered for the Walmart Minority Student Success Initiative. In addition, institutions will not be identified by name during the review process. Therefore, any institutions with identifying information in the body of the proposal, or in the budget document, will also be ineligible for consideration.

Complete applications from institutions with confirmed HSI, HBCU, PBI, or TCU status will be evaluated along the following criteria:

1) Existing institutional capacity for serving first-generation students. Evidence should include current programs in place for retaining and graduating first-generation students, collection and use of student retention and success data disaggregated by first-generation student status, and the degree to which first-generation student success agenda aligns with other institutional goals.

2) Demonstrated need for growing capacity to serve first-generation students. Evidence should include clear identification of data-based gaps for supporting first-generation students, unmet financial need for supporting capacity-building efforts and other current resource restraints, and a well thought out budget plan for building and sustaining capacity to meet these unmet needs.

3) Cohesion, creativity, and innovation of the proposed program. Evidence should include the degree to which the proposed activities address the following questions:

How can student entry points into the institution—orientation programs, advising, first-year coursework—signal and build foundations for the academic expectations of the institution?
How must curriculum and support structures change so that students coming to the institution underprepared for college-level coursework are able to catch up with their peers and be successfully integrated into the academic community?
How does the proposed program use pre-existing and new resources to leverage enhanced support services, teaching practices, and new uses of technology and data?
How do the planned activities tie to articulated learning outcomes for first-generation students?
How do the planned activities advance the articulated learning outcomes for first-generation students? More specifically, how will the academic-focused activities and practices enhance first-generation student learning outcomes? How do proposed activities align with current and new pedagogical practices affecting first-generation student achievement?

4) Probability of significant and successful results from the program. Evidence should include the degree to which proposed activities tie to current research on practices proven to be critical to first-generation student success, faculty leadership in student success, the role assessment and evaluation plays in plan implementation, the ways in which the proposed activities build on current pedagogical practices, short- and long-term goals for the proposed work, alignment between project goals and broader institutional work, and attention to sustainability of institutional efforts beyond the life of the funded project.

Funding Exclusions:

Student Affairs and student support services lead initiatives will not be considered. However, when such activities are situated as secondary support for faculty driven efforts, student support activities may be included.
Proposals that focus solely on bridge and summer programs will not be accepted unless the work of proposed program activities continues throughout the academic year and are faculty-driven and academically oriented.
Programs focused on middle or high school students will not be considered.
STEM specific programs will not be considered, although remedial coursework support in all disciplines is eligible as are broadly focused proposals from STEM-intensive colleges and universities.
Similarly, initiatives that include family members will be considered only insofar as they are secondary to and support faculty-driven, academic-focused programs. An exception will be made for TCUs whose proposals include the refinement or implementation of the Family Education Model.
All proposed initiatives must clearly target first-generation students.