Program Director, Undergraduate Fellowships and Research

Position Title:

Program Director, Undergraduate Fellowships and Research

Position Type:

Full time

Scheduled Weekly Hours:

40

Categories:

Staff Exempt

Job Summary:

Bucknell University seeks a Program Director of Undergraduate Fellowships and Research who will serve as a collaborative, campus-wide leader responsible for administering and expanding a broad range of programs that promote student engagement in research, scholarship, and creative projects, in partnership with the library and other University units. This role is responsible for developing an integrated approach to supporting student research from the College of Arts & Sciences, The College of Engineering, and The Freeman College of Management. This person will be responsible for preparing and monitoring the annual budget and advocating for appropriate resources for the office.

Job Duties:

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Duties related to undergraduate research include:

• Develop, promote and administer internally- and externally-funded undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative endeavors;
• Collaborate with faculty and staff to maximize the number of opportunities for research, scholarship, and creative projects across divisions and disciplines;
• Administer university-wide programs that support undergraduate research and scholarly endeavors such as Bucknell’s Program for Undergraduate Research, Emerging Scholars, Digital Scholarship, and McKenna;
• Oversee the many endowed funds that support this work, ensuring that funds are used for the purposes stated and that students are recruited and supported to engage in the activities for which the funds were established;
• Collaboratively provide programming for students conducting research, scholarship or creative projects on campus over the summer and encourage student attendance;
• Ensure Bucknell’s compliance with relevant laws and regulations in the administration of these undergraduate research programs, collaborating with others across campus to do so, e.g. General Counsel, the Finance Office, Office of Sponsored Projects, and Dean’s Offices;
• Collaborate with the Office of Sponsored Projects to pursue grants and awards that support undergraduate excellence, including in research, scholarship and creative endeavors;
• Cultivate and maintain strong donor relations through collaboration with University Advancement.
• Promote the Kalman undergraduate research symposium; 
• Support benchmarking, assessment, and evaluation of programs and data to guide future planning.

The Director will also create and lead a program designed to maximize Bucknell undergraduates’ opportunities to successfully compete for national fellowships and awards. These duties include:

• Promote to Bucknell’s faculty, staff and students the upcoming opportunities for fellowships, scholarships, awards, research opportunities, and other enrichment activities;
• Collaborate with relevant programs, e.g. Merit Scholars, the Posse Program, the Admissions Office, the Center for Access & Success and honor societies, to target audiences likely to produce promising award applicants;
• Counsel students on available fellowship opportunities and align individual student strengths and interests with appropriate programs;
• Create and offer to a network of past fellowship recipients and other alumni resources for current award applicants;
• Create and lead selection processes that engage faculty and staff in choosing the most promising candidates for awards and fellowships;
• Mentor students through the award application processes, including during the summer, particularly those requiring institutional endorsements. This might include counseling students on: selecting careers and graduate education programs, drafting personal statements, creating efficacious project proposals, crafting application essays, preparing video responses to prompts, preparing for interviews, and post-award project implementation;
• Recruit, train and organize relevant faculty and staff to draft effective letters of recommendation and aid fellowship applicants through the entire application process;

These listed responsibilities and tasks are not exhaustive. Additional non-essential tasks and responsibilities may be assigned as needed.

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