The Nieves Family Foundation (NFF) Travel Grants

NFF Travel Grants are intended to support field-based, experiential learning through travel beyond southern California. Grants are intended to cover varied travel-related course expenditures, including airfare, ground transportation, lodging, meals, honoraria, admissions, supplies, and more. NFF grants are available for up to four LCs each year, subject to a competitive application process overseen by an NFF Grant Review Committee, consisting of the LC Coordinator and at least two faculty members. The maximum total course budget is $35,000. Expenses beyond this are the responsibility of the instructor. No requests for additional funding will be considered.

Before applying for the NFF Grant, interested LC faculty and students must first submit a Statement of Intent. This will allow early input for prospective travel applications, and will provide a sense of the number of applications for a given session. Within one week, NFF travel applicant courses must post on the LC Bulletin Board, noting the course topic and how students can apply. Although students that have already contributed to planning may expect to have a seat in pre-registration (even if their course does not receive the grant), open applications for remaining seats bring greater transparency and more diverse classes. Failure to post on the Bulletin Board and to make seats available to other interested students may result in the denial of an application.

Applications are due by 5pm on Friday, 17 October through the NFF Application Form. Late applications will not be considered. The grant process is rigorous and competitive, requiring an overview, rationale for travel, detailed budget, a list of prospective meetings and activities, and tentative syllabus. More detail and evidence will enable the grant committee to assess applications. Applications will be assessed by the NFF Grant Review Committee, evaluated in terms of clear and reasonable budgeting, academic rigor, clear engagement with LC Learning Objectives and SUA’s mission, and with some consideration given to a balance of topics/regions. Applicants should explain how the grant would enable them to achieve learning goals compared to if they remained on campus. The NFF Grant Review Committee will meet within 72 hours, using a common rubric to evaluate the applications, providing notices of acceptance, revisions and resubmission, or rejection to the instructor within five days of the original submission. Although there may be up to four NFF Grants, there could be fewer depending on the number and quality of applications.

Applications must include the name of an eligible faculty instructor, as well as the names and student IDs of students that helped to develop the proposal and wish to be pre-registered (students with holds or that are associated with multiple applications will be dropped from course rosters). Before being approved, NFF classes must have 12 students and 1-3 students on the waitlist (in case students cannot be pre-registered or drop). Faculty and students must also provide emergency contact information. Applications should demonstrate concern for safety, health, visas, and communication, and provide a compelling justification for travel. They should also speak the instructor’s suitability for the proposed travel, such as experience and language proficiency, and where relevant, student suitability. In terms of safety, applications must consider potential immunizations and student health, as well as communication within the class and concern for safety after working hours while abroad. Consideration should also be made of potential IRB approval and ethical engagement in the field.

Draft syllabi should contain learning objectives, course policies, core themes, readings, safety plan, and a proposed itinerary. LCs may only spend a total of 12 days off campus, including travel. While it is not expected that meetings will be confirmed before one receives the grant, some sense of expected activities and meetings is required. Preference will be given to applications with detailed, realistic schedules, and activities that speak to course objectives. Potential activities include interviewing experts; meeting community and professional organizations; visiting important historical sites or knowledge areas such as universities, museums, archives, and laboratories; cultural immersion and ethnographic observation. We want applications that provide a sense of advance logistical work, reassuring the Committee that this will be a successful and rigorous LC.

Budgets must be highly detailed. For airfare, it is insufficient to list the price of one single fare from a travel website. Rather, evidence such as screenshots should be provided for the entire class, especially with estimates provided by group booking offices and including potential baggage fees, providing a clear sense of this major budget expense. For lodging, classes may consider hotels, hostels, AirBNB, and Booking.com. To help make for accurate budget estimates, courses could consider booking refundable lodging early on. Per diem and incidental expenses should be clearly explained based on local rates. Budgets should also include prospective visa and vaccination costs, ground transportation, and other major outlays.

Successful NFF Travel Grant recipients should collect accurate passport information for all participants using the Group Travel Template (all passports must expire at least six months after the day of arrival in the destination), and confirm with the LC Coordinator that all passports have been seen and are valid. Trip waivers, evidence of progress in terms of visas and vaccinations, and revisions to the budget and syllabus required by the NFF Grant Committee should be provided to the LC Coordinator within one week, and must be submitted before travel booking can commence.