Professional Development Grants

Stay active and engaged

The Professional Development Grants program provides funding support to Bloomington full-time staff not represented by a union engaging in continuing education and skill development opportunities. Grants are jointly funded by the Council and the Office of the Provost and the Executive Vice President.

"The opportunity to attend the 2022 Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) Conference in Baltimore, Maryland...was incredibly useful to understand best practices and issues facing students, campus communities, and higher education professionals."
—2022 IUBSC grant recipient Hannah Armstrong, Chief of Staff, Division of Student Affairs

How it works

The goals of the Professional Development Grant program (PDG) of the Bloomington Staff Council (BSC) are to:

  • Contribute to the professional development of all staff members.
  • Support continuing and advanced education and skill development for all staff members.
  • Encourage collaboration among staff members within the IUB community.
  • Increase networking opportunities for staff members within the IUB community.
  • Enhance professional advancement potential.
  • Ease the financial burden of professional development events and activities for staff members.
  • Demonstrate the value staff members add to the IUB community.
  • Promote increased visibility of the staff and of the variety of professional responsibilities at IUB.
  • Reward unique contributions to the staff and to the IUB community.

  • Each applicant must be an IU Bloomington campus full-time staff not represented by a Union.
  • Each applicant must have completed one year of continuous service as full- or part-time staff by the proposal deadline.
  • The professional development event/activity may supplement or expand upon, but may not duplicate, any training/development currently available at IUB in any form or through any office.
  • The professional development event/activity must be demonstrated to relate to the applicant’s current or future duties and responsibilities in their role as an Indiana University Staff member on the Bloomington campus.
  • Each awardee will permit the BSC to use submitted photographs of and submitted writings by the applicant on the BSC website.
  • Applicants may not have received a BSC Professional Development Grant within the previous two-year period.
  • Current members of the BSC are not eligible to apply for the grants.

Each proposal must include the responses to following items:

  1. Professional development grant application (pages 2-3 of this web form).
  2. Description of the opportunity (250 word limit).
  3. Explanation for attending (250 word limit).
  4. Applicant job description (250 word limit) and resume/CV (to be uploaded).
  5. Letter of support from the applicant’s supervisor.
Apply now

Provide a letter of support from a supervisor:
Support letter

The proposals most likely to be selected by the committee and awarded with funding will demonstrate any, many, or all of the following:

  • Thoughtful and understandable descriptions of the professional development event/activity and the organization offering the event/activity (such as attending a training or workshop, presenting at a conference, recruiting, etc).
  • A staff member’s representation of the staff, and of IUB, to an outside constituency, networking and/or collaboration opportunities (both within and outside of the IUB community).
  • Clear and convincing explanation of the value and rewards the professional development activity will provide to candidate, candidate’s current Department/Unit, IUB.
  • An impactful follow-up ‘contribution’ to the IUB community (such as an workshop/presentation, brown bag lunch discussion, collection of an artifact, demonstration, etc).
  • Alignment with the goals, directions, strategies, and missions of the President and/or Provost.
  • Strong writing/communication skills in a professional-looking proposal.
  • A unique request or a unique event/activity (with a strong rationale/description behind it).
  • Willing support and solid justification from a supervisor.
  • Evidence of additional funding source(s), and/or demonstrated effort to secure additional funding (PDG funding would ideally supplement funding from additional sources rather than be the sole source of funding to support a professional development opportunity).

Completed grant applications (with the exception of the letter of support/recommendation from a supervisor, which should be sent by the supervisor directly to the BSC office) will be accepted at any time, but must be completed online no later than 5:00 p.m. EST by each deadline:

Grant Award CycleProfessional Development OpportunityDeadline to ApplyApplicant NotificationFunds Transfer On/After
1July - OctoberJune 1June 15July 1
2November - FebruaryOctober 1October 15November 1
3March - JuneFebruary 1February 15March 1

Example:  If the professional development opportunity takes place in January, the applicant should submit grant application materials by the October 1 deadline.  The applicant will hear back regarding their application status by October 15 and funds will be transferred on/after November 1.

  • A maximum of $600 may be awarded to selected proposals.
  • The Treasurer of the BSC will contact awardees to make arrangements to transfer funding to the awardee’s university account.
  • Grants are not transferrable to another professional (or any other) employee.
  • Grants may not be applied to a different professional development event/activity.
  • The decisions of the BSC Professional Interests Committee are final.

Each grant awardee will provide:

  • Digital photograph for inclusion on the BSC PDG web page.
  • Presentation or 1 page maximum essay/letter/journal response to the professional development activity to later be shared with the council and/or inclusion on the BSC PDG website.

Jan Bents

Senior Associate Director of Admissions, Kelley School of Business

I was able to attend the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) in Las Vegas, NV in 2022. As the Senior Associate Director of Admissions for the Kelley School at IUB, I was able to attend sessions directly related to the changes in admissions across the country. Thank you to the IUBSC for allowing me the opportunity to go to ASHE and discuss these issues affecting admissions and higher education in a scholarly environment.

Sammy Petitte, MS

CTRS Assistant Director of Recreation Therapy, Bradford Woods

I am very appreciative of the Indiana University Bloomington Staff Council’s professional development grant for my attendance of the American Therapeutic Recreation Association national conference in September of 2022. Having a background in equine-assisted services and therapies and hoping to bring this back to Bradford Woods in the future, it was helpful to re-familiarize myself with how horses can be partnered with to create meaningful experiences for those we work with in the realm of recreational therapy.

 

Jennifer Reeves

Contracts and Grants Specialist, Biology Department

Thank you so much for the opportunity to attend the virtual conference of the Society of Research Administrators International in February. I learned valuable skills that will allow me to do effective post-grant administration of externally funded grants.  I have gained confidence that I can succeed in my new grants position with learning effective ways to manage expenses.  By using these best practices, it helps the department, myself, and the PI to manage grant funds correctly throughout the life cycle of the grant.