Scholarships and Global Health Travel Awards

These steps describe the process that the Student Scholarship and Awards Committee follows:

1. Applications are reviewed for eligibility and de-identified.
2. The de-identified applications are distributed to two randomly selected faculty evaluators on the committee. The committee always has five faculty evaluators (one faculty evaluator from each division within CPH).
3. Faculty evaluate and rank the applications they are responsible for. The rubrics for this ranking system include the following criteria:
   1. Academic scholarships: how the scholarship will support the applicant’s goals, how the applicant has contributed to Ohio State's Shared Values, and how the student has demonstrated academic perseverance.
   2. Global Health travel award: how the travel experience is related to global public health and how it will advance the applicants' goals.
4. Each application’s two faculty rankings are averaged and then all application scores are sorted highest to lowest to determine which applications will be funded based on each scholarship's awarding criteria and individual applicant responses.
5. Applicants are notified as to whether they received a scholarship.

The following responsibilities apply to all CPH academic and Global Health travel award recipients:

• Recipients will be informed via their Ohio State email account if they have received an award. In the email notification, recipients will be given award acceptance instructions and a deadline to accept the award. The process involves accepting the award.
• If recipients do not formally accept their awards by the deadline specified in their offer letters, the funds may be reallocated to other applicants.
• Recipients may be asked to attend a scholarship event honoring them and the relevant donors.

Additionally, for CPH Global Health travel award recipients:

• All CPH students traveling internationally are responsible for checking with the Office of International Affairs to ensure that the destination is approved by The Ohio State University.
• Ohio State students traveling to international locations for the purpose of education abroad, undergraduate or graduate/dissertation research, internships or independent study are required to enroll in the university’s supplemental international insurance plan, which is $1.50 per day and is provided through GeoBlue. The insurance includes coverage for medical, evacuation, repatriation, emergency assistance, and political security and natural disaster.

Question Will applications be reviewed by divisions or programs before reaching the Student Scholarship and Awards Committee?

Answer No. The Student Scholarship and Awards Committee reviews and decides on all applications.

Question What happens if students apply for other funding for travel after they have been awarded by CPH?

Answer If a student secures additional funds from another source after receiving an award from the College of Public Health, the committee has the ability to reduce a student’s CPH global health travel award so as not to exceed the total cost of travel.

Question For travel awards, what information should I include when describing my budget?

Answer In addition to providing a total dollar amount requested, please itemize your expected costs. The travel award is meant to assist with covering the cost of transportation, food, lodging, and conference registrations.

Question Question What does the committee consider when selecting scholarship or global health travel award recipients?

Answer The committee considers each applicant’s academic record; the applicant's contributions towards OSU core values, public health experiences, community service, and leadership; description of current financial assistance; how the award will help the applicant achieve academic goals; and overall presentation and writing skills.

For scholarships, general scoring is based on the extent to which the application (1) clearly articulates the student’s own public health career goals, (2) demonstrates how the student will act to advance diversity and inclusive excellence in the college and/or university, (3) demonstrates the student’s ability to overcome obstacles and persevere with goals and (4) demonstrates a high level of financial need.

For the global health travel award, scoring is based on the extent to which the application (1) clearly articulates the student’s own public health career goals, (2) clearly articulates how the travel experience will advance the student’s career goals, and (3) demonstrates a high level of financial need.

Question Question How are the funds disbursed?

Answer Scholarship funds are disbursed into the student’s Ohio State account by the Bursar at the beginning of each term covered. For the global health travel award, half of the funds are disbursed into the student’s account prior to travel and the other half are disbursed after travel is completed.