Richter Scholarship

If you're a sophomore, junior, or senior, you have the option to apply for a Richter scholarship to engage in independent study or research under the supervision of a faculty member.

• Application process and eligibility guidelines

Since 1995, the Richter Memorial Trusts have provided more than $1.25 million to help you pursue projects that promote independent thinking and expression beyond the classic classroom setting. Funds have supported:

• research internships
• conference fees
• domestic and international travel expenses
• fees for materials, supplies, housing expenses, or equipment for your projects

And, any student in any discipline is eligible to apply for funds from the Richter program. A portion of Richter funds is allocated to support our Honors and Ford Fellowship programs.

Recent Richter Scholarships

Anthropology and Sociology

• Archaeological field excavation at the Fort Massachusetts Field School (travel expenses)

Biology

• Cultural transmission of predator response in the domesticated Zebra finch (housing expenses and supplies)
• Imaging embryos of Xenopus laevis using an ultra-compact MRI (housing expenses)
• Importance of ITSN1 on Xenopus' neural development (housing expenses)
• Measuring gene expression for genes known to be induced by UV exposure in Dictyostelium (housing expenses)
• Natural remedy to treat mastitis in organic cows at the North Carolina State University Veterinary School (housing expenses)
• Nerve regeneration of peanut worms (supplies and housing expenses)
• Organismal research on the species Themiste lageniformes, known as the peanut worm (housing expenses and supplies)
• Presentation on the lateralization of visual mate choices in male Zebra finches at the Animal Behavioral Society's annual meeting (travel expenses)

Chemistry

• Computational research of a ruthenium-catalyzed oscillating fluorescent BZ reaction (housing expenses)
• Synthesis and characterization study of iron complexes (supplies and materials)

Classics

• Sessions at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens for an intensive introduction to ancient and modern Greece (travel expenses)

• Parallel programming languages, their applications, and benefits in computing (housing expenses)
• Problems relating to the management of supercomputers (housing expenses)
• Teaching parallel computing with higher level languages (housing expenses)

Creative Writing

• Internship at Stand & Serve to design and facilitate creative writing and art classes for underprivileged youth (supplies and travel expenses)
• Traveling with a grandparent to his childhood hometown to gather photos and stories for an e-book creation (travel expenses and supplies)

Dance

• Intensive aerial dance workshop at the Belle Plaine Studio in Chicago (travel expenses)
• Private lessons in leading ballroom dance to master the technique and bring lessons back to the Knox community (lesson costs)

Economics

• Economic development internship with the City of Galesburg (housing expenses)
• Financial management internship at the U.S. Mission (U.S. Embassy) in Kampala, Uganda (travel expenses)

Educational Studies

• Best practices in leadership opportunities for multicultural students and how students use leadership to find identity (housing expenses)
• Cultural immersion and volunteering in Ecuador through ProWorld Service Corps (program fee and travel expenses)

Environmental Studies

• Farming in Budapest, Hungary and Osaka, Japan through Worldwide Opportunities in Organic Farming (travel expenses)
• Traveling the National Park to Park Highway to observe the nature of American tourist industries, the livelihoods of the people and societies along the road, and how the road has shaped the "nature" we see in the parks today (travel expenses)

Environmental Studies and Economics

• Internship with the Vietnam Institute of Fisheries Economics and Planning to explore how the industry affects Vietnam's economy and environment (travel expenses)

Journalism

• Internship with the Chicago Sun-Times (housing expenses)
• Internship with The Register-Mail (housing expenses)

Mathematics

• Exploring various topics on graph theory and combinatorics (housing expenses)
• Risk management in banking (housing expenses)

Music

• Cross-cultural comparison of female musicians using music for social and political action (travel expenses)
• Internship through Cultural Vistas in Germany to explore distinctions between German and American jazz (travel expenses)

Physics

• Implementation of graphic user interface and parallelization to enhance throughput of magnetic susceptibility data analysis (housing expenses)

Political Science

• Government structure in the Middle East (housing expenses)
• Regression analysis and case studies to establish what links may exist between "societal ideology" and terrorism (housing expenses)

Psychology

• Internship at the Safe Harbor Family Crisis Center and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Knox County in Galesburg (housing expenses)
• Virtual phase transitions in liquid crystals and measurement of evidence of pretransitional optical rotation (supplies and housing expenses)

Spanish and Creative Writing

• Internship with the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) Literacy Brigade to help eradicate illiteracy in the nation (travel expenses)

Theatre

• Costuming internship for the Prairie Players production of The Pirates of Penzance (housing expenses)