Thanks to a generous gift from GLS alumna Lottie Applewhite (MALS, 1997) to support program excellence, Graduate Liberal Studies can offer GLS students small grants ("Lottie Applewhite Awards") for the following purposes:
- Expenses related to travel to a conference or other educational event or site relevant to your course of study or professional development.
- Travel for purposes of research for the Master's Project.
- Other expenses related to Master's Project work.
Awards are given on a rolling basis throughout the year and range from $500 to $5000, based on a proposed preliminary budget and rationale. Awardees receiving travel funds must submit a travel report, with receipts accounting for funds spent, within two weeks of the end of the travel period (see travel report guidelines here). Applicants will receive half the awarded amount before the proposed travel, and half after submitting an acceptable travel report. If you do not use a portion of the awarded amount, you must reimburse that amount to Graduate Liberal Studies. In the event that the travel does not take place, you must reimburse GLS any awarded funds. The second payment of your travel award will be either the outstanding amount of your actual expenses or the second payment of your travel award, whichever amount is smaller.
Application Deadlines
GLS students may apply throughout the academic year.
To apply for an Applewhite Award, please submit the following via email to the GLS Director:
- A one-page description of the purpose for which you seek the funding and the activity's relevance to your GLS course of study, your professional development, or your master's project.
- A preliminary budget.
About Lottie Applewhite
Lottie Vera Blanton Applewhite was born in 1924 and lived a full and accomplished life. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and English at the University of Virginia in 1945, a graduate certificate in Occupational Therapy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1946, and a Master of Science in Physiology from the University of Illinois, Urbana and Chicago Medical Center in 1954. She later completed teaching credentials in the humanities at the University of Oregon and took certificate courses in publishing and arts administration. In 1992, Lottie began a MALS degree at Duke University, which she completed in 1997. She possessed a curiosity about knowledge, ideas, and people that truly marked her as a life-long learner.
Lottie served in the U.S. Army from 1945-61 and was commissioned in 1948, achieving the rank of Major. Her GLS master’s project, “Weaving a Life,” is a memoir in the form of vignettes describing her time in post-war Europe from 1947 to 1950 as a young woman in the U.S. Army. In her early twenties, she was a member of the War Emergency Corps – Occupational Therapy and found herself teaching American methods of occupational therapy to doctors in Denmark and Sweden.
As a civilian, Lottie was a medical editor and researcher with a focus on orthopedics. She was the associate editor of the American Journal of Sports Medicine, a member of the American Medical Writers Association, and a fellow of the Society for Technical Communication. She resided in San Francisco from 1959 to 1991, when she moved to North Carolina. She maintained deep professional and personal friendships throughout her life, and was beloved by a wide circle of friends, colleagues, and mentees. In addition to her professional accomplishments, Lottie was a musician and an athlete – and always the life of the party. At the end of a résumé in her MALS application of 1992, Lottie wrote, “If you want to hear some funny stories or have some intervals expanded upon, please ask me. If I am not available because of being called to Heaven, have parties and tell funny stories about me.” Lottie always signed off her telephone conversations and email with upbeat optimism: “Happy Days!”
Lottie faithfully supported GLS during her lifetime and at her death, left a major bequest to create the Lottie Applewhite Award Endowment Fund for Graduate Liberal Studies. The fund provides awards to students enrolled in GLS or to faculty who make significant contributions to GLS. Student awards recognize scholarly excellence and provide support for activities mentioned above. Faculty awards support development of new GLS courses and engage faculty members with GLS in other ways that promote scholarly excellence or outstanding teaching within the program.