MLA Pathways Step Grants

Overview

Made possible by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, the Modern Language Association’s initiative, MLA Pathways: Recruitment, Retention, and Career Readiness, equips departments and programs associated with the study of literature, language, writing, culture, area studies, and related disciplines with the tools, networks, knowledge, and resources to help undergraduate students find success throughout their education and after graduation. The core goal of the Pathways program is to enable the creation of new structures of support, at the program, campus, and regional levels, for students from groups underrepresented in the humanities—especially students of color, first-generation college students, and Pell Grant recipients—in order to allow for fuller, more equitable participation in humanities study and the postgraduate opportunities it creates.

The 2024 step grant application opened on 17 July 2024 and closes on 16 October 2024. A virtual information session will be held on 22 August 2024, 2:00 p.m.–2:45 p.m. ET. This session will be recorded and made available on the MLA website.

As part of the Pathways initiative, the MLA is offering step grants of up to $10,000 for a twelve-month period. These grants are intended to support individual faculty members or small, local teams developing ways to improve the recruitment, retention, or career readiness of undergraduate students. Possible areas of support might include, but are not limited to, the following:

fostering curricular innovation, from individual course redesign to larger-scale curricular reform, aimed at improving the recruitment, retention, and career readiness of humanities majors
strengthening collaborations between departments and other academic units, such as admissions, career services, and advising programs, that can improve access and success throughout the undergraduate experience and beyond graduation
creating new opportunities or refining existing opportunities for internships, undergraduate research, community-based learning, and other forms of high-impact practices and professional development for undergraduate students
developing data-informed outreach strategies to strengthen student, peer, parental or caregiver, and public understanding of the value of humanities courses of study and potential career outcomes
building or reinforcing pipelines between high schools or two-year institutions and four-year institutions, including structures and programming to support student success throughout the admissions or transfer process
creating cocurricular programming, from pre-orientation sessions to connections with alumni networks, that improves retention and provides opportunities for growth
establishing connections with institutional, community, and local workforce partners in order to support undergraduate career development
helping faculty members identify skills, values, and perspectives gained through the study of language and literature in their courses and curricula and developing students’ abilities to document and communicate those skills, values, and perspectives

We anticipate making approximately 20 awards in the 2024 grant cycle.

2023–24 Step Grant Awardees

We are pleased to announce the 2023–24 Pathways step grant awardees:

Janet Badia (Purdue Univ., Fort Wayne) – “Collaboratory: Exploring Place through the Liberal Arts”
Sheila Bauer-Gatsos (Dominican Univ.) – “Creating a New Story for the English Major at an HSI”
Heidi Bean (Bridgewater State Univ.) – “Career Readiness and Outreach”
Kathi Inman Berens (Portland State Univ.) – “Pre-Internship Shadowing at Portland State University”
Rebecca Davis (Univ. of California, Irvine) – “Internships for English Majors, UCI”
Vanessa DeGifis (Wayne State Univ.) – “Transfer Pathways for Equitable Access to Global Learning”
Elizabeth Emery (Montclair State Univ.) – “Montclair State University World Languages and Cultures Student Career Hub”
Tara Green (Univ. of Houston) – “EMERGE Leadership Academy at the University of Houston”
Janice Hawes (South Carolina State Univ.) – “Increasing Opportunities for E 499 English Internship Students”
David Hobbs (Univ. of Lethbridge) – “Emerging Indigenous Writers Series”
Bristin Jones (The Regents of the Univ. of California, Merced) – “Spanish and Environmental Humanities: Improving Recruitment and Retention at UC Merced”
Jason Kordich (Mt. San Antonio Coll.) – “Transfer Initiative for Community College English Majors and Minors”
David Magill (Longwood Univ.) – “Mapping Your Journey in Language: From Student to Professional and Citizen”
David Sanchez Jimenez (Research Foundation of CUNY) – “Spanish Medical Interpretation and Healthcare Communication Curriculum Modifications for Future Language-Concordant Professionals”
Amy Smith (Lamar Univ.) – “Educated, Empowered, Employed: Humanities Skills Training on the Gulf Coast”
Allison Speicher (Eastern Connecticut State Univ.) – “New Pathways for Students of Color, First-Generation College Students, and Pell Grant Recipients to Enter Eastern Connecticut State University’s English Program”
Katharine Trostel (Ursuline Coll.) – “Towards a Rust Belt Humanities Ecosystem”
Sebastian Williams (Davis & Elkins Coll.) – “Davis & Elkins College Outdoor Woods Program”
German Zarate-Sandez (Western Michigan Univ.) – “Making Spanish Relevant for Black Students”

Read the full press release on the News from the MLA website or download the PDF version.

Eligibility

Applications are currently limited to proposals submitted by institutions of higher education in the United States and Canada.

Applications are institutional awards and should be submitted in accordance with the policies of your institution.

Grants are for a maximum of twelve months and will not exceed $10,000, inclusive of all costs.

Applications must propose activities relevant to humanities topics, including the study of languages, literature, writing, culture, area studies, and related disciplines.

Priority will be given to projects that demonstrate a high likelihood of having a positive impact on the experiences of first-generation students, students of color, and Pell Grant recipients. We especially encourage applications from HBCUs, HSIs, tribal colleges and universities, and community colleges.

Awardees will be expected to send a representative to the MLA convention (Toronto, Canada, January 2026) to share project progress and results (see budget, below, for additional information).

Awardees will also be expected to write a public-facing brief about their project activities, which may be published on the MLA website, in MLA publications, or both.

Submitting Your Proposal

Applications will need to include the following components:

Completed Application Form

The application form includes questions about your institution, the project director, the institutional contact, and general project details. Please list additional project directors (if any) in the supporting documents. You will find the application form at the bottom of this page.

We strongly recommend that you reach out to your sponsored research or programs office, your key institutional grant contact, or whomever processes external awards on your campus.

Supporting Documents

Supporting documents should be submitted in a single PDF file. (The PDF file should use the following naming convention: Project director last name-first name-application.pdf [e.g., Smith-Jane-application.pdf].) Supporting documents include the project description, the budget and budget narrative, and short biographies for key project participants.

Project Description

The project description should be no more than four (4) single-spaced pages, with one-inch margins and a font size no smaller than 11 point. It should be as clear and thorough as possible and should include the following information:

a description of your institutional context, including the challenges or opportunities faced by your department or program as they relate to the core goals of the Pathways grant program
a description of your proposed intervention and goals and their appropriateness in addressing the challenges or opportunities relative to your institutional context
where applicable, the ways in which your proposed project aims to improve recruitment, retention, or career readiness, especially for students of color, first-generation college students, or Pell Grant recipients
a brief description of the participants engaged in the proposed activities, including any partnering organizations, programs, or groups and faculty members, staff members, or students (Use this space to describe their specific contributions to the project. Use the biographies section, discussed below, to further detail their qualifications.)
a grant timeline and work plan that details major activities
expected outcomes (details about how intended audiences will be affected by your work, the potential impact of the project, and the approaches you will take to evaluate the success of your efforts)

Budget and Budget Narrative

The budget and budget narrative should detail how the funds will be used specifically to support the activities of the grant. The budget period should not exceed a twelve-month period, and funds must be spent completely by the concluding date. Eligible expenses include, but are not limited to, the following:

compensating personnel (faculty and staff members, students, or project partners) for time spent on project activities (Budget expenses should align appropriately with effort. The budget should identify the rate of compensation and, where appropriate, details about the fringe rates used. Compensation can take the form of direct salary, stipends, or course release, among other forms.)
purchasing supplies and equipment necessary to accomplish the goals of the proposed project as well as publication or printing costs
travel and meeting costs, including per diem and food costs, that are directly relevant to the project (The project director or another representative is expected to attend the 2026 MLA convention to present project outcomes and thus may budget up to $800 to supplement travel costs for this activity.)
consultant services, fees, or subawards to collaborating partner organizations

Please note that this program does not provide funding to support indirect costs.

The budget narrative (one page) should be appended to your budget and should detail how you arrived at all estimated and final figures in the budget. If you are requesting funds for salary support, provide information on how you calculated all figures. If you are requesting travel support, detail how estimates were calculated.

Biographies

The biographies section (one to three pages) should include a short biography (one paragraph) for each key project participant, including information that highlights their relevance to the project aims and activities.

Evaluation Criteria

Peer reviewers will evaluate applications based on the following criteria:

Intellectual merit: the soundness of the proposed approach, including its intellectual framing and appropriateness to the goals of the grant program.
Potential impact: the likelihood that the project will improve the experiences of the intended audiences.
Feasibility: the appropriateness of the proposed activities, methods, and budget in accomplishing the stated aims of the proposed project.
Qualifications and partnerships: the degree to which the appropriate participants and collaborators have the expertise to accomplish the stated aims of the proposed project.

Peer reviewers will be selected from the Pathways advisory board, the executive committees of the Association of Departments of English (ADE) and the Association of Language Departments (ALD), the MLA Executive Council, and the MLA membership.

Frequently Asked Questions

View a list of frequently asked questions on the FAQs subpage.

Timeline

Application available: 17 July 2024
Step grants information session (Zoom): 22 August 2024, 2:00 p.m.–2:45 p.m.
Application due: 16 October 2024
Expected notification date: February 2025
Projects may start no earlier than March 2025 and no later than six months after the award notification.
MLA convention: Toronto, Canada, 8–11 January 2026

Contact Information

Inquiries for this program can be directed to pathways@mla.org.

Checklist

Completed application form
Supporting documents PDF, including project description, budget, budget narrative, and biographies
Supporting documents PDF named using the following convention: Project director last name-first name-application.pdf (e.g., Smith-Jane-application.pdf)
Save the date for the 2026 MLA convention