“The Professional Development Grant is very similar in its scope to the current COGS Conference Grant,” said COGS Treasurer Chris Harvey.

Harvey said the main difference between the conference grant and the development grant is that the latter has to be associated with an event or activity helping enhance a student’s learning experience and their development of a new career skill. The conference grant is mainly geared toward a research presentation.

“From the way it’s written out right now, (graduate students are) eligible for one professional grant and one development grant,” said COGS President Stefan Fletcher.

Fletcher also said the addition of this grant was an important avenue for students that both COGS and the Graduate School saw necessary.

“(The grant) is definitely a great opportunity to get training and for inter-collaboration,” said COGS Vice President for External Affairs Dionisia Quiroga.

Quiroga said the grant would help students attend seminars here at MSU, explaining that some seminars cost around $200 to $300.

Harvey said the Graduate School has asked COGS to add a requirement in the application for students to provide a short synopsis of the event they are attending and how it would help develop their skill set.

Harvey said one thing he worries about is if the grant is misappropriated to go toward the tuition of another university, especially if a student is attending a seminar in a competing university.

He explained that in this case, the student needs to submit an explanation outlining why MSU cannot provide appropriate training in the specific area the student is looking into.

According to the grant’s guidelines, applications would be due by 5 p.m. on the first Friday of the semester when the event would take place. For the summer semester, the application would be due two weeks prior to the last COGS full council meeting of the spring semester.