March 22 is SMU Giving Day. For one day, if many Mustangs come from many different places to do many good things, together, we can shape a brighter future. https://bit.ly/gddedman
| Dedman College Opportunities | Goal | Description |
| Department of Biological Sciences | $5,000
|
The Department of Biological Sciences and its faculty provide insight into how life and physical sciences intersect and prepare students to pursue advanced degrees or a career in a variety of scientific fields. The department prides itself on excellent research with an emphasis on teaching. Students receive top-notch interdisciplinary academics and the opportunity to participate in hands-on research in a variety of subjects including cancer, immunity and aging, and neuroscience, among many others. |
| Center for Presidential History | $50,000
|
The SMU Center for Presidential History promotes and advances understanding of the history of the American presidency. One way CPH does this is through regular study trips across the globe with SMU students that focus on pivotal moments in U.S. history like D-Day, Pearl Harbor and the Cold War in Europe. Your giving supports the CPH, including student scholarships for these study trips in American and presidential history. |
| Albert Schweitzer Fellowship | $5,000
|
The DFW Albert Schweitzer Fellowship is a program for graduate and medical students at SMU and six partner universities across Dallas-Fort Worth. Our fellows partner with local nonprofits and their clients to implement new programs that improve the health, lives or well-being of the community. They receive mentoring to develop stronger leadership skills and training to help reach ambitious goals for community impact. Our fellows have partnered with over 40 local organizations, and provided over 10,000 hours of service to the community in the past seven years. They have established vital programs like a diaper pantry in Far East Dallas, blood pressure management programs housed in local clinics, and literacy and educational efforts for students across the Metroplex, among many others.
Gifts to our program support fellow stipends and training in essential skills like program design and evaluation, developing strong community partnerships, and building a greater understanding of the many factors that impact physical and mental health. They complete the Schweitzer Fellowship having learned to collaborate across disciplines, create programs that speak directly to community needs and preferences, as well as a better understanding of the innovative solutions used by leading organizations in DFW to solve some of our community’s most pressing issues. We offer these young leaders training to develop their skills and approach, while also helping local nonprofits expand and enhance their offerings to the community. As a result, a gift to the Schweitzer Fellowship impacts not just the student, but the community at large. |
| Dallas Literary Festival | $15,000
|
Since 1975, the Dallas Literary Festival has been a priority for the English Department to execute as a way to ensure that Dallas be a leader in advocating literacy for all members of our city. We believe that books can bring us together, by helping us to see the world from a new perspective and revealing what matters most to us as a community, society and species.
Our theme this year is resilience, progressing forward during the powerful and unpredictable currents in social movements, politics and public health that have shaped the world in recent years. Please join us in supporting these authors and literacy and maintain the festivalʼs integrity of being a free event for the public. |
| Deanʼs Research Council | $5,000
|
Strengthening the ability for faculty to conduct cutting-edge research is a top priority at Dedman College. The Dean’s Research Council provides competitively awarded seed funding for faculty research. This support helps our faculty to compete for larger grants and fellowships from outside SMU. For every $1 invested in the Dean’s Research Council grants, faculty win an average of $11 in outside funding. Strong research programs have a direct impact on the quality of educational experiences available to our students. One hundred percent of donations to the Dean’s Research Council go toward faculty research. |
| Dedman College Cancer Research Fund | $10,000
|
Our group studies ways we can overcome therapy resistance in cancers.
Many, especially metastatic cancers, develop mechanisms to evade treatment by chemotherapy. We are finding and developing small molecule drugs that can be given as co-therapeutics during therapy and that make the cancer cells respond and die as a result of the therapy. This approach will likely also improve chances of success of initial chemotherapy treatments. We are also exploring ways we can achieve the same goals using cutting-edge gene editing tools. The funds will be used to purchase the needed supplies to allow undergraduate and graduate students conduct and be part of this cutting-edge research. |
| Dedman College Research and Advanced Studies Fund | $5,000 | Graduate students at SMU are key to cutting-edge research across campus, from our Center for Research Computing to labs in Earth Sciences, Psychology and Biological Sciences. High-quality graduate and Ph.D. students, mentored by faculty, are critical to the research mission of Dedman College. Faculty research depends on the important work of graduate students. Your support of our high-consequence research efforts helps elevate Dedman College’s Ph.D. stipends to compete with those offered by our peer institutions. |
| Dedman College Scholars | $80,000
|
The Dedman College Scholars program is designed to enrich the Universityʼs intellectual life by providing unique learning opportunities for selected academically strong students seeking a major in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. The program offers scholarship support, an actively engaged community of peers, and close faculty guidance and mentoring.
A talented student body is a defining feature of a great university. The best students enrich the quality of the classroom experience, inspire their peers, challenge their professors and contribute to a university’s academic reputation. Each gift you make in this area will be matched 1:1 up to to our goal of $400,000. At the time of this writing, we are 80% towards our goal and invite you to invest in these outstanding students. |
| Department of Anthropology | $10,000
|
We want to thank everyone who has helped us in the last two years with our goal to renovate our teaching spaces in the basement of Heroy Hall. We have been able to build proper storage cabinets, upgrade technology, and increase spaces for students in Human Evolution, Forensics, and Introduction to Archaeology.
For this SMU Giving Day, we would like to focus our efforts to secure human comparative skeletal materials (bone clones, not real bones) of half skeletons of individuals, male and female, of various ages. We are also seeking a 3D printer that can be used in concert with the 3D scanners we have already acquired. This printer will produce replicas of artifacts and objects for use in the classroom. Your gifts to both of these projects will enhance the hands-on and three-dimensional aspects of teaching anthropology and science at SMU. |
| Department of Chemistry | $5,000
|
With the award-winning tradition of preparing students for future employment and further achievements in a variety of fields, the Department of Chemistry at SMU emphasizes personal interaction with students in the classroom and hands-on research experience in the laboratory. |
| Department of Earth Sciences | $10,000
|
Faculty and students in the Department of Earth Sciences engage in basic and applied geoscience research with societal implications. Donor support to the department provides seed funds to faculty and postdoctoral researchers to develop cutting-edge experimental and computational methods. Most importantly, donors support undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral research, field work and travel at SMU and across the world; we are building funds to support international field work and course offerings. |
| Department of Philosophy | $5,000
|
The Department of Philosophy at SMU excels in both research and teaching. Our faculty members are distinguished scholars whose research is regularly published in leading journals and presses. We are particularly strong in philosophy of mind, ethics, moral psychology, metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of science.
The department offers a B.A. in philosophy and minors in philosophy and in ethics. Upper-level courses cover not only core areas of philosophy and important historical figures, but also specialized topics such as animal rights, philosophy of mind and philosophy of law. |
| Department of Political Science | $5,000
|
The Department of Political Science offers an unusually broad curriculum covering the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, and topics such as international politics, domestic and international political economy, executive and legislative politics, and constitutional law. With individualized instruction made possible by small classes, demanding expectations and extensive writing requirements, our students compete successfully in admissions to top graduate, public policy and law schools. |
| Department of Psychology Fund | $5,000
|
The Department of Psychology consists of a vibrant group of faculty members, graduate students and undergraduate students who seek to understand human behavior and, in turn, to make the world a better place. We offer undergraduate B.A. and B.S. degrees, an M.S. degree in organizational psychology and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. The department has a reputation for outstanding faculty, and for being a medium-size department providing a more personal environment for students. |
| Department of Religious Studies | $5,000
|
The Department of Religious Studies fosters a greater understanding of the roles of religion in the contemporary world and throughout history. Its approach is interdisciplinary, employing methods drawn from across the humanities and social sciences to examine the world’s religious traditions as social, cultural and historical phenomena. Students graduate from this academically rigorous program with a global perspective, sensitivity to cultural diversity and a strong liberal arts background – assets that serve as a solid foundation for future endeavors. |
| Department of Sociology | $5,000
|
The Department of Sociology focuses exclusively on undergraduate education and providing students with a variety of rich opportunities to meet their academic goals. The department offers a B.A. and B.S. in sociology as well as an interdisciplinary B.A. in markets and culture, which combines business coursework with history and other electives in areas of management, political economy, and consumers and markets. The faculty maintains active research agendas, offers award-winning and innovative classes, and fully engages with the university community. |
| Department of Economics | $15,000
|
The Department of Economics is at the heart of the Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. Fifty-five percent of all first-year SMU students take Principles of Microeconomics; 40% take Principles of Macroeconomics. Well over 300 students are majoring in economics at any point in time, and another 100 are minoring in economics. Nearly 40 students are enrolled in the master’s programs, and around 30 are enrolled in the Ph.D. program. Our faculty, in addition to being dedicated instructors, continue to engage in high-quality research and be leaders in their fields. Contributions to the department will support student research and awards as well as SMƱRM-Economics, the department’s new initiative to expand diversity by offering programs and events supporting SMU URM students. Thank you! |
| History Ph.D. Student COVID Relief Fund | $10,000
|
SMU’s Clements Department of History would like to solicit donations for its Ph.D. Student COVID Relief Fund. Since March 2019, our doctoral students have had limited access to research libraries and archives, often closed due to the pandemic. Most seriously affected have been doctoral candidates attempting to carry out on-site research to finish their dissertations in a timely fashion. We would like to raise $10,000 to assist the five students most directly affected as they are in the fifth years of their careers and general financial aid packages. Travel for even short visits to such critical locations as the National Archives in Washington, D.C., is particularly costly for students on limited budgets. Airfare, lodging, meals, ground transportation and library fees can easily run $2,000 for a five-day trip. With donations of up to $10,000, the department could fund at least one such research trip for each of these students over the 2022–2023 academic year. |
| Jewish Studies | $3,500
|
The Jewish Studies Program offers students of all backgrounds a multidisciplinary examination of Jewish culture and religion as well as the Jewish people and the state of Israel.
Your support will help fund two of our programs: Annual Ladino Day Celebration of Judeo-Spanish Culture SMU students and community members gather for a day of learning about Jewish culture in its Spanish context. Speakers, performers and artists offer presentations relating to Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language and culture preserved by Jews after they were expelled from Spain in 1492. Past presentations have included lectures by Rice University professor Maya Soifer Irish and Ladino scholar Bryan Kirschen, an exhibit of Salvador Dalí’s Aliyah Series of lithographs portraying the state of Israel with commentary by Emory University professor David Blumenthal, and concerts by the Trio Sefardi and violinist/singer Michelle Alany. SMU Jewish Alumni Project Current SMU students will conduct oral interviews with Jewish alumni in order to generate a database of Jewish experiences at SMU. The interviews will be used to research the book Jewish Life at SMU Since 1950. |
| LUMINA Annular Wind Tunnel | $7,000
|
We are raising funds to procure a custom wind tunnel that will be used by student researchers in the LUMINA laboratory to study how radon gas sticks to different materials under different environmental conditions. |
| Mathematics Conference Travel | $10,000
|
The Department of Mathematics fosters a supportive environment of hands-on instruction that promotes the skills needed to prepare students for a wide range of career possibilities. Our particular strengths are in computational and applied mathematics.
We seek travel funds for mathematics undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty to present their research at regional, national and international conferences. |
| Mathematics Graduate Summer Research | $10,000
|
The Department of Mathematics fosters an environment that is supportive with hands-on instruction while promoting the proficiency needed to prepare students for a wide range of career possibilities. Our particular strengths are in computational and applied mathematics.
We seek funds to support a “first-year research experience” for our graduate students. These funds will be used to provide summer support for first-year graduate students to begin cutting-edge research in computational and applied mathematics. |
| Rwanda Debate Project | $25,000
|
SMU debate through its director Ben Voth facilitates international exchanges with debate programs like those in Rwanda. High school students and teachers will gain instruction in debate through SMU coaches and students. Donations will fund travel to international locations such as Nigeria and Rwanda. The funds will allow the best high school debaters in Africa to attend the Coolidge Cup in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, on the Fourth of July. This debate championship is a unique interformat high school debate championship that takes place on the birthdate of the only U.S. president born on the Fourth of July – Calvin Coolidge. Support for this program provides a world-changing mechanism for making global politics less violent and more inspired by argumentation and debate. |
| SMU DataFest Hackathon | $2,000
|
DataFest is an event for undergraduate students facilitated by the American Statistical Association. Students participate in teams of two to five and are given roughly 48 hours to tackle a large, complex data analysis problem and present their results to a panel of judges composed of faculty members and high-ranking industry professionals. This will be the fourth time that SMU has hosted a section of DataFest.
The event will take place April 1–3, and schools from all over Texas are invited to participate. It is made free of cost to the students, and we are raising money to help pay for the T-shirts and meals/snacks that will be provided over the course of the weekend. |
| SMU Fund for Dedman College | $10,000
|
Your gift to the SMU Fund for Dedman College ignites imaginations and inspires innovations. You and fellow Dedman supporters are investing in the powerful intersection of education and opportunity for SMU students. You can help provide the unrestricted resources that are strategically necessary to implement the newest academic programs and address Dedman College’s most pressing funding needs. |
| SMU Human Rights Program | $10,000
|
The SMU Human Rights Program is training a new generation of visionary and innovative changemakers to defend and demand human dignity. One of only seven programs in the United States to offer an undergraduate degree in human rights, it supports a vibrant community of more than 250 students, 90% of whom identify from historically marginalized communities.
Human rights education is needed now more than ever! Your gift will directly impact the lives of these talented and deserving students by providing more opportunities for global education, community impact, meaningful dialogue and leadership development. To help expand the future of this unique program, Ann and JD Dell have agreed to match $1 for every $2 donated, up to $250,000. Thank you, Ann and JD, for your generous partnership! To learn more about how you can get involved with SMU Human Rights, reach out to us at humanrights@smu.edu. |
| World Language Internships and Community Engagement | $5,000 | Nine out of 10 U.S. employers rely on employees with language skills other than English. In the Department of World Languages and Literatures, SMU students have ample opportunities to put their language skills to work through community engagement projects and internships, both locally and abroad. These experiences allow students to develop marketable soft skills while also fostering key relationships with a variety of non-English speaking communities and global organizations. Your gift will:
1. Directly fund scholarships for SMU students on faculty-led short-term and summer study abroad programs. |