Active committee members: Natasha Hanks, Randall Borror, James Stamey, Ayla Ocasio, Joe Ormond, Shayla Evans-Hollingsworth, Sharron Bouquin, Tracey Wiley, L.E. Alexander (Co-chair), Laura Pratt (Co-chair)
This year’s committee focused on two primary responsibilities: Professional Development Grants and the Carolina Family Scholarship.
• Professional Development Grants –
Professional Development Grants provide permanent University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill employees with up to $500 in funding to help cover professional development opportunities. The grant covers work-related education and training and can be used for conferences, certificates, non-credit classes, or similar opportunities. In other words, it covers anything related to or contributing to the professional skills of the individual employee and not already covered by other resources at the University.
The committee is responsible for creating the Qualtrics application, collecting submitted applications, scoring the applications, and following university policy in regard to payments and reimbursements. Although we have offered PDGs for a number of years, this year’s committee had to navigate the new Concur system and updated travel policies. Updating this process is still a work in progress, but we were able to offer $10,000 to UNC employees for their professional development. We look forward to being able to offer PDGs again next year and hope to continue streamlining our processes.
• Carolina Family Scholarship –
The Carolina Family Scholarship fund was established in 2004 to provide need-based scholarships to the children of employees attending any of the 16 UNC campuses or community colleges in North Carolina.
This committee is responsible for the administration of the scholarship. We create the application, work with a committee of faculty and staff to review the applications, and then collaborate with the Office of Scholarship and Student Aid to ensure the funding is properly distributed. In the summer of 2021, we awarded 8 students a total of $16,000 to be used to further their education. We hope to be able to award a similar amount this coming summer.