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Professional Development Grants

Stay active and engaged

The Professional Development Grants program provides funding support to Bloomington full-time staff not represented by a union engaging in continuing education and skill development opportunities. Grants are jointly funded by the Council and the Office of the Provost and the Executive Vice President.

"The opportunity to attend the 2022 Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) Conference in Baltimore, Maryland...was incredibly useful to understand best practices and issues facing students, campus communities, and higher education professionals."
—2022 IUBSC grant recipient Hannah Armstrong, Chief of Staff, Division of Student Affairs

Deadlines

IUBSC hosts three cycles of grant applications each year:

  • October 1
  • February 1
  • June 1

 Apply now

Supervisor Support Form

Awardee Follow-up

How it works

The goals of the Professional Development Grant program (PDG) of the Bloomington Staff Council (BSC) are to:

  • Contribute to the professional development of all staff members.
  • Support continuing and advanced education and skill development for all staff members.
  • Encourage collaboration among staff members within the IUB community.
  • Increase networking opportunities for staff members within the IUB community.
  • Enhance professional advancement potential.
  • Ease the financial burden of professional development events and activities for staff members.
  • Demonstrate the value staff members add to the IUB community.
  • Promote increased visibility of the staff and of the variety of professional responsibilities at IUB.
  • Reward unique contributions to the staff and to the IUB community.

  • Each applicant must be an IU Bloomington campus full-time staff not represented by a Union.
  • Each applicant must have completed one year of continuous service as full- or part-time staff by the proposal deadline.
  • The professional development event/activity may supplement or expand upon, but may not duplicate, any training/development currently available at IUB in any form or through any office.
  • The professional development event/activity must be demonstrated to relate to the applicant’s current or future duties and responsibilities in their role as an Indiana University Staff member on the Bloomington campus.
  • Each awardee will permit the BSC to use submitted photographs of and submitted writings by the applicant on the BSC website.
  • Applicants may not have received a BSC Professional Development Grant within the previous two-year period.
  • Current members of the BSC are not eligible to apply for the grants.

Each proposal must include the responses to following items:

  1. Professional development grant application (pages 2-3 of this web form).
  2. Description of the opportunity (250 word limit).
  3. Explanation for attending (250 word limit).
  4. Applicant job description (250 word limit) and resume/CV (to be uploaded).
  5. Submission of the Supervisor Support Form.
Apply now

Supervisor Support Form

The proposals most likely to be selected by the committee and awarded with funding will demonstrate any, many, or all of the following:

  • Thoughtful and understandable descriptions of the professional development event/activity and the organization offering the event/activity (such as attending a training or workshop, presenting at a conference, recruiting, etc).
  • A staff member’s representation of the staff, and of IUB, to an outside constituency, networking and/or collaboration opportunities (both within and outside of the IUB community).
  • Clear and convincing explanation of the value and rewards the professional development activity will provide to candidate, candidate’s current Department/Unit, IUB.
  • An impactful follow-up ‘contribution’ to the IUB community (such as an workshop/presentation, brown bag lunch discussion, collection of an artifact, demonstration, etc).
  • Alignment with the goals, directions, strategies, and missions of the President and/or Provost.
  • Strong writing/communication skills in a professional-looking proposal.
  • A unique request or a unique event/activity (with a strong rationale/description behind it).
  • Confirmation of supervisor support. 
  • Evidence of additional funding source(s), and/or demonstrated effort to secure additional funding (PDG funding would ideally supplement funding from additional sources rather than be the sole source of funding to support a professional development opportunity).

Completed grant applications (with the exception of the letter of support/recommendation from a supervisor, which should be sent by the supervisor directly to the BSC office) will be accepted at any time, but must be completed online no later than 5:00 p.m. EST by each deadline:

Grant Award CycleProfessional Development OpportunityDeadline to ApplyApplicant NotificationFunds Transfer On/After
1July - OctoberJune 1June 15July 1
2November - FebruaryOctober 1October 15November 1
3March - JuneFebruary 1February 15March 1

Example:  If the professional development opportunity takes place in January, the applicant should submit grant application materials by the October 1 deadline.  The applicant will hear back regarding their application status by October 15 and funds will be transferred on/after November 1.

  • A maximum of $1,000 may be awarded to selected proposals.
  • The Treasurer of the BSC will contact awardees to make arrangements to transfer funding to the awardee’s university account.
  • Grants are not transferrable to another professional (or any other) employee.
  • Grants may not be applied to a different professional development event/activity.
  • The decisions of the BSC Professional Interests Committee are final.

Each grant awardee will provide:

  • Digital photograph for inclusion on the BSC PDG web page.
  • Presentation or 1 page maximum essay/letter/journal response to the professional development activity to later be shared with the council and/or inclusion on the BSC PDG website.

Madhuvanti Karyekar

Career Coach, Walter Center for Career Achievement

Thanks to the generous support of the IU Bloomington Staff Council’s Professional Development Grant, I had the opportunity to attend and present at the forty-ninth annual German Studies Association Conference, held in Arlington, Virginia, from September 25–28, 2025. The German Studies Association is the leading interdisciplinary organization for scholars, educators, and professionals working on the histories, literatures, cultures, languages, and politics of German-speaking countries. Its annual conference brings together participants from across the world to share new research, engage in critical conversations, and reflect on the evolving place of German Studies within broader academic, cultural, and institutional contexts.

This year’s conference was especially meaningful for me because I presented in one of the Asian-German Studies panels, a scholarly space that has played an important role in my academic development. My first-ever GSA presentation was also part of an Asian-German Studies panel, and my first academic publication emerged from a volume connected to that same intellectual community. Returning to this network allowed me to reconnect with a foundational part of my scholarly identity, particularly my long-standing interests in German-Indian intercultural exchange, translation, comparative cultural studies, and the broader theoretical questions that shape how we understand language, culture, and mediation across contexts.

The conference itself was both intellectually energizing and professionally affirming. I reconnected with colleagues, met new scholars, and received thoughtful feedback on my presentation. The conversations during and after the panel helped me see the continued relevance of my research and opened up new possibilities for future development, including the suggestion that the presentation might grow into a larger book project. Just as importantly, the experience reminded me that my scholarly work is not separate from my current role at IU Bloomington; rather, it continues to shape the way I support students.

I currently work as a Career Coach at the Walter Center for Career Achievement, where I work with undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences as they explore career paths, articulate their skills, and connect their academic interests to future opportunities. Many of the students I support are pursuing interdisciplinary degrees that combine language study, culture, policy, global engagement, and the humanities. The GSA conference offered valuable conversations about language education, general education, student engagement, and the career value of foreign language learning – questions that connect directly to my coaching and teaching. These conversations strengthened my ability to help students translate their academic experiences into career-ready language, especially when they are trying to explain the professional value of skills such as interpretation, communication, cultural analysis, adaptability, and critical thinking.

What I found most meaningful about this opportunity was the way it brought together different parts of my professional life. I attended the conference as a scholar, staff member, instructor, and career coach – and rather than feeling like separate identities, these roles felt mutually reinforcing. The grant made a real difference not only financially, but also emotionally and professionally. It affirmed that staff members contribute to the intellectual life of the university in multidimensional ways, and that our diverse experiences can strengthen the work we do with students, colleagues, and the broader IU community.

I returned from the conference feeling more confident, more connected, and more committed to helping students navigate their own intersections of academic interest, personal identity, and professional possibility. I am sincerely grateful to the IUB Staff Council for investing in staff development and for recognizing that supporting staff growth also supports IU Bloomington’s broader mission of academic excellence, global engagement, and meaningful student success.

Kait McBrady

Director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships, IU School of Optometry

In July, I attended the annual conference for the Network of Academic Corporate Relations Officers (NACRO) in Raleigh, NC. Thanks to the IUBSC, this was a tremendous professional development opportunity!

I lead and build partnerships for the IU School of Optometry, which requires strategic and mutually beneficial relationships to serve students, faculty, patients, staff, alumni, and administration. Professional development is key in my role, as the better I do, the better we all do. This conference affirmed the things we are doing well, the things we could build upon, and gaps in our programmatic endeavors.

I am very grateful as this was my first professional development opportunity in five years with Indiana University and would not have been possible without the financial support and IUBSC commitment to staff through this grant. Thank you!

Hannah Armstrong

Associate Director of Operations, Recreational Sports

Thanks to a grant from the Bloomington Staff Council, I was able to attend the NIRSA 2024 National Conference in Phoenix, AZ.

Sometimes attending a new national conference can be intimating. As a first-time attendee of the NIRSA (Leaders in Collegiate Recreation) conference, I had the exact opposite experience. NIRSA’s attendees, conference size, and chosen location supported an incredibly collegiate atmosphere and opportunity for immediate engagement and professional development. IU Recreational Sports was fortunate enough to get to send a group of nine team members to engage with other recreational experts from around the country. Our team presented three sessions (on group exercise, student engagement, and utilizing data), hosted a number of interviews for open roles, and engaged with other sessions.

We also hosted a social for IU alumni, former employees, and friends. IU is well-known historically in Recreational Sports and we have alumni and former employees who grew up here and now are leaders in Recreation across the country. The social was a great opportunity to see the impact Hoosiers continue to have on the health and well-being of students at campuses. My favorite part of the conference was the exhibit hall. I’ve attended many conferences and not engaged much with the vendors, but my role in Recreational Sports as the Associate Director of Operations really made the exhibit hall fun! I spent time learning about lockers, electronic access gates, turf robots, strength and track flooring, wellness pods, and more! As we renovate the SRSC this summer, many of these items will be seen in our spaces this Fall. We look forward to hosting the Bloomington Staff Council as we reopen in August!