Students who are passionate about 'ANDing' are encouraged to apply for the ANDer Scholarship by March 15

The College of Arts and Sciences uses “AND” as a verb, and new scholarship aims to support students who do, too.

“ANDing” takes the conjunction and makes it a verb, says Erika Randall, associate dean for student success and the college’s pre-eminent ANDing campaigner. “ANDing can be about cooking and mothering and evolutionary biology and race car driving—all of these things create the uniquenesses that are us,” she says, adding:

“In the College of Arts and Sciences, we want to bring attention and excitement to stories of people intentionally bringing together disparate interests, research, creativity, identities, hobbies and more. That alchemy is the creative engine stored within the ANDer Scholarship, and I'm fascinated to see what we discover about the humans who apply. I'm thrilled that the college is supporting ANDers in this way.”

Randall notes that when people are passionate about their interests and pursuing self-understanding, they’re happier. “ANDing and arts and sciences make room for tolerance, humility and acceptance. When students and faculty AND, they are more well-rounded, combine disparate interests and create synergistic connections across ways of thinking.”

The ANDer Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences is designed for students who:

• Are incoming first-year, transfer or current undergraduates enrolled full-time with a declared major in the College of Arts and Sciences.
• Experience ANDing as a verb.
• Complete the CU Boulder General Scholarship Application.
• Submit the scholarship application by the March 15 deadline on the Academic Works scholarship site.

As the scholarship description notes, ANDing emphasizes the connections that enliven university scholarship and creative expression. By ANDing, new ideas are sparked and space for multiple paths, voices and human stories are created. For example,

• “I want to study biochemistry, and I’m also really into technical theatre and community outreach.”
• “I’m going to be a philosophy major, I write poetry and I want to minor in geography.”
• “I’m committed to social justice and plan to double-major in Spanish and integrative physiology with a minor in women and gender studies.”

Students applying for the scholarship will be asked to complete a short response to this prompt: “The ‘&’ between Arts & Sciences is a symbol that represents the many intersectional identities, disciplines and imaginations of the college. Please share with us how you embody the ampersand symbol, the ways you AND as a verb and how you enliven research and creative expression through the alchemy of ANDing.”

The scholarship award is $3,000 annually, and the College of Arts and Sciences plans to award approximately 25 in 2024.