Students Encouraged to Apply for a Johnson Opportunity Grant in 2025

By Brian Laubscher
January 20, 2025

The Johnson Opportunity Grant program at Washington and Lee University provides funds to support W&L student projects all around the world. The grants, which are awarded on a competitive basis, are open to any W&L student who will be a sophomore, junior or senior during the 2024-25 academic year.

The grant covers travel, living expenses and any additional costs associated with the proposed project or summer activity. Funding is typically not granted for taking courses abroad unless the course is not offered at W&L or exceeds the depth of study of a W&L course.

Grant funding has been awarded for varied projects and is intended to lower barriers to access for opportunities, including providing support during unpaid internships, funding travel to conferences and providing funding for project materials on and off campus.

"With the Johnson Opportunity Grant, no student must deny an opportunity they've been given due to financial reasons," said Haley Culbertson '22, Johnson Program coordinator and a former grant recipient herself. "Because the grant is not specific to one course of study, students have been able to travel across the world to see artwork previously only viewed in books, make lasting connections with new mentors and publish and present graduate-level research at national conferences."

During the 2023-24 school year, 82 students received grants for programming that spanned the globe. Among the students to benefit from the program last summer were Marcie Bernard '25 and Alan Haigler '26. Bernard used the grant to participate in a wildlife rehabilitation internship at the Hoja Nueva conservation research center in Peru, while Haigler completed an internship with Ernst & Young.

"Having the ability to spend eight weeks at Hoja Nueva in Madre de Dios, Peru, with the help of the Johnson Opportunity Grant was a remarkably fruitful experience," said Bernard. "I went into this summer wanting an experience that would push me out of my comfort zone while also allowing me to obtain animal and veterinary hours for veterinary school, improve my Spanish, get a once-in-a-lifetime cultural immersion experience and, most importantly, work with a diverse group of animals and field of veterinary medicine (conservation and public health) that I had not been exposed to in previous shadowing and animal work."

Haigler remarked that his internship left a lasting impression on how he will approach his professional career after his time at W&L is finished.

"This summer was quite possibly the most intriguing, knowledge-building and eventful summer I've had and it's all thanks to the Johnson Opportunity Grant," he said. "My summer at Ernst & Young was more than just being a Launch Intern in tax and audit. It was a foundation in leadership principles, a crash course in accounting and a mini screenplay of what my life could be. I will carry forward those experiences into my career and future endeavors."

Johnson Opportunity Grants vary in amount depending on proposed budgets and the reasonably predicted costs associated with travel, living expenses, and other necessary costs. Grants range from $1,000 to $6,000, though additional money may be requested for students with financial aid packages who may experience lost summer wages.

The deadlines to apply for the 2025 Johnson Opportunity Grants are Jan. 30, 2025, and March 15, 2025.