Giving Opportunities

Thank you for your interest in supporting the College of Natural Sciences. The following list provides brief summaries of our diverse program and student support initiatives. With 12 academic units, 33 organized research units and more than 40 student organizations, there are many opportunities to support innovative scientific solutions and transform the lives of current and future generations.

Each program and area of student support offers several recognition opportunities for the donor. Recognition could include, for example, name and logo recognition on program materials, web site, banners, and advertisements, etc. Other forms of acknowledgment might include public recognition during program activities and involvement with students.

Interested in learning more about these funding initiatives? Please contact Kay Thomas at
(512) 471-3299 or kay.thomas@cns.utexas.edu.

Examples of Student Support and Program Sponsorships:



Student Support - Undergraduate



Dean’s Scholars Honors Program
This program offers exceptional science and mathematics majors a unique opportunity to enrich their undergraduate education. For over twenty years, this program has challenged talented and highly motivated undergraduates by introducing them to cutting-edge research and placing them into contact with superior students with similar aptitudes and interests. Students are provided with rigorous honors courses, flexible degree plans and research opportunities leading to honors theses. Scholarships are needed to recruit the very finest applicants into what is the most selective honors program on campus.

Sponsorship Levels: Suggested amounts are $2,500, $5,000 and above

Undergraduate Research Support and Scholarships
Laboratory research is critical to an undergraduate’s education, as it provides students with an exciting hands-on experience that brings science to life. The laboratory is the real classroom- the site of the application of the scientific method, the practice of techniques described in textbooks, and the solidification of knowledge obtained in various courses. This type of learning environment stimulates intellectual curiosity and creativity, enhances critical thinking and problem-solving skills, promotes teamwork and immerses students in academic life. Furthermore, students have the unique opportunity to work alongside professors, scientists, and other students of different backgrounds, cultures, and professional expertise.

Sponsorship Levels: $1,000 for travel to science conferences; $1,000 for equipment/supplies; or $5,000 for research scholarship (for 1 summer or 2 long semesters)

Texas Interdisciplinary Plan - TIP
(Formerly called Partnership for Excellence in Natural Sciences)
A program designed to serve top 10% students with low SAT scores by providing them with small class sizes in entry-level courses, excellent instructors, enriched curriculum, extra discussion sections, and upper-division mentors to augment instruction and help with integration into university life. This is now a four-year program that includes both Natural Sciences and Liberal Arts students. New degree plans that feature interdisciplinary minors are being introduced this year. TIP has been successful in helping students who graduated from small, rural high schools, have a low socio economic status, are first in their family to attend college, or are members of an underrepresented group at the University.

Sponsorship Level: $1,000 for freshman scholarships

Computer Science Scholarships for Exceptional Undergraduates - Turing Scholars
(The Department of Computer Sciences)
The Turing Scholars Program is an honors program for outstanding undergraduates in Computer Sciences. It is designed to develop the academic and industrial leaders of tomorrow, to keep the state’s best high school CS students in Texas, and to attract to Texas a nationally elite group of high school students. The program offers, for example, an intensive, accelerated path through the core curriculum within the freshman year, a sophomore class that exposes students to significant concepts not often encountered until graduate school, and opportunities to get involved in research as early as the junior year.

Sponsorship Level: $5,000

Student Support - Graduate



Graduate Fellowships
In order for UT Austin to compete with peer research institutions for the best graduate students, we must offer competitive fellowships. Graduate students are indispensable to the research and education process at a great research university like UT Austin. These students push the limits of research, bringing new ideas and challenges to traditional beliefs. They are well-skilled in research techniques and run laboratories, oversee experiments and supervise students. Graduate students act as mentors to undergraduates and often liaise between faculty and students, helping to communicate scientific principles presented by the professors. Fellowships provide graduate students with funding that enables them to pursue their own education and research objectives on a full-time basis, free of other responsibilities. As such, fellowships are highly valued by graduate students and the faculty who teach them. Many times UT Austin will lose students to peer institutions because we are not able to offer competitive fellowships. Additionally, most students who choose to pursue graduate degrees have a high debt load, as their parents typically prepare for four-years of undergraduate support, but not for graduate support.

Sponsorship Levels: $25,000+ (full annual fellowship); $5,000 and $10,000 (partial support)

Professional Development Awards
These awards enable students to concentrate on their professional development activities, without the demands of outside employment and the burden of heavy debt. To enhance the educational experience of graduates, the college encourages participation in professional conferences. It is essential for graduate students to interact and present their research to established professionals. More often than not, students do not have extra funds to pay for travel expenses to participate in these conferences.

Sponsorship Levels: $750 per graduate student/per conference - suggested

Teacher Preparation



UTeach Internships (Office of Special Projects)
This math and science teacher preparation program allows students to earn a math or science degree, along with a teaching certificate in four years. The program attracts Natural Science students to the profession of teaching, prepares students to excel in their academic discipline and in teaching techniques, and offers support to retain these new teachers through the early years of teaching. The program offers internships with a non-profit organization, where students gain valuable paid experience and preparation for the teaching profession.

Sponsorship Opportunity: $2,500 per student/per semester

UTeach Master of Arts in Science and Mathematics
A new graduate level program of professional development for in-service teachers. This program will increase the number and strength of teacher-leaders in Texas. Graduates will teach, develop curriculum and serve as instructors to other teachers.

Sponsorship Opportunity: $9,000 master’s degree merit fellowships. Provides financial reward for one teacher over three summers of the program ($3,000 per summer for 3 summers)

Math and Science Outreach Programs
For K-12 Teachers and Students and the General Public



Museum Express (Texas Memorial Museum)
With science education assuming an increasingly critical role in our future, Texas Memorial Museum has stepped up to help by developing Museum Express, an ongoing program taking science into Austin-area K-12 classrooms. Using specimens from the Museum’s extensive research collections, TMM scientists and educational staff teach schoolchildren about fossils, snakes, fish and mammals. Hands-on, inquiry-based activities are based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. Response to this program from teachers, parents and students has been tremendously positive. TMM holds more than 5.7 million specimens in its collections, and is the only museum in Central Texas devoted to natural science.

Sponsorship Opportunity: $35 will sponsor one classroom visit (20 children)

Virtual Science (The Texas Memorial Museum)
The Museum is a repository for priceless collections of more than 5.7 million natural science specimens representing the natural history of Texas. Each year, 80,000 to 90,000 students, scholars, and interested citizens visit the museum to learn about the paleontology, geology and wildlife of the state. To make these priceless specimens more accessible to visitors and to enhance the educational experience during visits, the museum has installed an immersive 3-D virtual reality room for Virtual Science. This is the first immersive 3-D technology to be housed in a museum anywhere, and the Texas Memorial Museum is the only museum in Central Texas entirely devoted to the natural sciences.

Sponsorship Level: $25,000 annual co-sponsorship of exhibit
Outreach Lecture Series (Environmental Science Institute)
A unique educational outreach program designed to advance understanding of scientific concepts and discoveries among teachers, students, and interested citizens. Created in 1999, this program transfers new knowledge about cutting-edge research discoveries from university scientists to the general public. Students participate in hands-on activities and teachers receive free multimedia material, curriculum guides (aligned with Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills - TEKS), and professional development credit. Each talk attracts between 300 and 600 participants.

Sponsorship Levels: $10,000, $25,000 for annual co-sponsorship of lectures

Treasure: the Texas Memorial Museum - Documentary (Texas Memorial Museum)
This feature documentary, developed jointly with KLRU for broadcast and web, will fully explore the continued scientific and cultural relevance of the Texas Memorial Museum and its collections. Viewers will be immersed in the rich history of the Museum as scientists and staff members explain the importance of the Museum’s collection of 5.7 million specimens and tell their behind-the-scenes stories of discovery and research. As stunning visual images of TMM’s exhibits and collections unfold, a vibrant original soundtrack will stir a sense of excitement and discovery. Testimonial accounts from community leaders who fondly reminisce about visiting the Museum since an early age will enrich this feature, along with accounts from educators who will tout TMM’s important role in informal science education for Texas.
This five-segment feature will be produced by Tom Spencer, producer and host of Austin Now, and creator of the successful PBS documentary The Painted Churches of Texas (winner of the "Historical Documentary of the Year"; award from the National Educational Television Association for 2001).

Sponsorship Opportunities: $36,000 to cover half of the production costs, with KLRU matching the funds.

Wetlands Education Center (Marine Science Institute)
The Center, which is being constructed on 3.5 acres of Institute property, will provide educational outreach programs to promote public understanding of the need to protect and conserve Texas’ valuable coastal wetlands. The Center will feature an on-site wetland with controlled access, built around a high and low salt marsh with tidal channels. A public boardwalk will meander around the perimeter, and the Center will include an amphitheater and several overlook platforms.

Sponsorship Opportunities: From $3,000 to $50,000 for various (future) naming opportunities for benches, signage, shaded overlooks, tide pools etc.

Note: The Institute is approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as a Supplemental
Environmental Project eligible to receive mitigation funds arising from environmental infractions.

Astronomy Field Trips & Teacher Workshops (McDonald Observatory)
Elementary students can travel to West Texas for an exciting field trip to explore the McDonald Observatory and examine research telescopes on an inquiry tour. Students are immersed in this science environment and participate in hands-on, inquiry-based activities that are based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), and the National Science Education Standards. The Observatory also offers a unique on-site setting for teacher workshops. Teachers perform inquiry-based activities aligned with science and mathematics TEKS and TAKS and practice new astronomy skills under the Observatory's dark skies, weather permitting.

Sponsorship Opportunities: $1,000 to support a class visit; $1,000 for a teacher scholarship to attend a workshop

First Bytes (Department of Computer Sciences)
A program designed to recruit high school girls to come to UT Austin to major in computer science. The program consists of two efforts: a one-week Residential Summer Camp and a two-day event added on to the Honors Colloquium held at the University. The camps address the reasons that girls, even those with strong interest in math and science, tend to avoid Computer Science careers.

Sponsorship Opportunities: $50,000 for the Residential Summer Camp (full sponsorship); $25,000 for the Honors Colloquium (full sponsorship); $5,000 for all social/recreational camp events

Saturday Morning Math Group (Department of Mathematics)
An ongoing informal outreach monthly program for junior high school and high school students. The program makes mathematics come alive by presenting engaging topics like “Math and Art in the Renaissance”, “Bulls, Bears, and Mathematicians”, and “INFINITY: How to Count When You Run Out of Toes”. A UT faculty member is a featured presenter at each session, which is followed by hands-on activities assisted by graduate and undergraduate students. Approximately 100 students, teachers and parents attend each session.

Sponsorship Opportunity: $25,000 (full annual sponsorship)

Young Scientists
The Young Scientists program engages the interest of Austin ISD children from underrepresented groups to pursue science as an academic or professional pursuit. Through mentoring, field trips, community involvement summer camps, and hands-on science activities, four elementary schools are providing an enriched science experience for students who are traditionally underrepresented in the fields of science. Many of these students apply and are accepted to the magnet program at Kealing middle school where they receive additional support from a Young Scientist Advocate. This Advocate continues to support them through the High
School Science Magnet program.

Sponsorship Opportunities: $600 to sponsor a Fall or Spring field trip for 120 6th grade Young Scientists; $800 development of an 8th grade Young Scientist leadership group; $5,000 to sponsor a Young Scientist camp for 6th graders; $2,000 for lab supplies for 120 6th grade students.