In the ASPIRE Academic Year Program, students apply to ASPIRE listing their research interests and goals, and are then matched with a faculty member in their major. Students commit to work 5-10 hours a week on an individualized research project under the supervision of the faculty mentor for graded independent study course credit. Commitment can be for a semester or a year, depending on the scope of the project. The explicit goal for the student is to produce quality research that could be presented at a national or regional discipline specific conference. Once the student is accepted at an appropriate conference, the ASPIRE program provides funding to cover the costs of attending the conference.
To qualify for the ASPIRE academic year program, students must have a major in HSS, be a sophomore or higher in classification, and be in good academic standing. Download the application for the academic year program. Fill out and mail to aspire@lsu.edu.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the academic year.