In spring 2021, as part of the fourth USG Momentum Summit USG Momentum Summit, Georgia Tech's Momentum team was charged with developing One Big Idea to advance Momentum principles within the campus community. The team determined that linking the USG Momentum framework to Georgia Tech's Institute Strategic Plan (ISP) would produce powerful results. Consequently, the Georgia Tech Amplify Momentum Grant Project was born.
These internal mini-grants were designed to fund innovation that enhances Georgia Tech's Momentum work or scale its impact while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the initiatives created. GT-AMP explicitly connects the Momentum framework (e.g., make and deepen purposeful choices, create and cultivate productive academic mindsets, heighten academic engagement) with the Amplify Impact focus area of the ISP.
“Since 2011 Georgia Tech has participated in Complete College Georgia (CCG), a state-wide effort to improve student access to and graduation from institutions of higher education. Our Momentum work is an extension of CCG designed to promote high impact practices that influence student engagement, degree progression, and sense of belonging," said Dr. Steven P. Girardot, vice provost for undergraduate education. "Since these themes are prominent in the ISP, it seemed logical to link the two, and the GT-AMP mini-grants were the result.”
In fall 2021, the Office of the Provost provided more than $300,000 in support for GT-AMP proposals. After circulating a call for proposals, a diverse team of faculty and staff reviewed the applications and recommended seven projects for funding beginning in spring 2022. Six are 18-month projects, while one is a 6-month project aiming to wrap up by the end of the spring semester. Summaries of the projects are below (read the full project details here):
Enhancing Student Self-Awareness, Resilience, and Engagement through Strengths-Based Learning
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This project encourages student engagement through integration and expansion of Strengths-based practices in two AACU High Impact Practice areas: undergraduate research and the first-year seminar.
Developing a New Multi-Disciplinary Major in the Environmental Sciences
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This project will support the development of a new College of Sciences interdisciplinary degree program in Environmental Science. Environmental Science draws on the biological, chemical, and physical sciences to better understand the Earth’s environment and human impacts upon it.
Science and Society Internship Program
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The School of Psychology is creating a Science and Society Internship program that includes three tracks: 1) International Experience, 2) Virtual Experience, and 3) Local Impact, to help support students achieve full momentum towards graduation and their post-graduate career, improve academic engagement, and deepen purposeful choices for their careers in a global world.
Integrating Growth Mindset to JumpStart our Georgia Tech Student-Athletes
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The goal of this expanded program would be to infuse this momentum/mindset into all practices within our day-to-day practices including but not limited to midterm advising, graduation planning, coach communication, coach education, and developing everyday champions.
Library Interactive Media Cross-Disciplinary Workshop
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This project is centered around a unique pilot program for creating new multidisciplinary curricular pathways for Georgia Tech students and researchers.
Public Interest Technology (PIT) for First-Year Engineers
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A collaboration of Serve-Learn-Sustain and the Writing and Communication Program, the project connects first-year engineers to community-based experiential learning themed around technology for the public good.
Accessible Construction Education through Virtual/Augmented Reality Discipline Explorations (ACE-VADER)
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This project leverages the latest technologies utilized in the construction field and construction education, including Augmented and Virtual Reality, Building Information Modeling (BIM), and drone-based visual inspections; to create experiential teaching modules for students of all abilities at a pre-college summer camp.
Through GT-AMP, awardees are incentivized to strengthen our culture of well-being and create an environment of holistic learning where all students can grow and learn to lead healthy, purposeful, and impactful lives. GT-AMP promotes strategies and priorities that matter to students, faculty, and staff and that align with our Momentum work and the ISP. GT-AMP also serves as a vehicle for promoting awareness of Momentum principles and goals within the Institute.
Related Links:
GT-AMP Grant Recipients
Complete College Georgia (GT)
CCG Highlights