The Miami Initiative for Advancing, Mentoring and Investing (MIAMI) in Women is a university-wide initiative whose goal is to encourage and support opportunities for women. The initiative is made up of Miami alumni, faculty, staff, and friends who commit to an annual gift of $1,000 to fund Giving Circle grants. 

These grants are for any student, staff, or faculty member on any of the Miami University campuses and range from $2,500 to $20,000. Applicants can either apply alone, or as a group, team, or organization project. If you are a student you must have faculty or staff member endorse and oversee the project. These grants will be awarded to non-profit programs, projects, initiatives, and research. After a recent deadline extension, applicants now have until February 26th, 2024 to apply.

The application requires the completion of a form, a description of the project with a budget, and a two minute or less video explaining the project, why it is important, and why it deserves a grant. Finalists will be selected to participate in Hawk Tank, a fast-pitch event where finalists will give a three-minute presentation making the case for their project with the guidance of the Farmer School of Business Institute of Entrepreneurship. The MIAMI Women’s Giving Circle will then vote on which projects will be funded.

Last year multiple students and a faculty member from CEC had the opportunity to receive funding for their projects:

• Marguerite Smith ‘24 (Electrical Engineering, Engineering Management) spearheaded the initiative to submit an application for a grant from the Miami Women's Giving Circle for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Because of this grant, SWE was able to fund nine women to attend the annual SWE conference, which is the world's largest conference for women in engineering and technology. 
  
  
• Brad Gartner, ‘25 (Robotics Engineering) and the Miami University Robotics Club also received a $12,000 grant from the Women’s Giving Circle. The club received this grant for their work applying robotics to agriculture. The club entered into the SICK TiM10K competition with their agricultural robot that was equipped with a specialized scanner to monitor crops in farm fields. 
  
  
• Morgan Frederick '23 (Mechanical Engineering) received a grant to help Miami’s Formula SAE team convert an old Formula SAE car into an electric formula car to give engineering majors hands-on learning opportunities and the chance to compete with cars around the world.
  
  
• Catherine Almquist, Ph.D., Professor of Chemical, Paper, and Biomedical Engineering, received a grant to help create a formal mentoring program for women and minority faculty and graduate students in STEM at Miami to support efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

If you or your group have an idea for a project that fits these criteria, apply for the Women's Giving Circle Grant today. $125,000 was awarded in grants last year, and this year that could be you or your organization!