In January 1998, SAA Fellow, past president, and long-time member F. Gerald Ham and his wife Elsie established the F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship Fund. The purpose of the fund, endowed in 2008, is to provide financial support to graduate students in a professional archival studies program. Criteria for selection of the award recipient includes the applicant’s past performance in her/his graduate program in archival studies as well as a faculty member's assessment of the student’s prospects for contributing to the archives profession. Selection will be made based on merit.
Eligibility:
The scholarship funds must be used to support the graduate archival education of a student who is studying at a United States university program that meets the criteria for graduate education set forth by the Society of American Archivists' Guidelines for a Graduate Program in Archival Studies. The student must have successfully completed a minimum of three (3) semester credit hours, or the equivalent, of a course(s) meeting the definition of "core archival knowledge" presented in the Guidelines. The course(s) must be completed by the time of application (February 28).
Scholarship Award:
A scholarship of $10,000. Also included is complimentary registration to the SAA Annual Meeting in the year in which the scholarship is received. The scholarship funds must be paid to the student's academic institution.
Application Deadline and Requirements:
All applications must be submitted by February 28 of each year and include the following:
- A cover letter stating the applicant's interest in the scholarship, describing the applicant's performance in their archival education coursework, and providing background on the applicant’s interests and accomplishments.
- A current curriculum vitae.
- An official transcript of the applicant’s grades since entering the graduate program. NOTE: Allow enough time to get transcripts by application deadline.
- One letter of recommendation from an instructor in the applicant’s graduate program in archival studies. NOTE: The reference should upload the letter of recommendation to the online form by the application deadline.
- An essay (no more than five pages in length) that demonstrates the applicant’s ability to “think like an archivist.” NOTE: Applicants should create an analytic or interpretative essay addressing their “ability to think like an archivist” from their personal viewpoint. The essay must be titled with applicant’s name on the title page, double-spaced, with standard margins and any citation style; a bibliography or citations, though not necessary, will not count as part of the five pages. The submission may not be a summary of research conducted as a student, a course or seminar paper, or a published article.