a2ru Congratulates This Year’s Student Challenge Grant Winners

Jul 9, 2026

Every year, the students who attend a2ru’s Emerging Creatives Student Summit are invited to apply for a Challenge Grant. The grant provides funding to pursue an interdisciplinary project sparked at the Summit, as well as the opportunity to present the project at a2ru’s national conference, with additional financial support for travel. Following this year’s summit at Michigan State University on the theme “Rewilding,” we have awarded Challenge Grants to two teams.

A team of Mechatronics Engineering, Fashion Design, and International Studies undergraduates from Kent State University will pursue their project using artwork to capture student responses about how a place on campus makes them feel. They plan to track and analyze the data they gather, giving their school insight into where students feel supported and where they do not. A second team composed of graduate students in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education as well as Studio Art at Michigan State University plan to create a replicable, interdisciplinary toolkit, piloted through workshops, that supports pre-service teachers integrating sensory, place-based, and creative approaches into their future classrooms. Rutgers faculty member and director of GROUNDWORK interdisciplinary workshops Rita Leduc will mentor both teams toward their participation in the a2ru conference.

The University of Maryland will host Emerging Creatives 2027 March 18-21, with a summit theme of Power. a2ru member schools may send up to four students to Emerging Creatives with no registration fee, but we require that there be equal numbers of arts and non-arts students. Student nomination opens in August: plan ahead with communication to departments and units that may be interested in sending students. Contact Veronica Stanich vstanich@umich.edu for more information.