Annual Ambassadors Awards

The VAF Ambassadors Awards provide funding for student groups (undergraduate and graduate) from North American institutions, with a faculty sponsor, to attend VAF's annual conference. We hope through this program to enhance the VAF's recruitment of students, to provide support to programs that teach vernacular architecture, and to increase the VAF's visibility on campuses.

A selection committee will choose winning recipients based on the strength of the proposals, considering especially the goals of the award program. The amount of money awarded to each program is at the discretion of the selection committee, but shall depend on such factors as the distance needed to travel to the annual conference site, the number of students involved, the number of Award applicants, and the funds available to the Award program. We encourage, but do not require, that programs apply for matching funds from their institutions.

Application Instructions

To apply, please submit a two to three page proposal that helps us learn more about your program or department, its relationship to vernacular architecture, and your reasons for wishing to send students to the next VAF conference.

The first page of your application should include: University or School and Department applying, faculty sponsor, address, telephone and e-mail contact, and the names of student ambassadors, if possible.

Consider the following questions in your proposal:
a) In what ways is your program involved in the study of vernacular architecture? Include course descriptions, lists of field studies, workshops, seminars, student initiatives, etc.

b) Why do you wish to send a group of students to the next VAF conference? How would conference attendance complement the activities/coursework/aims of your program? What other reasons motivate your program’s interest in having students attend the conference?

c) How many students do you propose to send? By what process will you select them? (If your program receives an Ambassadors Award, we will require the selected students to sign an undertaking to serve as VAF ambassadors upon their return from the annual meeting).

d) Please tell us how you envisage your students’ attendance at the VAF will generate further interest in the VAF in your program, or in the local community. Please specify the ways in which selected students would act as “ambassadors” for the VAF upon their return to campus. (Ideas we have come up with include holding a departmental brown bag to share their experiences of the annual meeting, speaking at the local Rotary Club or preservation group, coordinating a day of fieldwork, and planning and working towards submitting paper proposals for the following year’s annual conference. We look forward to reading your ideas).

The selection committee requires a budget of your projected expenses and income related to sending students to the annual conference. An estimated budget should include travel, housing, conference registration, food and any miscellaneous expenses. Use registration and other fees from the 2007 Savannah, GA Conference or 2008 Fresno Conference as a guideline.

The deadline for the 2009 Ambassadors Awards is January 15, 2009.

Please submit applications or inquiries to:
Cynthia Falk
Cooperstown Graduate Program
SUNY Oneonta
P.O. Box 800
Cooperstown, NY 13326
Tel. 607-547-2586
falkcg@oneonta.edu