Funding overview for Ingenuity in Action experiences

How does funding work for Ingenuity in Action at Cornell?

Ingenuity in Action requires each student completes one qualifying experience in two different categories from the six available category options. The experiences that you select will depend on both your interests and what opportunities fit best with your academic and campus experience. As you explore options for InAct experiences you will see that some have associated costs, and some do not.

Cornell funding for experiences

For those experiences that have out of pocket costs, Cornell has money to assist our students and ensure everyone has access to those opportunities. Up to $5000* per student is available for eligible expenses to complete two qualifying activities–each funded activity is either pre-approved or requires a review and approval process for funding to be allocated.

Where does the money for InAct experiences come from?

A large group of Cornell alumni and friends feel very strongly that the kinds of experiences students get from the InAct framework are important to their future life, career, and success as a global citizen. They have donated funds to the college, primarily through endowed funds, that allow us to support these opportunities for current students. This money is dedicated solely for this purpose and is completely separate from the tuition individual students pay.

Ingenuity in Action funding categories

InAct funding falls into four primary activities and each has slightly different approaches to funding methods. It’s best to familiarize yourself with the options before you pick your experiences.

• Internships can be on-campus or off-campus roles that you take on for a block, a summer, a semester, or a custom period of time. Funding for internships usually covers travel costs, housing costs, food costs or a combination. Occasionally it may also cover supplies you need to perform the activity. Students can request up to $4100 in eligible expenses for an internship. Actual costs will determine the funding amount disbursed.
• Research projects can be on-campus with our faculty, and the Cornell Summer Research Institute (CSRI) is the most common opportunity you’ll find on campus, and is a pre-approved activity. Research can also be performed off-campus at partner institutions or as a capstone project and you’ll submit a request for funding. A CSRI experience includes no-cost summer housing on campus and a $2500 stipend for food and incidentals.
• Off-campus study that is tied to a registered Cornell course and is a pre-approved activity is generally funded at 35% of the total cost of the experience. This funding goes directly toward the travel and lodging costs associated with the experience and will be discounted from your course fee once you apply via the InAct portal. Other off-campus activities include semester-long study abroad experiences that would require a proposal for approval.
• Other - this category means that you have a great idea and you want to design your own experience! To do this you’ll need to identify your sponsor and gather all the costs you anticipate for your project to submit with your request for approval. The total amount of funding is then decided by the approval committee and you can choose to complete the experience once armed with that information.

How do you decide between funded and non-funded opportunities?

One student might choose a pre-approved experience of working as a Resident Assistant (leadership) and also find an internship in their field (professional exploration). The Resident Assistant position does not incur any expenses and therefore would not require InAct funding, though your housing costs are already compensated by the college as a campus job. That leaves up to $4100 to apply towards your internship experience.

Another student might pair off-campus study (global connections) with volunteer work in our Lunch Buddies program (civic engagement). In this case their off-campus study trip might cost $8000 total for flights, hotels, transportation, and pre-paid meals. Cornell would pay $2800 of the booking costs for the trip and you would be responsible for the remaining $5200.

A third student might pair a pre-approved photography class (creative expression) that does not incur expenses with independent research conducted internationally (global connections). Since the independent research would be similar to expenses needed to cover an internship, you would be eligible to apply for up to $4,100 toward your independent study experience.

How do I apply for InAct funding?

Funding for your experiences is a part of the request process that you complete in the InAct portal. If you are choosing a pre-approved activity, you’ll enter the portal, answer a few questions, and select your planned experience from the pre-approved list. You’ll just wait for approval from the Ingenuity in Action committee and you’re done.

For more details on how to apply for funding, and how you can request funding for an experience that is unique to you and not yet on the pre-approved list, read our detailed page about the process to apply for InAct funding.

When do I apply for InAct funding?

It’s important to apply for funding and approval for each InAct experience before it starts. We cannot approve requests for reimbursement after an activity is completed outside our InAct framework. It’s always best to plan ahead as soon as possible, you can find additional guidelines for individual activities on our detailed page about the process to apply for InAct funding.

What happens if my experience gets canceled or circumstances out of my control mean I can’t complete it?

These things happen. Contact your sponsor, your advisor, or the Ingenuity in Action committee and we'll help you figure this out.

*Sometimes an experience is integral to graduation requirements and the $5000 limit may be exceeded if funds are available at that time. Some students may select activities that don’t require funding or the costs do not equal $5000, in that case the student will receive funding for the actual costs incurred and is not guaranteed a full $5000.