Awards and Prizes

History Department Awards and Prizes

The history department provides special recognitions to Delta-Psi chapter members in the following ways:

Phi Alpha Theta Scholarship Pin and Academic Excellence Certificate - Each year the history department recognizes a graduating senior Phi Alpha Theta member for outstanding achievement in his/her work in history courses at Union University. To be eligible for this award a student must be a history major and have a minimum 3.5 GPA in history courses at Union.
Recognition for Student Presenters at Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conferences - The history department annually presents a certificate of recognition and a history book to each student who presents a paper at a Phi Alpha Theta regional conference that year.
Certificates of Appreciation for the Chapter President and Vice President - At the end of the school year, the department gives certificates of appreciation to the Delta-Psi chapter president and vice president who have just completed their year of leadership responsibilities.

National Awards and Prizes

History major Patricia Dawson won Phi Alpha Theta's 2013 Lynn W. Turner Prize of $500 for writing the best undergraduate history research paper in the society's nationwide competition that year. She is now a Ph.D. candidate specializing in Native American history at the University of North Carolina. She is pictured here delivering a paper at the Tennessee Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference at Belmont University on February 23, 2013.

The main office of Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society sponsors or co-sponsors many awards and prizes, several of which are for undergraduate students.

The opportunities for undergraduates include three scholarships for students entering graduate school for the first time to earn a master's degree in history or library science-archives: the A.F. Zimmerman Scholarship ($1,250); the Thomas S. Morgan Scholarship ($1,000); and the William E. Parrish Scholarship ($1,000). The deadline for applying for one of these awards is March 1 of each year. For complete and accurate details about these scholarships, go to phialphatheta.org. Union University's Noah Arnold won the Thomas S. Morgan Scholarship in 2010, and Elaura Highfield received the A. F. Zimmerman Scholarship in 2012.

Another scholarship is available for a student majoring in European history from 1815 to the present and who will be entering the fall semester of his/her senior year in college. This scholarship, known as the Graydon A. Tunstall Undergraduate Student Scholarship, is a $1,000 award. The deadline for this scholarship is March 1. Please check phialphatheta.org for complete and accurate information about this scholarship.

In addition to scholarships, there are national paper competitions available for undergraduate members of Phi Alpha Theta. One of these is the Phi Alpha Theta/Western Front Association Undergraduate Essay Prize. The prize is $1,000. Any paper an undergraduate submits must deal with the American experience in World War I and represent a significant contribution to our understanding of the impact of that conflict on the United States and its citizens. The text of the paper must be 12-15 pages, double-spaced. The deadline for entries is December 1. Please go to phialphatheta.org for specific and accurate details about this prize.

There are also other Phi Alpha Theta Paper Prize awards available for undergraduate students. One is the Lynn W. Turner Prize of $500, which is given annually to the best undergraduate history paper submitted to Phi Alpha Theta. Another is the Nels Andrew Cleven Founder's Paper Prize that Phi Alpha Theta awards annually to two undergraduate history papers of superior quality; each Founder's Paper Prize is $350. The paper, which must be double-spaced, may not be longer than 25 pages in length (excluding the bibliography). The deadline for submitting a paper for these prizes is June 30. Please go to phialphatheta.org for complete and accurate information about the prizes.