Honors Enrichment

Interested Mines students who qualify for the honors enrichment award must meet with their respective current or previous program director for which they are requesting an award from. If the program director approves of your project or trip, you can submit your application HERE or by clicking the “Apply for Honors Enrichment” button on this webpage. After submitting a form, you will receive a letter via your Mines email that determines the amount of the award you will be receiving. You must meet with either Karin Murray (UHS Department Manager) or Kassandra Pontilo (UHS Program Coordinator) to review the purchases needed for your honors enrichment. They will assist you in making any eligible upfront purchases and will assist you in submitting for out-of-pocket reimbursements upon your return.

If you are traveling:

You must submit receipts of reimbursable purchases to Karin or Kassandra within 60 days of your return. If you do not submit within 60 days, your reimbursement may be taxed. This is federal policy.

Award amounts vary depending on the honors enrichment. Please contact your respective current or previous UHS program director for more information on the potential amount your will be awarded.

After applying, you will receive an email from the program director of the program you are requesting funds from. Please check your Mines student email for a letter of approval.

University Honors & Scholars Enrichment Awards CAN cover the following:

• Airfare costs (ticket, baggage)
• Housing/Hotel accommodations
• Books or supplies related to a program project
• Conference fees
• Per diem food costs (ONLY covered for conference-related travel)
• International Health Insurance
• Ground transportation
• Tuition fees
• Vaccinations
• Visa

University Honors & Scholars Enrichment Awards CANNOT cover the following:

• Non-conference food per diems
• Passport renewal fees
• Full expense group travel per diems
• Rentals (i,e: snowboarding gear, hiking gear)
• Personal expenses (any purchase that can only be exclusively used by you, think shoes, clothes, etc)
• Materials that will NOT be returned for continual use by UHS (think buying and keeping a camera, etc)

Costs that can be paid for upfront include:

• Airfare
• Lodging
• Eligible project materials
• Conference/symposium registration
• International Health Insurance (CISI)
• International Visas
• Tuition

Costs that will be reimbursed upon your return from travel:

• Eligible food per diems
• Transportation baggage fees
• Transportation/ride-share costs
• Other eligible out-of-pocket costs

You must submit your reimbursement within 60 days in order to receive the full non-taxed amount of your eligible expense costs. Receipts are required in order to be reimbursed for any out of pocket expenses. The only exception to this are food per diems. Receipts can be submitted to either Karin Murray (kmurray@mines.edu) or Kassandra Pontilo (kpontilo@mines.edu), depending on who you have been working with for your honors enrichment purchases and costs. If you submit your receipts later than 60 days, you run the risk of having tax deducted from your reimbursement amount.

Once we receive your receipts we will submit an expense report on your behalf to our Mines Administrative Processing Services (MAPS) department. At this point of the process, UHS does not have control over the timeline for your reimbursement, It may take several weeks or longer for MAPS to fully process your reimbursment. Reimbursements will either be deposited to your direct deposit account on file or will be available as a check that you can pick up from MAPS in Guggenheim.

Only trips that are to attend a professional development or academic conference/symposium qualify for a daily food per diem rate. If the conference provides meals, such as breakfast or lunch, the per diem for that meal will be subtracted from the daily rate.

Per diem rates vary depending on the location you are traveling to. To view per diem rates visit https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates.

Depending on the amount you are awarded for your honors enrichment, you may or may not receive per diem. You will not be reimbursed per diem if it exceeds the amount you were awarded for your honors enrichment.

If you qualify and have the funding for per diem, per diem is reimbursed after travel. You do not need to submit receipts to receive per diem, as the amounts are pre-determined. You will be reimbursed once you have submitted all the information for your expense report to be processed by Karin Murray or Kassandra Pontilo.