Grace Nixon Institute

The Nixon Institute offers a fully funded MA English through the UI Department of English. It is designed to be completed over the course of ~5 years, plus a semester, as courses are offered over the summer. Students generally take two classes per summer (6 credits) for 5 summers, for a total of 30 credits. An additional 3 credits of non-thesis work is then required to graduate (usually done in a semester following the final summer). Students in the Institute must be admitted to the MA-ENGL program or actively applying in order to receive degree credit. Degree credit scholarships will be reserved for those students actively seeking a degree; additional awards will be based on remaining scholarship funding.

For more information about the Institute, contact English Department Administrative Assistant Hannah Westergaard (hwestergaard@uidaho.edu) and MA-ENGL Director Erin James (ejames@uidaho.edu). Teachers of Dual Credit can also contact the Dual Credit Faculty Liaison Margot Volem (mvolem@uidaho.edu).

How to Apply to the Annual Institute

NOTE: Priority deadline for scholarship consideration is April 1. The English Department will give funding priority to secondary teachers who apply for the Institute by this date. Please make sure we have your application form by that date, even if you haven’t yet completed an application to UI. For an application for the annual Institute, email Hannah Westergaard (hwestergaard@uidaho.edu).

The Institute has been in operation for over 30 years, supported by a wonderful bequest from a former Lewiston High School English teacher. Grace Virginia Nixon was born in Genesee, Idaho, in 1908. She graduated from Clarkston High School in 1926, and from University of Idaho in 1930. Her teaching career began in Potlatch. In 1936 she moved to Lewiston High School and, except for a leave of absence to earn a master's degree and a two-year stint at Spokane's Lewis and Clark High School, she taught in Lewiston until her retirement in 1970. A world traveler in the years preceding her death in 1983, she visited Africa, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, and Europe. Part of the endowment’s annual income supports graduate study for in-service teachers.