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Application deadline: N/A for 2025

Award Amount: $500.00

Criteria for the 2024-2025 Academic Year Award

• Open to current undergraduate English and Spanish majors
• Minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0

Please contact Dr. Kent Dickson with questions.

The Shana Y. Wang Scholarship is made possible by the generous support of Lucy and Carl Wang, to honor the memory of their daughter, Shana Y. Wang (b. December 3, 1997-d. January 26, 2018). Shana was a Cal Poly Pomona student and an English major with an emphasis in Education, at the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences, and had plans to earn her teaching credentials. Her dream was to become a teacher of young children, and she had a passion for community involvement with charitable organizations. She was committed to helping others in need and was outgoing, kind, and generous.

The Shana Y. Wang Scholarship provides unrestricted scholarship support to an English and Modern Languages Department student who is an English Major or enrolled in the Master of Arts in English Program and has demonstrated a strong level of academic achievement and plans towards entering the teaching field in K-12 or higher education.

Apply through the .

Application deadline: 3/2/2025

Award Amount: $1000.00

Criteria for the 2024-2025 Academic Year Award:

• Open to current Undergraduate, Postbaccalaureate, and Graduate students
• An English major or enrolled in the Master of Arts in English Program
• Must have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above
• Community involvement preferred
• Complete supplemental requirement
• Preference is also given to those with the intention to pursue their teaching credentials at Cal Poly Pomona’s College of Education and Integrative Studies

Supplemental Question:

• Do you intend to pursue a teaching credential at Cal Poly Pomona's College of Education and Integrative Studies?

Please contact Dr. Kent Dickson with questions.

The English & Modern Languages Spanish Teaching Credential Scholarship is for a student who will be pursuing a Spanish Teaching Credential at Cal Poly Pomona.

Apply through the .

Application deadline: 3/2/2025

Award Amount: $200.00

Criteria for the 2024-2025 Academic Year Award:

• Must be a Spanish major
• Must have successfully completed the CBEST
• Must be on the teacher credential student plan
• Complete supplemental requirements

Supplemental Requirements & Questions:

• Please upload proof of a passing grade for the CBEST test.
• Do you intend to pursue a teaching credential at Cal Poly Pomona's College of Education and Integrative Studies?
• Please upload a copy of your student plan.

Please contact Dr. Kent Dickson with questions.

The Jeanine L. (McDonald) Fucci Endowed Scholarship is for a senior pursuing a teaching credential.

Apply through the .

Application deadline: 3/2/2025

Award Amount: $2,500.00

Criteria for the 2024-2025 Academic Year Award:

• Must be a current senior
• Minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA
• CLASS or Liberal Studies Major
• Must be on education track and plan to obtain credential within 24-36 months
• Must be a full-time student at the time of applying and at the time of disbursement
• Must have calculated financial need (based on 2023-2024 FAFSA/Dream Act)
• Complete supplemental requirement
• Must have U.S. Citizenship

Supplemental Question:

• Do you plan on obtaining your teaching credential within 24-36 months?

Please contact Dr. Kent Dickson with questions.

The Lillian Wilds Scholarship honors Professor Lillian Wilds (1926-1985). Professor Wilds earned her B.A. (1962), her M.A. (1964), and her Ph.D. (1970) at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Her book on Shakespeare's Character Dramatists was published in 1975, and she published articles in Shakespeare Quarterly, Literature/Film Quarterly, and the Quarterly Review of Film Studies as well as in other journals. She presented papers at international, nation­al, and regional conferences on Shakespeare and theater, and conducted innovative programs on "Shakespeare for the Blind" and "Theatre for the Deaf."  She taught Shakespeare's plays at Cal Poly Pomona from 1968 until shortly before her death in 1985. In 1974, as part of the University’s outreach program, she established and served as the faculty advisor for the poetry journal Spring Harvest and initiated the Invitational High School Shakespeare Festival, in which area high school students compete in presenting scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. In 1981, Professor Wilds helped secure a grant of $180,000 from the Times Mirror Foundation to bring a tour of documents from the Folger Shakespeare Library, in Washington, D.C., to the Cali­fornia Museum of Science and Industry. In 1982, she worked with Audrey Stanley, the founder of Shakespeare Santa Cruz Festival, and two members of the Royal Shakespeare Company on a production of King Lear.

Professor Wilds was a deeply admired teach­er who was especially noted for her work as a major proponent of using perfor­mance approaches in literature classrooms to explore Shakespeare's plays in particular and Renaissance drama in general. The extraordinary quality of her work was rec­ognized when she was selected as Cal Poly Pomona's Outstanding Professor and its nominee for the 1982-1983 CSU Outstanding Professor award bestowed by the Trustees of the California State University. 

Shortly after her death, the Lillian Wilds Scholarship was established with funds donated by her husband, Lee Wilds, and by colleagues and students who wanted to honor her pioneering work. Since its inception, her son Daniel Wilds and his wife, Linda, have generously made further contributions to the endowment, increasing the amount awarded to each winner. The Lillian Wilds Shakespeare Scholarship was first awarded in 1986, and the winner is selected annually by an outside panel of judges.

The Lillian Wilds Scholarship Endowment provides $1500 support to full-time English and Modern Languages majors in the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences. Applicants must be involved in Shakespeare.

Apply through the .

Application deadline: 3/2/2025

Award Amount: $1,500.00

Criteria for the 2023-2024 Academic Year Award:

• Full-time student in the English and Modern Languages Department at the time of application and at the time of disbursement
• Cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher
• Complete supplemental requirement

Supplemental Question:

• Write a 750-1000 word essay describing your interest in Shakespeare. This paper will be evaluated partly on compositional quality but mainly on its ability to reflect excitement regarding Shakespeare study and performance.

Please contact Dr. Kent Dickson with questions.

The Ted Pugh Poetry Award is an annual contest established by Cedric and Lorraine Rogers in memory of their friend and Cal Poly alumnus, Ted Pugh. Ted Pugh was known as the Pomona Poet, and his poetic career blossomed after he retired from the Los Angeles Arboretum, where he had worked as a naturalist. His poetry was strongly influenced by his close connection to the natural world and to his Welsh heritage.

Guidelines for submissions to the Ted Pugh Poetry Award are usually announced in March, and the award is made at the annual English & Modern Languages Department Outstanding Student event at the end of Spring semester. Past winners have received a cash prize of up to $200. During years of exceptionally strong competition, runners-up are also named in the contest.

Submit using the submission form (TBA)

Submission deadline: 3/28/25

Please contact Dr. Kent Dickson with questions.

Past Winners

The Lesser Festival is an annual festival and competition of Shakespeare’s works in performance for area high school students.

Each April, area high school students compete by offering performances of scenes from Shakespeare’s plays in categories for Female Monologue, Male Monologue, Group Single Excerpt, and Group Composite. First, second, and third place prizes, as well as honorable mentions, are awarded in each category, and the first place winner in each category also displays a trophy for that category until the following year’s competition.

A brief history of the competition: The Invitational High School Shakespeare Festival was initiated in 1974 by Professor Lillian Wilds as part of a university outreach program. Several years later, Regina Fadiman donated money in memory of John A. Lesser, thereby creating the endowment that has ensured the Festival’s continuation. The festival is coordinated and judged by EML faculty.

Festival date: 4/13/25

Festival flyer: (TBA)

For additional information, contact Dr. Armondo Collins.