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LEAP Invites Applications for 2024 Student Grant Program

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The Law, Ethics & Animals Program (LEAP) at Yale Law School is inviting applications for the LEAP Student Grant Program. The grant program supports Yale student-led research and creative projects that advance understanding of, draw attention to, or develop strategies to address the urgent threats facing non-human animals. All current Yale students can submit proposals for term time and summer projects. 

Since its launch in 2021, the LEAP Student Grant Program has funded an expansive range of student-led projects. Last year’s grantees used their awards to advance conservation storytelling, art and education, and understanding the spiritual and cultural importance of nonhuman animals. Projects supported by the program in 2023 include: 

  • Grace Cajski YC ’24, a rising senior at Yale College studying English and Environmental Studies, worked with community organizations on Hawai‘i Island, including the Hui Loko, to tell stories about conserving anchialine pools, in forms ranging from ArcGIS StoryMaps to magazine feature pieces. This research is a capstone of her undergraduate academic career, which has been dedicated to understanding how storytelling can be a powerful conservation tool. 
  • Diego Ellis Soto GSAS Ph.D. ’24, continued his work on Collective Pulse, a project that combines cutting-edge technology with biological principles and musical theory to represent the lives of animals through art and music. Ellis Soto, whose work is in Yale’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, produced new music using animal movements. He then developed an educational curriculum around this work centering environmental justice and biodiversity. 
  • Quincy Yangh YSE M.E.M. ’24, a Master of Environmental Management student at Yale School of the Environment, explored the enduring and evolving relationship between the Hmong Shaman community and animals. Yangh talked with Hmong Shamans across the U.S. diaspora, hoping  to share a different perspective on human and animal relationships with the broader community and illuminate how his community has preserved and upheld its profound relationship with animals despite centuries of displacement, erasure, and imperial violence. 

The deadline to submit a proposal is March 29, 2023 at 12 p.m. ET. Interested students can find more detailed grant information and application instructions on LEAP’s website. For questions, contact LEAP Postgraduate Fellow Laurie Sellars.