Student Travel Fund Opens Doors for Student Organizations

For more than 500 student organizations at UT, traveling to participate in conferences, competitions, or leadership development programs might be financially impossible, except for one small opportunity through the Division of Student Life.

When student organizations hope to travel as a representative of the university, they can apply for help from the Student Organization Travel Fund. Accounting for the 2020–2021 academic year at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when travel was restricted, the fund has supported an average of more than 400 students each academic year since its creation.

This past academic year, several student organizations were able to compete successfully, attend professional development opportunities, and fulfill their organization’s mission thanks to support from this fund.

Volunteer’s Theme Park Engineering Group is a student organization that aims to educate members on the practices, protocols, safety standards, accidents, successes, history, current trends, and technology within the themed entertainment industry. This past year, the group was able to take two separate trips that connected interested students to professionals in the industry. The first trip was to Richmond, Virginia, in October 2025 where a ride operator at Six Flags Kings Dominion demonstrated his testing and safety checks, checking 32 unique fault codes and forcing unsafe conditions to ensure the ride would stop correctly. The operator also shared details about ride operator certification and educated students for an entire day on working in the amusement industry.

For one student who participated in the trip the experience was very meaningful for their interpersonal skills. “I didn’t know networking was such a key component of getting a job! I’m so grateful I learned how to approach professionals in the future.” From trainings and certifications to day-to-day operations to common misconceptions, students learned about what a job as a ride operator entails and how they could gain entry into the industry in the future. The second trip for this group landed them in Orlando, Florida, at a three-day professional conference where students met professionals, attended lectures, and learned about new technologies in the amusement industry. For both trips, the Student Organization Travel Fund made these students’ professional dreams a reality.

For almost a decade, this fund has been creating greater opportunities like these for all kinds of student organizations. UT’s Student Government Association floated the concept in 2018, and UT administrators agreed that it was a good idea. Implementation began in fall 2018, and administration of this fund has been a collaborative effort ever since through Student Life Finance and Administration and the Center for Student Engagement. For Kerri Lovegrove, a finance manager for Student Life, working with students and administering this fund has been a labor of love.

“I’ve really been focused on making the process easier for students to understand and to complete,” says Lovegrove, who has worked in various part- and full-time capacities across UT for almost 20 years. Working with no template program and a high volume of applications, Lovegrove has impacted many students and organizations over the years with a thoughtful and growth-oriented approach.

Student organizations complete an application process explaining their need and their purpose for travel. Funds are only awarded when trips align with the organization’s mission and purpose, reflect UT’s mission, and demonstrate a meaningful impact on the organization’s effectiveness. Applications are reviewed by a committee that includes staff members and student representatives, including an SGA representative, and approvals are shared with the student organizations so they can plan their itineraries.

“The process requires one student leader in the organization to manage the application and reconciliation processes, so it’s also an opportunity for that student to strengthen skills like communication, meeting deadlines, preparing documentation, and planning travel,” adds Lovegrove.

“It’s also an opportunity for that student to strengthen skills like communication, meeting deadlines, preparing documentation, and planning travel.”

Kerri Lovegrove
Finance Manager, Division of Student Life

Awards are capped at $3,500 per academic year per student organization with a limit of $500 per individual student expenses, but within those limits student organizations can usually meet their travel goals, representing the university and pursuing their organization’s mission.

Whether to compete, to learn, to network, or to represent, this fund serves as a conduit for both the personal and professional goals of hundreds of students each year. It takes them to destinations across the country, it meets a funding gap that might otherwise block their participation, and it means broader opportunities for Volunteers.

In addition to the Student Organization Travel Fund, individual students who are interested in participating in leadership development workshops can apply for funding from the W. Timothy Rogers Student Leadership Endowment Fund. Administered by the Division of Student Life through the Jones Center for Leadership and Service and funded through the generosity of UT donors, this fund provides supplemental assistance to individual students to cover the costs of conference registration fees, not exceeding $500 per student, to pursue significant training or professional development.