Ad Astra Scholarships
To the Stars Through Solidarity

Many of the most promising writers, scholars, and educators don't enjoy the same privileges as others. We strive to level the playing field so everyone - regardless of age, culture, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, income, nationality or immigrant status, physical ability, neurodiversity or mental-health status, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or marital, parental, and veteran status - has equal opportunity for admission to our educational programs, and equal access to our activities. We actively encourage students and scholars from diverse backgrounds to study. We especially encourage people from historically under-represented groups to apply for our courses and scholarships. Click here to see our thoughts on diversity, inclusivity, and commitment to equity.

By making our offerings affordable to those who might not otherwise be able to attend, we hope to increase accessiblity for all while offering a broad, diverse set of writing instruction for attendees dedicated to growing their creative skills and STEM knowledge. We offer a safe space for the diversity of people who attend our events and educational programs.

We want everyone to enjoy the same opportunity to study the SF arts, and - if it's your goal - to learn how to become a professional speculative-fiction writer!

Generous supporters enable us to offer scholarships for those in need to attend our workshops and other courses. We are deeply grateful to donors who help make our educational program available to worthy writers, educators, and scholars who might otherwise be unable to pursue their professional education - thank you!

Scholarships can range from $50 - $1000, with occasional full tuition scholarships. Listed costs for our workshops and other events are for those who can afford full price; those able to pay the full fees help support those who cannot. In order to be considered for a partial or full scholarship, you must request one when applying, and how much you might need in order to attend.

SFWA Givers Grant
Scholarship

Thanks to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) Givers Grant, we are able to offer several scholarships for writers to attend our workshops.

SFWA Givers Fund Grants are intended to aid projects that align with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association's mission to promote, advance, and support science fiction and fantasy writing around the world. This fund is made possible with the generosity of donors from the speculative-fiction writing community and partnerships within the publishing landscape.

If you'd like to donate to this endeavor or another SFWA charitable fund, you can do so here.

ConQuesT and KaCSFFS
Scholarship

The Kansas City Science Fiction & Fantasy Society (KaCSFFS) has long supported our educational outreach programs, and we participate in and hold an annual fundraiser at their ConQuesT SF convention in Kansas City.

If you'd like to help support Ad Astra, consider supporting our local fan organization and attend this fun event!

AdAstranaut
Scholarship

Finally, thanks to individual donors and Ad Astra staff, repeat attendees can also earn scholarships for our summer residential workshops, year-round "Science into Fiction" short workshops, masterclasses, residential workshops, seminars, and more designed for speculative-fiction writers, educators, and fans, led by our staff and a variety of other SF authors, editors, scholars, professors, and experts to provide participants with deeper understanding of SF and the vast array of human expertise necessary to stay on top of the ever-accelerating change that shapes human civilization - and even what it means to be human.

We offer micro-scholarships for repeat attendees (of either the residential summer workshops, short workshops, or both): Repeat participants enjoy an additional $50 scholarship after their first full workshop and $100 scholarship after their second.

To recieve this scholarship, be sure to mention you're an AdAstranaut or Young Gunn (a couple names alums call ourselves) in your application, and if you're requesting the $50 or $100 AdAstranaut scholarship. By making our offerings affordable to those who might not otherwise be able to attend, we hope to increase accessiblity for all while offering a broad, diverse set of writing instruction for AdAstranauts dedicated to growing their creative skills and STEM knowledge.

If you'd like to support further scholarships for our attendees, let us know! Our goal is to be able to offer our educational program to everyone, regardless of their financial status.

Donate

The Ad Astra Institute is a registered not-for-profit educational and research organization, and we have applied for 501(c)3 classification, so your donation might also be tax-deductible. If you wish to support our activities by making a charitable donation to help others attend the workshops who might otherwise not be able to, or to support our educational outreach, contact McKitterick (cmckit.sf@gmail.com). We can accept checks or Zelle (use adastra.sf.institute@gmail.com to make a direct donation), and PayPal (which takes an additional fee).

We also partner with Farbeyond Books - a fantastic spec-fic bookstore - which donates at least 50% of all sales to Ad Astra, so if you have books you'd like to donate, let us know.

Thank you so much to our donors and supporters! You make all this possible.

Diversity, Inclusivity, and Commitment to Equity

Everyone enjoys equal access to our offerings, and we actively encourage students and scholars from diverse backgrounds to study. We especially encourage people from historically under-represented groups to apply for our courses and scholarships. Many of our other courses are available to be taken in hybrid format (if space is available) to help enable those who might not be able to attend in person to participate, and we happily make accommodations to enable everyone to enjoy the fullest experience. We also make accomodations for those who cannot attend in person.

At Ad Astra, we also believe that earning a creative education should not depend on financial privilege, so we offer several scholarships to enable everyone to participate. If you wish to help support others to enroll, please consider donating to our scholarship fund (the Ad Astra Institute is a not-for-profit organization). Many of the most promising writers don't enjoy the same privilege as those who do, so we strive to level the playing field so everyone regardless of age, culture, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, income, nationality or immigrant status, physical ability status, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or marital, parental, and veteran status has equal opportunity to participate in our educational programs, and equal access to our activities. We want everyone to enjoy the same opportunity to become a professional speculative-fiction writer! We work to be a safe space for those who come to our events and educational programs.

Click here to see our thoughts on diversity and inclusivity and our commitment to equity.

Connect with Ad Astra

updated 9/25/2023