Giving Opportunities

Help Build The Future in Social Sciences

Your generous gifts have a direct impact on the lives of students and faculty members. Through your donation, you are investing in the futures of undergraduate and graduate students. You support important research across energy policy, sustainability, and industrial heritage and archaeology.

You help students complete research projects in their field, participate in study abroad programs, and travel to conferences and meetings. You help faculty and graduate students travel to research sites and conferences to present papers, put on workshops, access databases, and purchase vital software. Whether big or small, we thank you for your gifts. You help transform lives and foster an exceptional educational and research experience.

What Your Gift Could Accomplish

Students in the Department of Social Science’s Industrial Archaeology field school have been documenting sites for the Isle Royale National Park and the Keweenaw National Historical Park with a new “total station,” thanks to a gift by Eloise and Bill Haller. A total station is a collection of electronic equipment and software for surveying a site and capturing and storing all the necessary data. It replaced equipment nearly two decades old. As you can imagine, surveying and data collection tools have advanced considerably in that time!

Student using archaology equiptment behind Quincy Mine.
Andrew Anklam, an MS student in the Industrial Heritage and Archaeology program, uses the new total station and data collector tablet to record features recently discovered behind the Quincy Mining Company Office Building. Photo by: Eloise Haller

The new tools require a fraction of the time to set up and train. The typical user can be self sufficient and productive within a day. The combination of hardware and software associated with the total station allows students and researchers to produce accurate maps of complicated landscapes associated with past industrial activity. It also allows students to be trained on tools they will be using for years to come as they continue to research and gain insights into the past industrial activity of communities throughout the world.

We thank the Hallers for their generosity and their contribution to the exciting research being conducted right in our backyard in the Keweenaw.

Donor- and State-matching opportunities are available. Contact Don Lafreniere at djlafren@mtu.edu to explore ways your support can multiply—ensuring your gift has maximum impact.


Giving Needs

There are a variety of needs in the department supporting our undergraduates and our graduate programs.

Undergraduate Giving Needs

Consider supporting these undergraduate funds. Choose from the following and make your gift today.

Kenny Bragg Memorial Fund

Michigan Tech student Kenneth (Kenny) Bragg, 22, was killed Saturday, December 30, 2023, in a house explosion in the suburbs of Detroit, along with his parents, Hope '95 and Don '92 Bragg, who were both Tech forestry alumni, and a younger sister, Elizabeth. Kenny was a senior anthropology major in the Department of Social Sciences and was scheduled to graduate in April 2024. Kenny was working on his senior thesis with Dr. Carl Blair on pre-European salt manufacture in Arkansas, particularly the activities of the Caddo cultures, and had completed three summer field seasons and significant volunteer work with the Arkansas archaeological survey.

In Kenny's memory, there is hope to establish a scholarship. Gifts received are intended to create an endowed scholarship which requires a minimum amount of $25,000 to endow; however, if the minimum endowment amount is not received, an annual scholarship will be established.

Give Now to the Kenny Bragg Memorial Fund


Department of Social Sciences Fund

Support student research in the form of travel to research sites, attending conferences to present papers, study abroad opportunities, and supplies for workshops, special software, and the like. Gifts can be targeted for specific purposes.

Give Now to the Department of Social Sciences Fund


Edmund Vandette Scholarship Fund

The Edmund Vandette Endowed Fund supports undergraduate scholarships who originate from the Copper Country. The family of the late local politician and professor Edmund Vandette, who taught history and political science at Michigan Tech, established this fund in his memory.

Give Now to the Edmund Vandette Scholarship Fund


Legal Education Scholarship Fund

The Legal Education Fund supports the pre-law program in the Department of Social Sciences. The pre-law program prepares students for the practice of law and the multifaceted challenges presented by a legal career.

Give Now to the Legal Education Scholarship Fund


Graduate Program Giving Needs

Consider supporting these graduate funds and ongoing projects. Choose from the following and make your gift today.

Environmental and Energy Fund

Your contribution supports graduate student research in the form of travel to research sites, attending conferences to present papers, tuition support, and supplies for workshops, special software, and the like. Gifts can also be targeted for specific purposes and projects.

Give Now to the Environmental and Energy Fund


Industrial Heritage and Archaeology Fund

Supports the operations of the graduate programs in industrial heritage and archaeology through student scholarships and the purchase of equipment and services crucial to student research and scholarships.

Give Now to the Industrial Heritage and Archaeology Fund


Pat and Susan Martin Archaeology Lab Assistant Fund

Provides support for a laboratory assistant who keeps the archaeology lab in operating order and maintains records and processes artifacts associated with research projects.

Give Now to the Pat and Susan Martin Archaeology Lab Assistant Fund


Cliff Mine Project

Supports archaeological and heritage research at the site of the Cliff Mine in Keweenaw County, Michigan, and related historical and industrial sites in the region.

Give Now to the Cliff Mine Project


Utah Pottery Project

Supports research into the immigrant potters of Utah who lived in the Mormon Domain during the 19th century. The project examines the potters and their families, work, products, and contributions to the history of Utah.

Give Now to the Utah Pottery Project


Scholarships