College of the Atlantic offers a special, merit-based award to students with exceptional academic achievements and citizenship qualities. Students are automatically reviewed for this award during the application process and financial need is not a prerequisite. Awards may vary but at a minimum they provide a valuable, flexible travel and research grant that can be used to augment a student's academic and/or extracurricular experiences on or off campus. This grant money can be used towards COA's own special programs in International Studies or certain other course areas but is not limited to these. For example, it might be used to help fund a study abroad program or summer travel or research opportunities.