A limited amount of scholarships have been reserved primarily for the use of those who would not be able to attend the C.S. Lewis Summer Institute without assistance, often including, but not limited to, students, artists, teaching faculty, those presenting papers in the Academic Roundtable, and those in full-time ministry.

The goal of our scholarships is to help supplement an individual’s own financial resources in cases of genuine need.

Scholarships will apply only to the Program Fee/Tuition cost (due to funding restraints, the Registration Fee and or other related costs such as transportation and meals cannot be covered by the scholarships). Note: other discounts like faculty, student, group, etc. cannot stack with the scholarship.

PLEASE NOTE: SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.

Scholarship Options

Scholarships may be awarded in one of two ways:

• Tuition Grants of varying amounts.
• Work Study Grants of varying amounts. Work Study recipients assist with staff support on location. Such support may take the form of registration help, ushering, bookstore sales, stage support, afternoon breakout session assistants, or the like. Such work assignments are discussed and agreed upon in advance of the conference and work study recipients generally do not miss the sessions at the event.

Deadlines & After You Apply

Knowing that people hear about the conference at different times and yet still may have a need for scholarships to attend, we generally hold three rounds of deadlines for applicants to apply for scholarships and for our selection committee to review the applications. You may apply before any of these deadlines and still receive a scholarship, but do note that funding can be limited, particularly at the third deadline and after.

“Zero” Round – those who applied in 2020 and were already awarded scholarships. We have extended your scholarship offer to 2022.

First Round Deadline – October 15, 2021

Second Round Deadline – December 17, 2021

After December 17, 2021, we will continue to accept applications based on remaining scholarship funding. The final date to apply for scholarships is April 15, 2022. PLEASE NOTE: SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.

After we receive your application materials (see below for how to apply), our Scholarship Committee will review them and make decisions.

We will hold several conference calls starting in October for those who have applied for Work Study scholarships or are interested in applying and would like more information.

For more information and to sign up for the calls, please contact Jennifer Bohnert at jbohnert@cslewis.org.

Process for applying for a scholarship

1. Register for the Regular Registration Rate (not a discounted rate) Summer Institute online (once it is open) and choose the “cheque” option for your payment. (note: you won’t be paying when you first register through this system, but need to choose the cheque payment option to complete the registration process)
2. Next, submit the following to us:
   • A letter describing your personal reasons for desiring to attend, what you hope to gain from your attendance, and the specific nature of your need. Also note which type of scholarship for which you are applying – a tuition grant or a work study scholarship (see below for details).
   • A copy of your resume or C.V.
   • Two letters of reference, preferably one personal and one professional.
3. Our Scholarship Committee will review application materials and decide upon award amounts (see below for deadlines, decision timing, and related information).
4. We will send you an email and a link to pay the remainder of your Registration Fee and Tuition (in the event that the amount of scholarship awarded proves to be inadequate to your needs and you decline the award, a full refund of your Registration Fee will be made if you let us know prior to June 1, 2022; after this date the $395 fee is non-refundable).

Application materials can be sent by email to jbohnert at cslewis.org or by mail to

Jennifer Bohnert
C.S. Lewis Foundation
P.O. Box 8008
Redlands, CA 92375

Frequently asked questions about Summer Institute Scholarships

1. How much work am I required to do as part of my work study scholarship? Our goals in providing scholarships to this event are to help people attend and benefit from their Summer Institute experience while providing extra support to the conference staff. To that end, we prioritize you being able to attend the majority, if not all, of the programming. Much of the work takes place at the beginning of the conference during registration, between sessions, during breaks, or as part of the sessions themselves. You will also need to arrive one day early to attend the work study orientation meeting and be present to help the first day prior to the event starting that evening. Depending on the number of work study volunteers (we generally have 20-30), we often schedule your time in shifts (day, afternoon, and evening shifts). Long story short, you shouldn’t miss much of the sessions, and should still have plenty of free time as well.
2. I’m not a student or a ministry worker. What are my chances of being awarded a scholarship? While we do offer special consideration to students and ministry workers and faculty members who are presenting a paper in the Academic Roundtable, we very much want to host those who we believe will greatly benefit from their experience at the Summer Institute. Overall, we’d say that about 40-50% of those who receive a work study scholarship are not a student, ministry worker, or faculty member.
3. What type of work will I be doing during the conference? Most of the work study assignments at the conference fall into the following categories and are assigned based on the skills and interests of the work study team members: registration help, technical staging help, ushers, assistants to afternoon seminar leaders, recording audio of afternoon seminars, sales table, information table, human signposts (i.e. pointing out directions to our venues), social media “reporters”/posters, photographers, bookstore, go-fers, management team assistants, and special session help. No matter your assigned jobs, you’ll also be filling in an important role of being our event management team’s eyes and ears, and sometimes feet, to help us keep the conference running smoothly.
4. What is the difference between a tuition grant and a work study scholarship? We only award a small percent of scholarships in the tuition grant category. While anyone may apply, we usually offer the grants to those who specifically need extra time at the conference to do specific academic work, primarily graduate students or faculty.
5. Will I be required to be on my feet the entire day? No. However, some work study assignments do require more walking or standing than others, while others are mostly performed while sitting. Let us know in your application if you have specific physical and/or mobility needs and we will consider this when we assign tasks.
6. I notice you have discounts for faculty, students, and groups. Can I apply for a scholarship and a discounted rate at the same time? Scholarships and discounts cannot be stacked. You can receive one or the other rate.