Current juniors turned in their applications for the John Near Endowment in U.S. History and the Mitra Endowment for the Humanities scholar program on Wednesday online or at the library.

The Near and Mitra programs aim to aid students with the historical research topic they are interested in. The history department and library department selected ten students last year and provided them with a San Jose Public Library card and access to San Jose University resources.

“I think it is an unique opportunity for high school kids to study for a year, and with the guidance of a subject teacher and librarian to help them find the best resources, think about their question in the deepest way, make sure they can pursue the actual interest they have,” library director and co-director of the Near and Mitra program Susan Smith said.

The history department established the Near scholar program in 2009, and sponsors research grants to students each year on topics focused on U.S. History. The Mitra program, sponsored by the Mitra family, was established in 2011 and focuses on world history and the humanities, including literature, art, music and social sciences.

“I think what is more remarkable about [the projects] is just the sheer diversity of topics,” librarian Lauri Vaughan said. “When it first started out they were very much history topics, then there were music topics dance topics, economics topics and now anything anybody dreams up of can be supported.”

Junior Misha Tseitlin hopes to use this opportunity to look further into his own personal identity and heritage.

“My topic stemmed from questions of my ethnonational identity as a Chechen,” he said. “I really liked the idea that I’d be able to get an opportunity to investigate it from an academic point of view and write a full-length research paper on it.”

Junior Raymond Xu based his proposal on research he has done on the World Bank and the exogenous growth model created by Nobel Laureate Robert Solow, which is a main theory in developmental economics.

“Developmental economics and political economics can be combined in an interdisciplinary approach to address pressing social and humanitarian issues such as aid in the developing world,” he said. “Understanding incentives can accelerate the pace of poverty reduction in the Global South by preventing the distortion of aid.”

The library and history department will release the list of next year’s Near and Mitra scholars either Friday next week or the following Monday during school meeting. Selected students will meet with their mentors and librarians to develop a research plan for the summer.