Southeastern Bat Diversity Network Student Travel Award to Annual NASBR Meeting
Purpose
The Southeastern Bat Diversity Network (SBDN) recognizes the importance of preparing students for future employment and furthering their professional development. One of the best ways to foster professional growth in students is to encourage attendance at conferences, particularly if the student takes the opportunity to present results of their research. To this end, SBDN has established a Student Travel Award Program to provide one student per year with financial assistance to attend the North American Symposium on Bat Research (NASBR).
Awards Committee
The SBDN President will appoint a Chair for the Awards Committee. The committee will consist of the chair and 2 SBDN members that will select the award recipient, secure donated funds for the travel award, and otherwise provide oversight for this process.
Award Amount
The maximum award amount will be $1000.00, of which $100.00 will be annually provided by SBDN. The remaining funds will be solicited from external sources by the Awards Committee. There is no guarantee that the entire $100.00 will be available in any given year. Additionally, as this is a merit based award, it may not be awarded every year. These funds can be used by the student for the following travel related expenses: airfare, rental car fees, hotel costs, non-covered meals while attending the meeting, registration fees, and parking fees. Use of these funds for any other expenses must be approved by the SBDN Awards Committee. The student will be required to submit receipts for verification purposes. Receipts must be submitted within six months of the date of the NASBR meeting that the student was awarded the funds to attend.
Student Qualifications
To minimally qualify for this award, applicants must:
- Be an undergraduate or graduate student, enrolled in a university or college within the United States, working on a bat-related project at time of submission
- Preference will be given to students enrolled in a university or college within the Southeastern United States (see SBDN for states within this region)
- Preference will also be given to students working on projects that are physically located in the Southeastern United States
- Submit an abstract for oral or poster presentation at the NASBR meeting that year (abstracts for oral presentation will be given preference)
- Submit an application for this travel award to Chair of the SBDN Awards Committee. This must include: 1) draft abstract that will be submitted to NASBR, 2) a statement of why the student wants to attend the NASBR meeting, 3) a 1-page summary of the student’s overall research objective(s),
4) a curriculum vitae, and 5) a letter of recommendation from the major advisor.
A student may receive this award once during their undergraduate career, and once each during a M.S. and Ph.D. program. Students are eligible to win the award for work from a completed degree as long as no more than one year has passed since the student was awarded the degree.
