Travel Grant Guidelines

Travel Grant Guidelines (pdf)

The goal of the ABRCMS Travel Grant is to increase the number of students pursuing advanced training in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. The program offers undergraduate and post baccalaureate students the opportunity to participate in one of the nation’s premier student scientific meetings.

All grantees must be accepted to either present a poster or oral presentations at ABRCMS.  The deadline for abstracts for either posters or oral presentations is September 8, 2006. 

The ABRCMS Travel Grant provides up to $1,500 to cover registration, housing, airfare and ground transportation.  If accepted, the ABRCMS staff will handle conference registration and hotel arrangements. Reimbursement will be provided within 30 days after the conference and upon submission of expense receipts. 

Preference will be given to first time applicants and/or grantees.  Second time applicants will be considered and eligible for complimentary registration only if funds are available. 

Eligibility Requirements

You must be an undergraduate or post-baccalaureate student who fulfills at least one of the following characteristics:  

• From underrepresented or underserved groups in the sciences or

• From community colleges or

• From a minority serving institutions (such as historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions, tribal colleges)

• First generation college students or

• Non-traditional students (e.g. beginning postsecondary education at or after age 21, full time employment, having dependents, taking longer than six years to complete a degree)

AND you must be:

• U.S. Citizen or U.S. permanent resident

• Full-time matriculating undergraduate student at an accredited U.S institution of higher education or a post-baccalaureate student 

• Interested in biomedical or behavioral sciences

• Not a recipient of another travel grant (e.g. NIH, NSF, McNair, FASEB, ACS, APS, ASM and others) 

Note: Graduate students and postdoctoral scientist are not eligible to apply.

Selection Criteria

All applications will be reviewed and evaluated by the following criteria:

• Academic achievement

• Experience conducting independent work

• Interest in biomedical and/or behavioral sciences

• Motivation

Check list

Complete applications must contain:

Part 1- Cover Page

Part 2- Courses and Essays

Answer the next five questions. Please type your responses, using single-spaced line format and 12-pitch type font.  In the upper right hand corner of each pages used, be sure to place your name, school name and page number. Failure to complete this section will result in an incomplete application and will not be reviewed.   

• Courses and Final Grades.  List all the courses taken between August/September 2005 and July/August 2006, the number of credits earned and your final grade in each course. Be sure to label this section “Previous Courses”. Also, list the courses that you are currently taking and the number of credits for each course.  Be sure to label this section “Current Courses”.

• Research.  Describe your research project, including the focus of the research and its relevance to biomedical and behavioral sciences, your role in conducting the research, the extent to which you worked with the research team, and the outcome of your work.  Describe thoroughly and succinctly what you did. How long were you involved in conducting this research? Discuss how you contributed to the overall research question. Do not submit your abstract here.

• Career Planning.  Discuss your plans upon completion of your undergraduate studies.  Why did you choose this career path?  Discuss how you are preparing yourself for achieving these plans.   Be sure to connect your studies with other experiences, such as research opportunities, internships, volunteer work, or employment.

• Professional Skills Development.   Describe any experiences you had attending or participating in campus-wide or regional meetings.  What did you attend and what role did you play?  What did you learn and what impact has it had on your academic and career planning?

• Purpose.   Describe your purpose for attending and plans for preparing for ABRCMS.  Discuss how you plan to demonstrate knowledge and information gained by attending ABRCMS.

Part 3- Letters of Recommendation

• Recommendation from faculty advisor (pdf)

• Recommendation from research advisor (pdf)

It is your responsibility to provide recommendation forms to the individuals providing letters and include the completed letters in your application packet.

A complete application includes cover page, essays, and letters of recommendations from both a faculty advisor and research advisor.  Save and print the cover page. Attach the cover page to the supporting documents, and essays, make six copies of the entire packet, include the two letters of recommendation, and mail in one package to ABRCMS Travel Grant Application, American Society for Microbiology, Education Dept., 1752 N Street, NW, Washington DC 20036. The complete application must be postmarked September 8, 2006.

Contact ABRCMS staff Ronica Rodela at rrodela@asmusa.org or 202-942-9228 if you have questions.

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