An award has been made to the University of Massachusetts Boston to manage, in collaboration with the BIO REU Leadership Committee, the BIO REU Travel Scholarship program. Travel scholarships will be provided to students who have participated in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, especially those programs funded or co-funded by the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO). These travel scholarships will ensure that students experience the full scope of "doing science" by affording them the opportunity to present their work to their scientific peers. The goal of the Travel Scholarship Program is to provide financial assistance to undergraduate researchers to enable them to present their work at a national scientific meeting. Students will apply for funds on-line at www.bioreu.org. A committee of REU mentors will review the applications, which include the student's abstract of the research, letters of recommendation from the research mentors and/or REU site directors, and an essay on the anticipated professional development outcomes of attendance and presentation. Awards will be based on the application and the potential impact of the travel scholarship on the student's career, with priority given to participants of BIO funded or co-funded REU programs. Selected papers will be featured in the www.bioreu.org website in order to communicate the results of the research to the broader scientific community and the public. This project will assess the impacts of the activity on the students' career choice. Additional information is available at www.bioreu.org or by contacting Dr. Robyn Hannigan (Robyn.Hannigan@umb.edu).
The Biological Sciences Research Experiences for Undergraduates Leadership Council (BIO-REU LC), supported, through this award, travel schoalrships for BIO REU students to present their research at scientific meetings following the completion of their summer REU experience. The program supported travel, registration, etc. of 180 undergraduate students from across the US who shared their research with scholars in their disciplines. Through this experience students were deep engaged in a critical culminating experience - presenting their research to scholars in their field. Scholarship awardees gained significant professional development experiences including networking. Students supported by the program include over 60% undrerepresented minority students and 68% female students. Participation in these meetings by diverse students ensures that diversity of the biological sciences is maintained and expanded and that scientific societies engage young scholars in the importance of communicating their research. Assessment of student learning gains following the meeting showed that the expereince provided students with stronger connections to their disicpline and provided them the confidence and connections to remain in the sciences upon graduation. The program supported students whose research was representative of the broad interdisciplinary nature of the biological sciences. Moreover the scholarships engaged students from small primarily undergraduate institutions and community colleges who would otherwise not have access to participating in a major scientific meeting.
