Student and Mentor-Student Travel Scholarship Program

本科生研究经验（REU）项目为本科生提供丰富而有意义的研究经验。作为专业科学家的“学徒”，这些学生接受实践指导，使他们能够在他们的研究领域达到高水平的科学复杂性。所有这些项目都要求学生在当地的校园场地展示他们的研究成果，然而，REU的学生从参加专业会议中受益匪浅，在那里他们可以与各自领域的国内和国际专家会面。此外，他们直接受益于与他们的REU导师一起准备会议演示，并在他们导师的指导下，在国家级会议上与其他专业人员建立联系。正是这种由REU导师促成的“会议”网络，通常是REU学生与他们未来的研究生导师和/或雇主见面的关键组成部分。拟议的学生和导师-学生旅行奖学金计划的目标是为完成生物科学部和海洋科学部支持的研究的学生和学生-导师团队提供旅行支持，以参加国家级会议。该项目建立在先前为240名学生提供参加科学会议的学生旅行奖学金的基础上。以往旅行奖学金的结果显示，获得旅行支助的学生在学习上取得了显著的进步。此外，旅行奖学金项目支持了大量代表性不足的少数民族学生和主要来自本科院校的学生。这些奖学金使学生能够参加科学会议并展示他们的研究，并增加了他们会见未来科学顾问或导师的机会。该奖项将延续成功的学生奖学金，并包括一个新颖的重点，即支持学生-导师团队，其目标是进一步提高与顾问一起参加全国会议的学生的网络能力。

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs provide undergraduate students with rich and meaningful research experiences. As "apprentices" to professional scientists, these students receive hands-on mentorship that enables them to attain a high level of scientific sophistication within their field of study. All of these program require students to present results of their research at local on-campus venues, however, REU students benefit greatly from attending specialized meetings where they can meet national and international experts in their field. Moreover they directly benefit by working with their REU mentor in preparing a meeting presentation and, under their mentor's guidance, making connections at national-level conferences with other professionals. It is this "at meeting" networking, facilitated by the REU Mentor, that is often the key component to REU students meeting their future graduate advisor and/or employer. The goal of the proposed Student and Mentor-Student Travel Scholarship Program is to provide travel support for students and student-mentor teams who have completed research supported by the Diretorate of Biological Sciences and the Division of Ocean Sciences to attend a national-level meeting. This program builds on the results of a prior award that supported student travel scholarships to scientific conferences for 240 students. Results from previous travel scholarships showed significant learning gains for the students who received travel support. Moreover the travel scholarship program supported a significant number of underrepresented minority students and students from primarily undergraduate institutions. These scholarships enabled the students to attend scientific meetings and present their research, and improved their opportunities to meet future scientific advisors or mentors. This award will continue the successful student scholarships and includes a novel focus on supporting student-mentor teams with the goal of further enhancing the networking capacity for students who attend national meetings with their advisors.