If you are enrolled full-time at your college or university, AEA has two opportunities to secure travel funding awards to offset expenses to attend AEA's annual conference to be held the first week of November in Anaheim, California. This year, we have two types of travel awards - please be sure to note the different deadlines:

• Presidential Strand Student Travel Awards - Deadline April 14, 2011
• Diversity and Cultural Competence Student Travel - Deadline March 18, 2011

Presidential Strand Student Travel Awards: The Presidential Student Travel Awards (PSSTA) competition this year will focus on evaluation practice, specifically the writing of evaluation proposals. The task will involve developing an overview of key components of an evaluation proposal in response to an actual Request for Proposals (RFP) from 2010. The challenge will be to consider thoughtfully the presence of values in your thinking about this evaluation proposal.

• Click here to download a pdf of the abbreviated RFP from the AEA Public eLibrary 

Content and Format:  Please review the abbreviated RFP carefully. Then present the following:

1. What is the purpose and audience of your evaluation? And with what justification?
2. By what criteria will you judge program success? And with what justification?
3. What overall evaluation design will you use? And with what justification?

Your justifications should include particular attention to the values dimensions of your thinking, in consideration of the 2011 Presidential Strand theme of Values and Valuing.

Your total submission must be no more than 3 single-spaced pages, 12 point font, with a 1 inch margin.

The Award: Up to five winners of this competition will participate in a special conference session at AEA 2011 and will receive a travel reimbursement of up to $1,000 to offset partially expenses incurred to attend the conference.

The Application and Submission Process for the PSSTA:

1. Send an email to Heidi Nye in the AEA office at heidi@eval.org. As the subject line for your email, note "Submission for PSSTA", and in the body of the email indicate the college or university at which you are enrolled full-time.
2. Include your response as a single attached file, by midnight in the Eastern time zone in the United States on Thursday, April 14, 2011.

Diversity and Cultural Competence Student Travel Awards (DCCSTA): Up to six $500 travel awards are available to full-time students submitting conference proposals identifying ways to increase the racial/ethnic diversity of people entering the field of evaluation and/or ways to increase the cultural competencies of evaluators more generally. All students may compete for these travel awards; however, special consideration will be given to students who themselves will increase the racial/ethnic diversity of presenters at the conference. Proposals that do not win will be reviewed as part of the general pool of proposal submissions.

Content and Format: Submit a paper proposal using the submission forms and guidelines found on the online proposal submission page. Please note that you should be the primary author on the submission to be considered for this competition. Your proposal must focus on increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of people entering the field or the cultural competency of evaluators more generally. Only proposals that focus on these issues will be considered.

The Award: Up to five winners of this competition will participate in the AEA annual conference and will receive a travel reimbursement of up to $500 to offset partially expenses incurred to attend the conference.

The Application and Submission Process for the DCCSTA:

1. Submit the proposal itself by the March 18, 2011deadline using the regular conference proposal submission guidelines and forms available online. Select "Multiethnic Issues TIG" as the group to review your proposal.

2. Within 24 hours of submitting your proposal, send an email to Heidi Nye in the AEA office at heidi@eval.org. As the subject line for your email, note "Submission for DCCSTA", and in the body of your email indicate a) the college or university at which you are enrolled full-time, b) your racial or ethnic background, and c) the title of the proposal you submitted.

Questions: Questions regarding either award may be directed to Heidi Nye in the AEA office via email (heidi@eval.org) or via phone at 1-508-748-3326.