Many HAPS members, especially those who have recently joined, aren’t aware of what the HAPS Foundation is or the various grants, scholarships, and awards funded through the Foundation and its scholarship partners. We thought it would be a good idea to write a few blogs to insure all HAPS members know what benefits are available to them. This first Foundation blog will provide the big picture. Following blogs will concentrate on the grants, scholarships, and awards in more detail.
In 2009, the HAPS membership voted to establish a Foundation, whose purpose would be to generate funds to be used to provide grants, scholarships, and awards to deserving HAPS members. These awards would support attendance at the annual conferences, provide tuition for HAPS Institute courses, and encourage scholarly activities in our members. A Foundation Oversight Committee was also formed. At the time, there was a separate Grants and Scholarships committee. Subsequently, these two committees were combined to form the current Foundation Oversight Committee.
Since its inception, the Foundation, along with its sponsoring scholarship partners, has funded dozens of awards and accumulated over $50,000 in Foundation endowment capital. Our goal is to grow the endowment to $100,000. To that end, the HAPS Board has committed to funding $5,000 in annual awards going forward to enable all donations to the Foundation to augment the endowment capital.
In this fiscal year, that $5,000 HAPS donation, along with funding from our scholarship partners AD Instruments, Primal Pictures, and Thieme Publishers has made it possible to grant in excess of $10,000 to HAPS members through the following scholarships and awards:
- HAPS-I scholarships
- Robert Anthony Faculty Scholarship(s)
- Adjunct Faculty Scholarship(s)
- Faculty Grant Award(s)
- Student Grant Award(s)
- Graduate Travel Award(s)
- Sam Drogo Technology Award(s) (funds provided by AD Instruments)
- Thieme Excellence in Teaching Award (funds provided by Thieme Publishers)
- Primal Pictures Scholarship (funds provided by Primal Pictures)
To read more about these scholarship and award programs, visit the grants webpage.
Our next Foundation blog will tell you more about each scholarship and how you, as a HAPS member, can apply for them.
Our endowment grows solely through the contributions of our members. Please consider making an online donation. Donations of any amount are welcome- we can all make a difference!
Bob Crocker and Don Kelly, Foundation Oversight Committee Co-chairs