» About the Program

About the Program

Since its inception in 1987, the APS Minority Travel Fellowship Program has awarded 665 travel fellowships to 470 undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students and to faculty members at minority institutions. It is an effective program model that capitalizes on a critical impact point where professional societies can make a real difference -- catalyzing the development of important professional networks for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral minority students in physiology and biomedical research that can increase their retention in these fields.

Professional societies can play a key role in this process. When the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment examined the educational "pipeline" for scientists, they cited "acculturation to the research environment" as a key factor in graduate education: "[T]he graduate student is not only a student and scientist in training, but an apprentice researcher as well" (1988, p. 69). Unless students, including minority students, are welcomed into this "apprenticeship," their chances of success are limited. The APS program focuses on building early networks for these students both with other students and with established researchers. The program includes the following activities:

• Travel Support: Meeting registration, travel, and per diem are provided for each fellow to attend the APS annual meeting and/or APS conferences.
• Meeting Mentors: Each fellow is paired with a meeting mentor - an APS member who is an established researcher, usually in the same research area. More than 60 APS members volunteer each year to be mentors. A number of mentors -- now established minority researchers with their own graduate students -- were past Travel Fellows themselves. Typically, the mentor not only meets with the fellow at the orientation session, but recommends important scientific sessions to attend, introduces him/her to colleagues, attends his/her poster, and often meets with the student for coffee and conversation.
• Orientation Session: Fellows and mentors attend an orientation session on the evening prior to the start of the scientific sessions. The orientation is followed by a reception for all current and past Travel Fellows and Porter Physiology fellowship recipients. This has proven to be an exciting and dynamic networking session, providing a meeting ground for new physiology students with established minority researchers and for established researchers to reconnect with colleagues.
• Scientific and Career Sessions: During the EB meeting, fellows not only attend scientific sessions, but also receive special invitations to attend APS and FASEB Career Center workshops on career opportunities (including opportunities in industry and government) and professional skills development (e.g., writing abstracts, writing and reviewing for journals, working with the media); grant programs; support programs for minority scientists; and networking sessions for women scientists. These events provided fellows with additional opportunities to further expand their professional skills and network.
• Networking Breakfast: Fellows and meeting mentors are not always to meet at the orientation session. Therefore, the APS initiated an informal (drop-in) breakfast for Fellows and mentors to provide a second meeting time. Materials are provided on each table to stimulate discussion and a continental breakfast is served.
• Travel Fellows Luncheon: The EB meeting program for the fellows and their mentors concludes with a luncheon at which an established minority scientist presented a talk on a topic of interest to the fellows.