The Biology Graduate Student Association & Arlington Scientific Aggie Family Travel Award

Purpose

The purpose of the Biology Graduate Student Association & Arlington Scientific Aggie Family Travel Award (BGSA Travel Award) is to assist graduate students with professional travel not funded through other means, thus enabling graduate students to pursue varied professional development and research activities within their fields. 

The travel award is designed to be available to those students unable to acquire sufficient funding through their labs, departments, individual research grants, and/or the professional society or organizers hosting conferences or events. The funding that BGSA can provide is not designed to cover total travel expenses; therefore, applicants should make an honest effort to seek out additional sources of funding. Students should discuss with their faculty advisor how much funding they will need and what sources of matching funds are available to them. Potential funding sources to consider:

Application Due Dates

  • First Friday of October by 11:59 PM for Fall Semester.
  • First Friday of March by 11:59 PM for Spring Semester.
  • Award recipients will be notified within 2 to 4 weeks after the due date.

Funding Sources

The BGSA Travel Award has two sources of funding:

  • BGSA fundraising events, including annual plant sales and silent auctions.
  • Arlington Scientific Aggie Family Fund.

The final award letter will specify which source your funds are coming from. Please acknowledge the support of BGSA and specify the funding source in produced materials and presentations.

Fundable Expenses

Recipients of the BGSA Travel Award may use funds to pay for eligible professional development and research related travel activities, including professional conferences, meetings, and workshops; and conducting research in the field or at other laboratories, libraries, archives, & museums. 

The maximum amount that may be awarded to any student per award is $1000, but awards ≤$500 are prioritized as outlined in the Selection Process below. Applicants are encouraged to take careful consideration and apply for what is needed while avoiding superfluous budgeting, so that more awards can be given out.

Awardees will work with the department business admin to spend funds from the award index. Award funds must be used within one year of receiving them; please contact the BGSA President and department business admin for exceptional circumstances. 

Applicant Eligibility

  1. Applicants for the BGSA Travel Award must be graduate students in good standing in the Utah State University Department of Biology who have not received the BGSA travel award during the last six-month award cycle.
  2. Applicants must have volunteered for at least one BGSA fundraising event in the last calendar year. This requirement can currently be met by meeting one of the following three contributions (a-c); please contact the BGSA President if you have another activity that you believe fulfills the spirit of the requirement.
    1. Dedicating at least one hour of time helping during a BGSA fundraiser (plant sale, painting pots, potting plants, fundraiser setup and staffing, flyering, etc)
    2. Donating an item to the winter silent auction or other fundraiser
    3. Contributing a design to print on BGSA stickers/shirts/etc

If a student has not met the fundraising requirement in one of the three ways above (a-c), but they have contributed to BGSA’s outreach or community functions during the year (such as volunteering at Science Unwrapped, giving a department seminar talk, or helping to organize or host another BGSA event) they can submit an explanation of why they were unable to help with a fundraiser (e.g. field work, family reasons, etc.) along with a description of the BGSA event they did help with. This exemption will be evaluated by the BGSA President and the Selection Committee and the student will be notified whether they are still eligible. 

Any students who are in their first semester or who are not based at the Logan campus are automatically exempt from the second requirement and are encouraged to apply for the award.

Selection Process

The selection committee consists of three biology graduate student members and two faculty members. The committee members will sign agreements to recuse themselves in the case of conflicts of interest. 

Selection committee members will blindly assess each application according to the criteria and rubric below. Selections will be made based on the compiled scores and comments and will be approved by the department head.

Awards are selected as follows: First, 2-4 awards are selected from the pool of small award applications (≤$500) based on application quality. Next, the unselected small award applications and the large award applications ($501-$1000) are pooled and 1-2 awards are selected from this group based on application quality. Usually, up to $1000-$1500 is awarded in the first pool and up to $1000 in the second; however, this depends on funding availability which may vary between semesters. Partial funding may be awarded.

Selection Criteria

Competitive applications will rigorously demonstrate the benefit of the travel to the student’s research and career development, thoughtful and concrete plans, financial need, and benefits to the department/USU/wider community. All else being equal, preference will be given to students who have not received this award previously. 

Full Rubric

Application Components

  1. Background & Proposed Travel: Describe your long-term professional goals. Clearly explain the proposed travel and the purpose/justification of the trip as it relates to your immediate research/education goals. Expand on the details of the travel with specifics of location, timeline, and activities. (400 words maximum)
  2. Outcomes: Articulate the outcomes of the travel/project and the importance and urgency of the travel. Describe how the outcomes of the travel will benefit your long-term research and personal/professional development. Describe how you will communicate or leverage this travel to benefit the department, USU, and/or any wider community. (600 words maximum)
    1. For the latter, examples include: communicating results of research/workshop at a department seminar, poster session, or community talk; implementing pedagogy skills from a workshop in the classroom; informational pamphlets; science communication at Science Unwrapped; offering a training. Please note that if it is not feasible/reasonable to plan these activities for after completion of the travel (especially for finishing graduate students), you may instead plan a pre-travel activity (e.g. Science Unwrapped, practice talk) or describe how this travel will be a continuation or conclusion of work that has included science communication/community benefits already (e.g. you already gave a research seminar to the department).
  3. Finances: Provide an itemized budget of how travel funds will be used. Include transportation costs, lodging, workshop fees, etc; and brief explanations for costs. Include information on the level of your financial need for this award, including whether you have access to advisor matching or other sources of funding: include amounts and details on whether each source is guaranteed or pending/possible. (1 page maximum)
  4. Faculty Support Letter: The letter should (1) address the academic/professional value of the travel; (2) indicate the student and faculty discussed other possible funding sources (from the department, grants, or associations); (3) specify any lab matching funds or lack thereof available to the student. The support letter should have PI and applicant names redacted. (400 words maximum)
  5. Itinerary: Describe the travel itinerary and a link to an official event website, if applicable. (1 page maximum)
  6. Curriculum Vitae: Attach your CV with your name redacted. Also redact PIs and other identifying information as much as possible. Specifically include whether you have received this award in the past and briefly what the outcomes of prior travel were. (2 pages maximum)

Applications must be submitted in a single PDF file, with 1-inch margins in 12-point, Times New Roman font. The application file should be titled: 

“[Your A#]_[Maximum 5-word project title/keywords]_[current award semester & year].pdf”

E.g., “A0000001_UtahInsectGenetics_Fall2025.pdf”.

Submit Your Proposal

To maintain applicants’ anonymity during the selection process, do not include your name on any documents. Instead, provide your A-number only. (Use the Find and Replace feature to replace all versions of your name). Remove the name of PI and other identifying information as much as possible. After selections are made, the names of recipients will be matched up to their A-numbers.

Questions about the application process can be sent to the BGSA President and Vice-President (2026: gavin.munson@usu.edu, julia.hobbie@usu.edu)

Good luck, we look forward to hearing from you!

On This Page

Rubric

1. Background and Proposed Travel (10 Points)

Criteria 5 3 1 0
Future Research and/or Career Goals The applicant provides a clear, specific description of their research, career, and/or personal development goals (e.g. indicate research objectives, desire to work for a non-profit to achieve _, intention to be an active science communicator by doing _, etc.). The applicant provides a clear but not specific description of their research and/or career goals (e.g. “I want to work in academia” or “I want to work in the private sector”). The applicant may provide a description of their current research but do not clearly state future goals. The applicant does not address future research and/or career goals or objectives.
Nature of Travel The applicant explains the nature of the travel in clear detail, including purpose, location, and timeline. The applicant does not describe the nature of the travel in detail by excluding one of the following: purpose, location, or timeline. Applicant excludes two of the following: purpose, location, or timeline. Applicant does not describe the purpose, location, or timeline of the travel.

2. Outcomes (15 Points)

Criteria 5 3 1 0
Project Outcomes The applicant clearly articulates how the proposed travel will lead to specific, immediate outcomes. The importance and urgency of the travel is evident and the applicant demonstrates a commitment to actively participating (e.g. presenting research and staying up-to-date in their field at a conference; their research requires the skills or training offered by a workshop; etc). The applicant describes the immediate outcomes of the travel but does not demonstrate the importance and urgency (e.g. skills that could be used down the line but that are not immediately necessary to complete the project). Overall, the applicant poorly describes outcomes from the travel. The applicant fails to clearly demonstrate the importance or urgency of their travel. 
Relevance to Personal Goals Applicant clearly explains how this travel will benefit their research and professional development, connecting it to their future goals (e.g. describes importance of networking at the event for future collaborations; the skills acquired in a workshop & how they will be useful; etc.). Can be supported by continuity with CV. Applicant clearly describes how they will benefit from the travel but does not clearly connect it to their future goals (e.g. indicate skills acquired at a workshop but it is not clear how these are connected to the future goals they described). The applicant described personal goals poorly and fails to connect it to the travel. The applicant does not mention future goals.
Benefit of Proposal to Community The applicant provides at least one specific example of how they will communicate or leverage the outcomes of their travel to the department, USU, or any wider community; and demonstrates a commitment to do so (e.g. specifies a date on or by which it will occur or a partnership they’ve formed to carry it out).

OR

If communication after the travel is not feasible: applicant commits to communication or outreach before travel or applicant describes how this travel is a continuation or conclusion of previous science/professional communication or outreach within the department, USU, or a wider community.		 The applicant provides an example of how they will communicate the outcome of their travel but does not demonstrate their commitment to do so (e.g. does not include a date, occasion, or partnership). The applicant indicates the intention to communicate their outcomes but provides no specific examples. The applicant does not indicate an intention to communicate outcomes of their travel.

3. Finances (10 Points)

Criteria 5 3 1 0
Budget The budget is clear, reasonable, and the applicant provides brief details for the amounts requested.  The budget is reasonable but unclear and lacks detail.  The budget is clear but does not reflect efforts to develop a cost-conscious itinerary (e.g. hotel prices are over $200/night).  The budget is not clear nor reasonable.
Financial Need


 The applicant clearly demonstrated their financial need for receiving the award, and their need is substantial: they would likely not be able to carry out this travel without financial assistance. The faculty letter demonstrates convincing financial need and consideration of other funding sources while maintaining consistency with that of the applicant's description. The applicant likely would not be able to conduct the travel without this award; however, the need is not demonstrated clearly or the application insufficiently demonstrates consideration of other funding sources. The applicant’s need is not substantial: they would likely be able to carry out this travel with assistance from their faculty advisor/existing funding and the application does not demonstrate a consideration of other funding sources. There is no mention of need, or it is clear that the applicant does not have financial need.

4. Other (5 Points)

Criteria 5 3 1 0
Merit Overall application quality is exceptional and the proposed activity has strong merit. The proposed travel would clearly help the student professionally and has benefits or outcomes beyond the student (to science/the field, the department, or another community).The faculty letter supports the importance of the proposal. Overall application quality is average, the proposed event would clearly benefit the student.  Regardless of the application quality, the proposed event would clearly benefit the student. The proposed travel is clearly outside the scope of what can be considered professional development (e.g. “ice cream tasting retreat”, “snowboarding trip”, “trip to see grandmother”).