AAAOM-SO Announces Scholarship Program

Call for Exhibition and Scholarship Program Entries
By Elisa Behnk, VP of Communications

The AAAOM-SO today announced the Scholar Exhibition, an annual scholarship award program providing individual students and local Chapters with the opportunity to gain professional recognition and earn scholarship funds for their original work.

A designated exhibition area at the 2009 AAAOM Conference Student Caucus in Sacramento will host this year’s competition entries in the form of table-top and poster presentations. From the entries, three scholarships of $250 each will be awarded in two exhibition categories: Scholarly Projects and Chapter Projects.

“This scholarship program is designed first and foremost to promote excellence and integrity in field of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine,” said AAAOM-SO President Jolene Habeck. “The second aim is to recognize individual AAAOM-SO member and Chapter outreach initiatives in the service of AOM.”

Two project categories encompass:
Scholarly Projects—Original work related to student education in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Topics could range from classical studies to primary research into AOM treatments, secondary research on Western medical knowledge, or public policy research that impacts AOM. Projects will be professionally judged on the basis of exhibition presentation and impact, relevance of the topic to AOM, topic originality, and the quality and depth of scholarship.

Chapter Projects—Local fundraising, public relations and community service projects. Individual and Chapter entries could include events designed to raise awareness of and/or funds for the local Chapter, health fair presentations about AOM, community service campaigns, local government outreach efforts or local AOM media awareness campaigns. Projects will be professionally judged on the basis of exhibition presentation and impact, community impact, success in meeting stated goals, and project originality.

The scholarship recipients will be featured in the post-Conference issue of The American Acupuncturist.

To be considered for the 2009 Scholar Exhibition, student members and Chapters must submit 1,000-word abstracts to the AAAOM-SO, by March 31st, 2009. Students will be able to apply online at aaaomonline.org, in the coming weeks. Look for more up to date information in the January edition of the Qi Unity Report.