Audiology Foundation of America Endows Student Excellence Award

West Lafayette, IN --The AFA is awarding a total of $40,000 to the AuD programs at Arizona School of Health Sciences and the School of Audiology at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry to endow student scholarship award funds in perpetuity. Although the award is for students in the residential program, these programs grant practitioners returning for an AuD degree advanced credit for demonstrated capabilities, similar to other professions that have gone through a degree transition. The AFA has always regarded this as a key requirement to make the profession's transition successful.

The money for the award will be drawn from the endowment and the size of the award will be based on the income from the investment. It is anticipated that $1000 will be available at each institution annually for the award. The AuD programs selected for the first AFA endowed scholarships reflect those programs whose development most closely adheres to the AFA's original concept for professional education for audiologists.

AFA's AuD educational standards include:

Education in a professional school, as in similar professions such as optometry, dentistry, etc.

No crossover with Speech Language Pathology requirements

No required research component, as in other professional schools

Scientific basis taught by PhDs, and patient care taught by practitioners

Audiologists who are prepared for independent practice upon graduation

One endowed scholarship will be awarded annually in each program to a doctoral candidate during the second half of the third year of AuD study. The money will be used to pay for tuition, books, student fees, required supplies or equipment. The winner of the award will be selected by a faculty committee from the host institution.

Criteria for AFA endowed scholarship:
-Consistently functions at the highest level of clinical acumen within peer group
-Academic ranking within the top fifth of the class
-Essay on meaning of Professionalism (approximately 1200 words)
-Demonstration of commitment to professional organizations (involvement in a minimum of three activities) such as:

1) leadership of student organizations; locally, regionally, or nationally
2) presentations at local, national meetings (not necessarily on scientific or technical matters)
3) active role in promoting profession

"The AFA is pleased to support professional education for future doctors of audiology by providing funds for these endowed awards," according to AFA's Chair, Kenneth L. Lowder, AuD. "We will accept applications for endowed awards from other AuD programs that meet these standards. Funding for these awards came from practitioner's EPAC fees and we want to reinvest some of that money into the profession."