CSCA 2018 Conference Scholarships

This scholarship program has concluded.

As part of our Local Chapters Project, the CSCA offered student scholarships to encourage the next generation of thinkers in science and religion.

For the 2018 CSCA Conference, CSCA offered a number of scholarships covering registration, lodging, and travel, with awards of up to $1,600 each for full- or part-time Canadian students.

Across 2016–2018, the program helped Canadian students attend conferences dealing with science and religion. We viewed these scholarships as an investment in the future of science and religion in Canada.

Applications were open to Canadian post-secondary students who were members of the CSCA. Basic student membership was free. Applicants submitted proposals for evaluation by the CSCA Executive Council.

Selection criteria included:

• the suitability of the proposed conference;
• the preparedness of the student for attending the conference;
• whether the student would be speaking at the conference (not required, but helpful); and
• the reasons the student gave for wanting to attend.

Students outside the sciences, including seminary students, were also encouraged to apply. A fruitful science-and-religion discussion benefits from serious contributions from many fields.

Students selected for an award were expected to:

• register for and attend the approved conference;
• pay conference and travel costs up front and submit eligible expenses for reimbursement; and
• write a 500–1,000 word reflection describing how the conference benefited their understanding of science-faith compatibility, for possible publication in a CSCA newsletter or online.

The CSCA could not reimburse travel or other expenses when a recipient did not attend the conference or complete the scholarship expectations.

The Local Chapters Project originally targeted fifteen scholarships over three years. In the end, CSCA provided twenty-eight scholarships: eight in 2016, six in 2017, and fourteen in 2018, when awards focused on the national CSCA conference in Langley, British Columbia.

Many recipients subsequently shared reflections on their conference experiences through the CSCA website and newsletters.