[Ica-osgeo-labs] Scholarships

[Alex Mandel]

On 08/20/2014 01:53 PM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I saw a news item[1] that made me wonder if we (Geo for All) could
> create scholarships for students; is it a far stretched dream to imagine
> one scholarship (a one-time payment, plus a plaque) to a single graduate
> student at each of our ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS labs around the world each year?
>  The award would be given to a student who promotes Open Geospatial in
> their education and research, and would be done in the name of the
> supporting organizations (ICA, ISPRS, OSGeo).
> 
> What do you think?  Or has this topic been discussed already?
> 
The idea is reasonable, but generally the process would need to be
discussed and a fund created in order to provide the scholarship. Note,
that small scholarships are not always worth the time and effort for
students to apply. Usually students apply and a board votes on the
distribution of funds based on some criteria. Rarely do they come with a
plaque.

For example my friend got a $1000 scholarship once with a requirement to
present findings at the yearly conference. Traveling and attending the
conference would have cost more than the $1000.

> Could this in fact be made into a 'requirement' for becoming an
> ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS lab?
> 
That would be a burden that excludes many of our existing labs,
especially the ones that aren't at research/educational institutions.

> -jeff
> 

The funding should come from outside sources not the Institutions (who
probably can't allocate money that want anyways). Ideally a fund could
be set up by OSGeo, take donations into the fund specifically and then
the interest from the fund could be used to provide the scholarship on a
yearly basis. Thats the only reasonably sustainable way to to do it.

I'd say the role of the ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS lab in this is to govern (supply
professors who read and decide on the allocation) and encourage the
applications of students.

Thanks,
-- 
Alex Mandel

Geography Graduate Group
http://ggg.ucdavis.edu
Information Center for the Environment (ICE)
http://ice.ucdavis.edu
University of California, Davis