For Students

As part of our ongoing efforts to encourage and support the next generation of wetland scientists and practitioners, we offer several opportunities for students to develop skills that will help them in their wetland careers. Participating as a student (either by presenting or attending) is also a wonderful opportunity to network with wetland science professionals.

See below for more information on the opportunities we offer for students at the Wetland Science Conference.

Student Scholarships

As we have in recent decades, we expect to offer a limited number of student scholarships that will cover the full cost of registration in exchange for a nominal amount of volunteering during the conference. Priority for these scholarships will be given to students who are presenting at the conference (oral or poster presentation); however, you need not be presenting in order to apply.

Applications are due January 20, 2025.

 

Registration Fee Discount for Students

If a scholarship isn’t for you, we offer a 50% discount on registration fees for students. Details here.

Student Presentation Competition

To encourage high-quality student presentations, we host a student presentation competition, awarding a cash prize to the best oral presentation and to the best poster presentation by a student. Current students and recent graduates who are presenting their student research at the conference are eligible to participate. Those interested in participating should indicate this when submitting their abstracts.

The information below provides an overview of the types of attributes on which presentations and posters are evaluated.  The criteria for the 2024 Wetland Science Conference student competitions is subject to change.

The 2025 Student Competition Evaluation Rating Criteria
 
Scientific Content

Title and Abstract

  • Title and abstract informative, concise, well-written, and correlates with presentation

Content

  • Introduction & background with pertinent literature cited
  • Objectives clearly stated & concise
  • Materials & methods (study design) clear & concise
  • Results & discussions clear, concise, logical & accurate
  • Significance of results to field of study
 
Poster Display or Oral Presentation

Organization

  • Logical order, minimum redundancy, effective use of space, good transition between sections, pieces tie together

Text, Figures, and Tables

  • Legible with large fonts, color contrast, no conflicting backgrounds
  • Text without grammatical errors; not excessively wordy
  • Effective use of photos, figures and/or tables, coordinated with text