Communicating Psychology

Students who conduct research during the academic year or over the summer often have opportunities to present at regional, national, and international conferences.

Conferences are excellent professional development opportunities for you. In addition to sharing research findings and practicing presentation skills, you begin to develop networking skills by connecting with other academics conducting research in their fields. We strongly encourage you to pursue these opportunities.

Travel to these meetings is frequently funded by a combination of college, department, and grant funds. Many of the college-level summer research fellowships and grants include a small amount set aside for travel to conferences during the summer or the following academic year. In addition, faculty members are able to submit requests for funds from the college to support student travel when the students are presenters or co-presenters on posters or papers.

The Psychology Department also has funds set aside from various sources to support student conference travel. We award small travel grants in amounts ranging from $250-500. Students who have benefited from these funds recently have attended the Symposium for Young Neuroscientists and Professors of the South East (SYNAPSE) annual meetings, the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) biennial meeting, the Society for Neuroscience annual meetings, and the Eastern Psychological Association annual meeting.

If you are interested in submitting a request for funding to the department, first contact your faculty mentor or supervisor on your project. Your request will be passed along to the department chair who will consider requests on a first-come, first-served basis.

We recommend that you use this planning sheet (XLS) to help you plan your conference travel budgets.