William S. Pollitzer Student Travel Awards (2008)
Description of the award:
This is an award of $500 in honor of Dr. William S. Pollitzer. It is designed to help students defray the costs of attending the AAPA meetings. This year, ten awards will be given.
Student qualifications:
This award is open to all AAPA student members (undergraduate and graduate). You do NOT have to be giving a paper to compete or receive an award.
Essay description and submission:
1. The topic of this year’s essay is: Anthropology professors and teaching assistants are often encountering students who state that they can not accept evolution because it collides with their religion. If you were in this situation, how would you encourage the student to learn, while remaining respectful of his/her personal beliefs?
2. The essay can be no more than 750 words long (not including references).
3. The essay will be submitted electronically in Microsoft Word. Any submission over 750 words will be automatically disqualified. The essay will be sent to Dr Simon Hillson at simon.hillson@ucl.ac.uk by January 31st. Students should follow up the e-mail with the attached essay by a regular e-mail alerting Dr Hillson to the fact that the essay was sent. Students should expect to receive within 24 hours an e-mail acknowledging receipt of the essay.
Essay evaluation and scoring procedures:
The AAPA student prize committee will evaluate each submission with an identification number to mask authors’ identities. When distributed to the judges, each essay will be identified by a number assigned by the committee chair. The scoring criteria are:
1. Clarity and focus. 45 points possible
2. Originality of thought and insight. 45 points possible
3. Grammar and spelling. 10 points possible
The average scores from all judges will be used as the basis for deciding the winners of the award, with the AAPA Executive Board giving final approval of the committee’s recommendation. The winners will be contacted by March 1.