SPIE is very generous to its student chapters, which includes financial support. Chapter members thus receive much more than what can be covered by their membership fees alone.
The sources of funding for our student chapter include the following:
– SPIE Activity Grant: Funding is provided proportional to the number of chapter members.
– Membership dues: Most, if not all, of the dues from student members are returned back to our local chapter.
– SPIE Optics Outreach Kit
– SPIE Visiting Lecturer: Travel funds for one speaker chosen by the chapter per year.
– SPIE Officer Travel Grant: Grant to support officers AND chapter members for one SPIE conference per year.
– SPIE Student Scholarships: A core value of SPIE is to use much of the revenue to support students.
Individual scholarships range from $2,000 to $11,000 and many of our student members receive such scholarships (http://spie.org/x84950.xml). Student author travel grants are also available (http://spie.org/x27602.xml).
– Local Companies: The local Rochester optics community has been generous to us as well. Local companies usually sponsor a portion of our company tours.
