Iowa Young Birders is committed to encouraging the development of young birders and we are excited to offer a scholarship of up to $500 to one or more Iowa young birders interested in attending an ABA camp or other approved birding camp. The ABA Young Birder Camps typically fill early each year. If you are interested, we encourage you to register as soon as possible with the ABA. Once you are registered and know you have a spot, we encourage you to apply for our scholarship. Scholarships are available to any young birder who is a resident of Iowa and is ages 13 to 18 (the age range eligible for the ABA camps). Young birders need not be a member of Iowa Young Birders nor do they need to show financial need.

In addition to this application, you will be asked to submit an essay written by the young birder applicant of no more than 750 words describing your most memorable Iowa birding experience and how it has changed their thoughts, ideas, or outlook on conservation. You will need to copy and paste the text of your essay into the appropriate box at the end of this application. We suggest you write the essay and save it as a Microsoft Word document, then copy and paste the text into the box rather than writing the essay directly into the box on the application. The essays of successful scholarship applicants will be published online by Iowa Young Birders.

Applications will be reviewed by Iowa Young Birders staff and Board of Directors. Receiving the scholarship is contingent upon confirmation that you have been selected to attend the camp. Once your confirmation is received, Iowa Young Birders will make a payment in the amount of your scholarship directly to the organization hosting the camp against your camp tuition. The deadline to apply for the Iowa Young Birders Camp Scholarship is February 1.

We hope to notify you regarding the status of your application soon after the application deadline. If you have any questions about this application or about the scholarships in general, please contact Tyler Harms, Executive Director of Iowa Young Birders (tyler@iowayoungbirders.org).

NOTE: MANY CAMPS FILL EARLY; WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO APPLY TO YOUR DESIRED CAMP(S) AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.