Botany Scholarships
Learn All About Plant Life
The study of botany covers the gamut of plant life around the globe and engages students whose interests lie in forestry or tropical rainforest botany. You will find scholarships are plentiful through biology departments at colleges and universities everywhere and we have only hit the tip of the iceberg.
Botany students, though they may leave off with a Bachelors degree, often continue in their education with Masters and even Ph.D. degrees depending on the type of work they are pursuing. The more academic the work, the higher the degree.
Private Funds
The Garden Club of America is much more than your neighborhood geranium-planters would lead you to believe. The GCA has grown into an international force whose mission includes philanthropic and educational support endeavors. The following scholarships designed for botany majors are competitive and generous:
- Grad students with an interest in English botany and horticulture may qualify for the GCA Interchange Fellowship and Martin McLaren Scholarships. Applicants must be willing to spend a year abroad studying British horticulture.
- Katherine M. Grosscup Scholarships go to financially needy students who are enrolling in horticulture or botany programs. Eligible applicants must be residents of certain midwestern states to qualify. Awards are up to $3,000.
- Medicinal botany, or ethno botany, is a steadily growing field committed to the preservation and wise use of medicinal plants. Ph.D. candidates in this field of study may apply for the Anne S. Chatham Fellowship in Medicinal Botany. Recipients will conduct research at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Awards are up to $4,000.
- Undergraduate students in Medicinal Botany also have the opportunity for funding with the Zeller Summer Scholarship in Medicinal Botany. Awards are $1,500 for a summer term.
- Botany students yearning for advanced summer studies in field botany may apply for funding from the GCA Summer Scholarship in Field Botany. Up to $1,500 is given for students wishing to conduct summer terms in the U.S., Central or South America.
- Ph.D. applicants interested in the rainforest and the tropics may qualify for the GCA Awards in Tropical Botany. Recipients may use the $5,500 to fund study abroad that may be crucial to their research.
College Scholarships
The University of Memphis Department of Biology recognizes those outstanding students in the department who are concentrating in Botany. Applicants must have proven academic excellence and be willing to compose an essay related to their career goals and desire for the funding to be considered for the $1,000.
Weber State University in Utah offers it Botany majors a number scholarships most of which demand recipients exhibit a stellar academic record in concert with professional motivation:
- Botany Faculty Scholarships are meted out by the department heads, and funded exclusively by faculty members. These are partial tuition scholarships.
- When the Botany Club has its plant sales, remember that your purchase goes toward supporting scholarships. The Botany Club Scholarship is funded from the sale, so award amounts vary.
- A modest $250 award is granted through the McKell Scholarship, named for a former faculty member.
Botany majors at Eastern Michigan University may qualify for the Richard A. Giles Botany Scholarship, which awards up to $1,000. Criteria include a certain number of credit hours spent in general biology coursework. Applicants must write an essay on their educational and career goals and have a faculty reference. Freshmen are not eligible.
Colorado State University’s botany program is part and parcel of the Biology department. Students may earn undergraduate or graduate degrees in the major. Botany-specific scholarships include:
- Bruno Klinger Memorial Scholarship preferably goes to an undergraduate botany major with a record of academic excellence and a proven economic need for the award.
- William Kreutzer Scholarship also recognizes outstanding academics in the major. Awards are $500.
