About ABA Diversity Scholarship

The Diversity Scholarship focuses on broadening the number of traditionally underrepresented groups in the management and operation ranks of the transportation, travel, and tourism industry.

Scholarship Qualifications

• This scholarship focuses on broadening the number of traditionally underrepresented groups in the management and operation ranks of the transportation, travel and tourism industry.
• You must be a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, or graduate student at an accredited University.
• You must have a declared major or course of study relevant to the travel and tourism industry. Travel and tourism encompass a varying range of professions from accounting to hospitality management and everything in between. In other words, please apply rather than ruling yourself out because of your major.
• You must demonstrate your diversity (this includes varying cultures, socioeconomic backgrounds, nationality, minorities, age, race, or ethnicity) to evaluators.

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Application  Requirement 

Applicants are required to submit a 500-word essay discussing the role they hope to play in advancing the future of the transportation, motorcoach, travel, and tourism/hospitality industry.

Terms of Scholarship 

For all scholarships, recipients must enroll as full-time undergraduates in the fall of the year in which the scholarships are awarded. The scholarships will be applied to educational expenses at any accredited, nonprofit college or university in the United States or Canada, or at a school that offers programs related to the travel or tourism industry.

A student may transfer from one college to another and retain the award. There is a new competition for these awards each year. Scholarship winners may reapply each year if the employee or the student’s parents continue to be employed by ABA members.

Winning a scholarship one year does not necessarily ensure that the recipient will win the following year, but preference is given to past winners.

Selection Process 

Evaluators select winners based on their academic merit, extracurricular activities, and anticipated financial need. All applicants are notified of the competition results in June. An impartial selection committee of educators is responsible for ranking and choosing the winners.

Award of Scholarship 

Winners are announced via online and printed publication and press release in June or July of the application year. Scholarship winners will receive formal acceptance packets that include marketing release forms and guidelines for funds distribution.

Checks are be mailed to each recipient’s home address and are be made payable to the college or university only. Checks are be issued in August and December.

Recipients must enroll as full-time undergraduates in the fall of the year in which the scholarships are awarded and continue in school for the entire academic year without interruption, barring illness, emergency, or military service. Scholarship recipients are responsible for making certain that their scholarship checks are delivered to the proper office at their college or university.

FAQ About Scholarship 

An impartial selection committee of educators is responsible for ranking and choosing the winners. Winners are judged on their high level of academic achievement, character, leadership, financial need, and commitment to advancing the transportation, travel, and tourism industry. Applicants affiliated with ABA-member companies receive additional consideration.

How to Apply?

Online application

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