BEAM Fund Provides Aid to Undergrad Mentees

Undergraduate students have enough to worry about just getting through E&M, thermodynamics, and lab courses; emergencies happen, however, and they can turn life upside down. But now students in the APS National Mentoring Community (NMC) can get emergency financial assistance.

On August 1, the APS BEAM (Bringing Emergency Aid to Mentees) Fund began offering small grants to provide undergraduate mentees with monetary support to help them complete their degrees. And the fund offers rapid response: If approved, students can obtain funds as quickly as two days after they apply.

To be eligible, students must be pursuing an undergraduate degree in physics or a closely related field, and they must be part of the NMC as a mentee (for more on how to participate visit the NMC at aps.org/nmc). Among the things that can be paid for with the emergency funds are medical expenses, childcare, transportation, and tuition. For complete information on allowable expenses and how to fill out an application, see the BEAM website at aps.org/programs/minorities/nmc/nmcbeam.cfm.

The BEAM fund was made possible in part with a grant from the Kenton and Amy Brown Fund of the Winston-Salem Foundation. Such generosity is only one of many ways to support APS programs. If you too would like to make a difference in the lives of others, please contact APS Director of Development Irene Lukoff (lukoff@aps.org).