Five Scholarships Awarded for 2008 SVU Annual Conference in San Diego

LANHAM, MD, April 28, 2008 – Thanks to a generous $5,000 educational grant from Philips Healthcare, Bothell, WA, as part of their Platinum Sponsorship of SVU’s 2008 Annual Conference, SVU was able to provide five of its members with a $1,000 scholarship to attend the 2008 Annual Conference in San Diego, California.

Earlier this year SVU members who were interested in attending the 2008 Annual Conference by could not afford to so on their own were invited to submit an essay of 400 words or less explaining why SVU should award them with one of five $1,000 scholarships to help pay for their 2008 AC registration, air travel, hotel and meals. A total of 13 members submitted essays by the March 24, 2008 deadline.

A panel of judges made up of SVU Fellows reviewed the “blind” essays (with the names of the members removed) solely on the quality of the essays (including grammar and spelling), where the members are in their vascular career, how attending the AC will help them grow professionally, and the reasons for their financial need for an AC scholarship.

The judges selected the following five SVU members to be the recipients of a $1,000 scholarship each to attend the 2008 SVU Annual Conference in San Diego:

• Kayla Bess of Sacramento, CA
• Marina Dvorkin of East Brunswick, NJ
• Jenifer Kidd of Laguna, New South Wales, Australia
• Jennifer Vener of Lee, MA and
• Allison Klingenberg of Bemidji, MN

Congratulations to these five 2008 AC scholarship recipients; see you in San Diego in June.

Thanks to the 8 other SVU members that submitted essays for the 2008 AC Scholarships, but not selected to be a recipient of one. And special thanks to Philips Healthcare for making these AC scholarships possible with their $5,000 educational grant to SVU for the fourth year in a row.