About The Scholarship
The Central Valley Bird Club offers competitive scholarships to help young people who are interested in birds to attend birding camps or classes. For all camps, the scholarship will pay a maximum of $2,000 towards the cost of the registration. Transportation will be the responsibility of the participant.
Applicants must be a student member of the Central Valley Bird Club.
Suggested Camps
The following are examples of camps and classes that are eligible for scholarships. If you are interested in a camp not listed here, please contact us.
Audubon Camps
Located off the coast of Maine, Hog Island Audubon Camp has been providing week-long summer ornithology and education classes since the 1940’s. Sessions include Coastal Maine Bird Studies for Teens and Mountains to Sea Birding for Teens, and Arts & Nature for Teens.
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours’ Camp Chiricahua
Camp Chiricahua presents young birders with an extraordinary opportunity to share a mutual love of birds and nature in one of the greatest natural history locations in North America, Southeastern Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains. The camp, sponsored by the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, is designed for campers between the ages of 14 and 18and focuses on the rich birdlife of the region.
American Birding Association Camps
Each year the American Birding Association and its partners offer some fantastic events for young birders, enabling them to get out, discover more about birds, and go birding with others in their age group.
Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center
With a 2,000-acre campus on Minnesota’s North Shore, Wolf Ridge offers an Ornithology Field Camp for students entering grades 10-12 who want to learn about birds and the techniques scientists use to study birds. Campers will experience bird banding and visit a boreal forest setting to see neotropical migrants in their breeding plumage.
Bird Conservancy of the Rockies
On the Wing Overnight Camp in Jamestown, Colorado provides campers ages 15-17 with opportunities to learn about careers in natural resources, spot new lifer species, and create an investigative research question about the things that inspire them.
San Francisco State University – Sierra Nevada Field Campus
San Francisco State University’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus offers several immersive birding-themed workshops each summer, such as Birds of the Sierra Nevada, Birding by Ear in the Sierra, and Beginning Birding, all open to bird lovers of varying experience levels. Each workshop includes expert-led field excursions, classroom instruction, and on-site lodging and meals, all set amid the stunning Sierra Nevada landscape.
How To Apply
The application period will be announced each year on this website and via email to the club membership. Applicants can be expected to submit:
- A letter of recommendation from a teacher, parent, or an adult birding friend that should cover what they know about your commitment to birds and birding.
- A written personal essay that states the importance of birds to you. The essay should not be more than 2 pages long. Do you try to teach others about birds? Do you draw the birds you see? Do you do any survey or volunteer work? Is listing the most interesting thing to you? We want to know about your interest in birds and birding.
If you have questions, please contact us (yellowhammerca@gmail.com).