SWAPA 2023

RASNZ SWAPA 2023

The Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ) offers 10 to 15 top secondary students who are NZ citizens or permanent residents and at secondary school anywhere in New Zealand Scholarships to enable them to attend the RASNZ annual astronomy conference. This scholarship is known as Students With a Passion for Astronomy (SWAPA)

The Conference will take place this year in Auckland Friday June 2nd (afternoon) to Sunday 4th June 2023 (about 4 pm). This is King's Birthday weekend.

https://www.rasnz.org.nz/news-events/conference-2023/rasnz-conference

The Scholarships comprise free registration for the conference (value $265), free travel from their home to Auckland*, free backpacker type accommodation in Auckland for 2nd and 3rd June*, and a free banquet ticket for the conference banquet on Saturday 3rd June (value $95). Students in years 13, 12 or 11 may apply.

Successful students will be chaperoned by police vetted adults. If from out of Auckland they will be met at their transport terminal and taken to their accommodation and return at the end of the conference.

*Accommodation and travel only if required for non-Auckland residents.

To be considered,

Information for this year's scholarship and how to apply have been sent to all secondary schools in New Zealand. Please ask your Principal or Head of Science for a copy of this information or email: members@rasnz.org.nz for the forms.

Students must register their interest on a form sent to your school or from RASNZ, including their name, gender, age, school, year of study at school in 2023, city, email address, telephone contact and science teacher’s name, phone and email.

Students should also include a short statement of no more than 300 words explaining why they would like to attend the conference and why they are interested in astronomy. Registrations should be submitted by Friday 7th April 2023, 8 pm.

Successful applicants will be selected from these statements by a panel of RASNZ members. The winners will be selected for a clear enthusiasm for astronomy, their seniority, grammar, spelling and clarity of their submitted statement. 

For more detail see the RASNZ webpage –
https://www.rasnz.org.nz/rasnz-info/students-with-a-passion-for-astronomy