Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders - Questions

Hello Science and Tech guys of ATS.

My daughter, known here on ATS as Cosmicspirit - just received a Certificate of Nomination for Award for the National Academy of Future Science and Technology Leaders Award of Excellence at Harvard University.

Her dream is to become a doctor, join the military, and someday be out traveling space. I tease her she wants to be McCoy.

She was nominated by none other than Buzz Aldrin. However, in order for her to attend, it's a pretty penny to spend for her to be in the program. I was just wondering, how prestigious of an award is this? Is it worth the thousand + dollars I would spend, to send her to the 3 day overnight program, to complete, and receive her award? How much will this help and further her chances in getting into a prestigious college? Does anyone know anything about this program, beside the information I received with her packet?

Thanks in advance for any comments and I hope this is in the right section. I wrestled with whether to put it here or in General Chit Chat - but felt I'd get a better response from people in the know - in the Science & Technology forum.

CdT

a reply to: CirqueDeTruth

Dreams of being a Dr. and joining the military...

Imperialist mercenary and the Hippocratic oath seem to be at odds. no?

a reply to: CirqueDeTruth

I strongly recommend doing some research first.

This sounds remarkably similar to the following story:

National Young Leaders Conference

The company that organized the conference, a direct-mail powerhouse called the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, runs an alphabet soup of such conferences that it says are attended by 50,000 students a year. It solicits recommendations from teachers and alumni of previous conferences, and it culls names from mailing lists, for which the council paid $263,000 in 2006 alone, according to its last filing with the Internal Revenue Service, before it gave up its nonprofit status.

Colleges will look at this and know right away that your parents paid for it, and while your child could have wasted their time doing other things, it isn't necessarily a poor investment, however your mileage may vary.

ETA: here are a few others who have opinions on this as well:

Source

~Namaste

a reply to: InverseLookingGlass

I joined the military to go into Nursing, and heal the wounded.

At no point was I at odd with my calling and the profession in which I carried my calling out within the military. Our wounded soldiers needed and deserve as much care as anyone else.

CdT

a reply to: SonOfTheLawOfOne

Thanks SonOFTheLawOfOne,

Your link helped me put some of this in perspective. I was wow'ed by the 'mentors" of the 2015 program.

Buzz Aldrin, David Wineland PhD (Nobel in Physics) , John C. Mather Ph.D (another physics nobel), Dean of MIT, Stuart Schmill.

It would be nice to go, but with a price tag well over 1000 dollars and really no guarantee that this will further my child's academic career - why bother? I don't have that kind of money to burn. She will just have to be happy with my GI bill I'm bequeathing to her.

Thanks for the input and the link!

CdT

The Academy is proud to provide thousands of full academic scholarships to students who are selected by their teacher or guidance counselor for leadership ability, academic achievement, and dedication to science and technology to attend the Academy's Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders. In addition, the Academy offers nearly half-off, partial scholarships for students to attend the Congress, based on financial need.

National Academy Launched to Inspire and Motivate Future Scientists and Technology

Maybe you don't have to pay so much? In my personal experience congress are a paid vacations so don't expect much from them, curriculum filler at most.