Know Your AFCEA Benefits: Student Chapters

AFCEA International offers academic institutions the opportunity to create student chapters as forums for knowledge sharing and discussions about various aspects of communications and information technology. Affiliation with a local AFCEA chapter allows students to network with current and former industry and government employees in these fields. These chapters also enable students to leverage existing chapter corporate relationships to develop internship opportunities, and mentoring may be available through a local chapter’s Young AFCEAN program.

Networking is an important part during the career development stage, but so is access to financial assistance. Student chapter members are eligible to compete for $5,000 in merit-based scholarships sponsored by AFCEA International; either a single $5,000 scholarship or a combination of several scholarships totaling $5,000 are awarded annually.

To increase participation in the student chapters, profiles of the organizations are included in the annual SIGNAL Source Book, which is published in SIGNAL Magazine’s January edition. This issue is distributed to more than 30,000 AFCEA members, including more than 2,000 corporate members, worldwide. In addition, student chapters may submit information for inclusion in Chapter News online, which is published in monthly issues of SIGNAL Magazine.

Forming a student chapter requires a minimum of 10 students and one faculty adviser; all student chapter members and the adviser must be AFCEA members. Academic institutions may request up to 25 complimentary student/faculty memberships to assist in forming the student chapter.

Students and the adviser must sign and submit the Application for Student Chapter Charter. Pending review, AFCEA International’s president and chief operating officer will approve applications.

Nearly a dozen colleges and universities already have student chapters, including the American College of Greece, the Argentine Army University, George Mason University, Anne Arundel Community College, James Madison University and Cochise College.