Education/Scholarships

ABWA is committed to furthering professional development and education for women in business. As such, we offer several opportunities both locally and through our national affiliation for educational programming, scholarships, and grants

Education Committee

Professional Development
Chairperson: Nancy Askins, 716-745-3476
 

Education/Scholarship
Chairperson: Nancy Askins, 716-754-3476


Online Professional Development through ABWA’s WIN Program

Nancy will be working with local businesses, HR managers, local colleges and our publicity chair to promote our professional development courses now available online with your membership at www.abwa.org. You need a login to the ABWA National website, so click here for online contact or call National 1-800-228-0007 to set up your login.

Once your login is set you can gain access to our chapter blog, post notes, post company information, sales with your business, even read our newsletter there.  You also have your own personal login page which tracks your professional development credits and courses.  All the courses available are listed right there and you can start and stop at your leisure.  You have a year to complete these courses online and our local chapter will reimburse the $15 administrative fee national charges to take these courses once you show you’ve completed them all.  Your personal professional development credits are calculated on this page upon completion.  You can opt out of these courses at no charge, if you are over age 65.

You can also gain additional credits as national will accept any back issues of our “Women In Business” monthly magazine.  You can check these out from Jennifer as she has many back issues.  We ask you to read the article and make a copy of the test for answers to send in.  You need to send a $5 check to national with each back issue so they post your credits to your webpage.  Please see Jen for those back issues.  You can also obtain and accumulate CEU credits by attending national and spring conferences with ABWA!


Grants and Scholarships

A very valuable benefit to being an ABWA member is the ability to apply for Business Skills Tuition Reimbursement, Outright Grants, and National Scholarships.


  • Business Skills Tuition Reimbursement provides working women with opportunities to participate in professional development workshops and seminars or non-degree coursework.
  • Outright Grants offers grants for tuition, books and fees up to $1,500 to women seeking funds to be used at the junior level or above at any United States accredited university or college.
  • National Scholarships are in four categories.
    • Presidents Scholarship – $3,000 annual award for graduate study
    • Hilary A. Bufton Jr. / Ruth H. Bufton Scholarship – graduate level studies of $10,000 awarded annually
    • Glorine Tuohey Memorial Scholarship – $3,000 graduate studies annual award
    • National Corporate Scholarships – a minimum of $5,000 each are awarded as received in exceptional curriculum in a designated field of study

For more information or an application for Business Skills Tuition Reimbursement, Outright Grants, or National Scholarships; please email Nancy Askins.

  Stephen Bufton Memorial Education Fund (“SBMEF”)


 Congratulations member Nancy Askins for winning the 2010 scholarship!

The Stephen Bufton Memorial Education Fund is the national scholarship fund of the American Business Women’s Association (“ABWA”). SBMEF was established to help women secure the education needed to achieve their business and professional goals. The fund is named in memory of the son of ABWA founder Hilary A. Bufton Jr. and Ruth H. Bufton.

Amount: $2,000

Criteria:

1. Must be a female college student (45 credit hours or more already completed at time of application).

2. Is a citizen of the United States and resides in Niagara or Erie County in the state of New York.

3. Is applying to an institute authorized to confer degrees at the baccalaureate level or higher in the Unites States or its possessions, territories, or districts.

4. Has achieved a cumulative grade point average (“GPA”) of 2.5 or better on a 4.0 scale.

5. Is sponsored by an ABWA chapter/network, although one does not need to be a member.

For more information on applying, please contact Nancy Askins, Scholarship Chairperson at: npacqm@roadrunner.com.

Students please send Nancy your name, phone number and email address, we will send you back a login and password to our scholarship website at www.sbmef.org

We are no longer accepting paper copies for the scholarship, everything must be submitted through the website.

The winner will be notified in May and asked to attend our chapter meeting to accept the scholarship.