AbbVie Opens Voting for 2015’s Thriving Undergraduate or Graduate Scholarship for Students with Cystic Fibrosis

Earlier this week, AbbVie launched the voting contest portion of its yearly AbbVie CF Scholarship program. Everyone in the CF advocacy community and beyond is encouraged to visit www.AbbVieCFScholarship.com today through September 22, 2015 to weigh in on who best deserves this year’s Thriving Undergraduate or Graduate Scholar title and receive a total of $23,000 to pursue their educational dreams during the 2015-2016 school year.

The list of finalists for AbbVie’s scholarship program was put together earlier this year, when 40 exemplary students living with cystic fibrosis were awarded $2,500, based on their academic performance, community involvement, creativity and the ability to serve as a positive role model for the CF community. Each of these students are now vying for public votes to be this year’s AbbVie scholar.

The AbbVie CF Scholarship website (www.AbbVieCFScholarship.com) details each student candidate’s individual accomplishments to help guide the voting process. All profiled students are recognized for participation in their local communities, volunteerism, and fundraising efforts dedicated to cystic fibrosis. Visitors can vote for one graduate and one undergraduate student, either by visiting the website, or by texting the scholar’s unique ID to 23000.

“Winning this scholarship as a graduate student was tremendously helpful in completing my master’s degree in bioethics and certification in clinical ethics mediation at the University of Pennsylvania,” said Emily Kramer-Golinkoff, 2011 Thriving Graduate Scholar and one of nine individuals named White House Champions of Change for Precision Medicine. “My graduate education empowered me to find my voice as a patient advocate and fundraiser in the CF community, and supported the growth of my non-profit CF foundation, Emily’s Entourage, which has raised over $1.5M in 3.5 years to accelerate research for rare nonsense mutations of CF.”

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AbbVie is aware of how battling cystic fibrosis can impose heavy financial burdens on patients and their families. Since 1993, the company has been an active supporter of the CF community and has helped raise over $2.5 million in educational funding for hundreds of students afflicted by the rare disease.

“The AbbVie CF Scholarship is a wonderful opportunity to help fund the educational aspirations of students living with CF and lessen the financial burden so that they can continue to reach for their dreams,” said Jim Hynd, vice president, GI Care, AbbVie. “Over the last 23 years, all of our scholarship recipients have demonstrated great civic engagement and potential as the next generation of leaders in their communities.”

Cystic Fibrosis News Today’s Science and Research Columnist Stephen Shannon is a recent winner of the Abbvie CF Scholarship. Shannon, who is currently studying toward his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, is also a CF’er and writes a blog column about CF science and research entitled Dum Spiro Spero.