NAMA Scholarships

OUR SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Dr. James C. Curry Foray Scholarship

All 2026 Dr. James C. Curry Foray Scholarship funds have been disbursed.

This scholarship is generously funded by Dr. James C. Curry, with a total $6,000 available! The goal of this scholarship is to help defray the cost of attending a foray, especially for youth attendees and attendees in need.

$4,800 of that will be given to NAMA’s member clubs and associations to fund scholarships to their own local and regional forays.
$1,200 of that will be used to subsidize travel to NAMA forays.

NAMA is charged with selecting 16 NAMA-affiliated clubs this fiscal year and providing them with $300 each. Each NAMA-affiliated club is authorized to administer the scholarship as they see fit but should award the scholarship within 12 months to help an attendee or an attendee in need to attend a mushroom foray. Funds may be used to send an attendee to a NAMA event. Checks will be made out in the Affiliated Club’s name and need to be cashed within 60 days.

All NAMA-affiliated mushroom clubs are eligible to apply! NAMA will award funds on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are exhausted; clubs that are not selected will automatically be eligible in the 2027/2028 fiscal year if the scholarship repeats.

Learn more about this scholarship in this Mycophile Quarterly article >

NAMA/MSA Memorial Scholarship

The NAMA Memorial Fellowship was established to commemorate an amateur or professional mycologist designated annually by the NAMA Board of Trustees. The award consists of a $2,000 grant to a graduate student in mycology on the basis of scholastic merit, research ability, and promise shown as a mycologist. The student is selected and the award is administered by the Mycological Society of America. The requirements are the same as those for the MSA Graduate Fellowships, with the additional stipulation that the Fellow provides an article for McIlvainea.

NAMA Memorial Scholarship Recipients and Honorees

2024 - Rachel Berner
2023 - Syrena Whitner (in honor of Dr. Tom Volk)
2022 - Benjamin Lemmond (in honor of Oldriska "Oluna" Ceska)
2021 - Rachel Swenie (in honor of Judy Rogers)
2020 - Carolina Piña Páez (in honor of Pat Lewis)
2019 - Mara DeMers (in honor of Gary Lincoff)
2018 - Jacob Golan (in honor of Herbert Pohl)
2017 - Cat Adams (in honor of Pat Brannen)
2016 - Brian Looney (in honor of Hildegard Hendrickson)
2015 - Rachel Koch (in honor of Patrice Benson)
2014 - Marisol Sánchez-García
2013 - Cesar Herrera (in honor of Ernst Both)
2012 - Dimitrios Floudas (in honor of Laurence Stickney)
2011 - Vincent Hustad (in honor of Ben Woo)
2010 - Valerie Wong (in celebration of the 50th anniversary of NAMA)
2009 - Jennifer Kerekes (in honor of Elsie Knighton)
2008 - Jo Anne Crouch (in honor of Orson K. Miller, Jr.)
2007 - Todd Osmundson (in honor of Bill Cibula)
2006 - Bryn Dentinger
2005 - no award given
2004 - Jeri Lynn Parrent
2003 - no award given
2002 - Admir Giachini (in honor of Leo Tanghe)
2001 - P. Brandon Matheny (in honor of Kent & Vera McKnight)
2000 - Steven Trudell, University of Washington-Seattle (in honor of Chuck Barrows)
1999 - Cameron Currie (in honor of Helen V. Smith)
1998 - John Paul Schmitt (in honor of Harry Lubrecht)
1997 - Daniel L. Czerderpiltz, University of Wisconsin (in honor of Dr. Rolf Singer)
1996 - James E. Johnson, University of Tennessee (in honor of Ellen Trueblood)
1995 - Greg Saenz, University of California-Berkeley (in honor of Dr. D.H. Sam Mitchel)