Alex's Lemonade Offering New Oncology Student Grants

(ALSF), the Wynnewood nonprofit dedicated to finding cures for all forms of childhood cancer, announced this week the addition of a new summer grant program for graduate and medical students interested in careers in pediatric oncology.

The Pediatric Oncology Student Training (POST) Program is new for ALSF, but the organization has been providing other funding since it was formed more than six years ago.

“We fund medical research grants, but this is the first time we are actually targeting medical students,” explained Gillian Kocher, spokeswoman for ALSF. “We are trying, with young researchers and now even medical students, to encourage their interest in the pediatric oncology field. At this early stage of their path, we want to make sure they know that this is available, that this is out there.”

The deadline for the $6,000 grants is April 15. Students must apply with an official mentor, must be currently enrolled in medical or graduate school, and must be able to dedicate at least eight full weeks to the program, between acceptance and August 31, 2011.

“We’re not even necessarily sure how many we are going to fund,” Kocher said. “It depends on the quantity – and the quality – of the applications.” She added, however, that there would be no more than 10 recipients for the POST grants.

For more information on applying for the grants, click here. 

Alex's Lemonade Stand was founded by pre-schooler Alexandra “Alex” Scott in 2000, and continued in front of her Penn Wynne home after the family moved there so she could be treated at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. By the time she passed away at the age of eight in 2004, her stand and others like it around the country had raised more than $1 million in funding to find a cure for childhood cancer.

(The annual Alex's “Original” Lemonade Stand event at , where Alex was a student, will be held this year on June 11, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Click here for more details.)