A new scholarship program from the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes(FLASH) and its partners will take the study of mitigation tohigher education for the first time ever.

“We're creating an educational link between traditionaldisciplines that support mitigation–like meteorology, insurance,construction and engineering–as a field of study and practice,”says FLASH President and CEO Leslie Chapman-Henderson.

The scholarship program was unveiled during a leadership dinnerand tribute to the three-year success of StormStruck: A Tale of Two Homes, a popular interactivesevere weather experience at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot at theWalt Disney World Resort. StormStruck is sponsored byFLASH and four of its partners: RenaissanceRe Holdings Ldt.,Simpson Strong-Tie and State Farm.

The scholarships are in keeping with the mission of theStormStruck experience, which is to provide “edu-tainment”to consumers about the importance of preparing their homes forsevere weather impacts.

One $1,500 annual scholarship will be awarded in each sponsor'sname. All five scholarships are available for the next three yearsto master and doctorate-degree students for various areas of studyrelated to disaster mitigation, and are as follows:

• RenaissanceRe® Risk Management Scholarship – forstudents performing research on the identification, assessment orprioritization of risk as it relates to natural disasterliabilities.

• Simpson Strong-Tie® Structural Engineering &Construction Scholarship – for students performing research onresilient construction materials or techniques.

• State Farm® Financial Services Scholarship – forstudents performing research on financial analysis, investmentmanagement or corporate finance as they relate mitigating theeffects of, responding to or recovery from natural disasters

• The WeatherPredict Consulting Inc. MeteorologyScholarship – for students performing research on meteorologyor meteorological risk modeling as it relates to naturaldisasters.

• FLASH Social Science Scholarship – for studentsperforming research on behavior change, societal effects or othersocial aspects as they relate to natural disaster mitigation orpreparation.

For details on the open application process, interestedindividuals are encouraged to visit www.flash.org. This year's applicationprocess opens Dec. 1, 2011 and closes Feb. 15, 2012.

Scholarship awardees will be notified in March regarding theirselection as 2012/2013 recipients. Winners will be recognized atthe 2012 FLASH annual meeting at which they will be required topresent their research findings as posters.

Source: www.flash.org