Awards

First Place          $150.00 Cash Award

Second Place     $100.00 Cash Award

Third Place         $ 50.00 Cash Award

Student Eligibility

1. Radiologic Science, Radiation Therapy, Ultrasound, Nuclear Medicine and MRI students in an accredited Radiologic Science or Medical Imaging Program who are not already registered or certified in a primary modality are eligible to enter this competition. If a student is registered or certified after the entry deadline but prior to the award announcement, the student will retain eligibility.
2. The student must be a TXSRT member by March 1, 2021 and at the time of the 2021 Annual TXSRT online membership applications can be found at www.txsrt.org
3. TXSRT reserves the right to limit the number of essays for this competition to 25.  The first 25 essays which meet these rules and regulations will be accepted.  Any additional essays will be accepted on a space available basis at the discretion of the essay chair. Educators and students will be notified of any limitations by the Vice President of TXSRT via email as the deadline for submission approaches.

Application Process

1. Applications will be accepted between February 1 and March 1, 2021.
2. The student must complete an online 2021 Application for the Award of Merit Competition that is available below.
3. While filling out the application, the student will upload the following: 

• • The complete essay in Microsoft Word format (docx)
  • Program Director verification letter of the student status. The attached letter from the Program Director must be on college/school letterhead and must be dated no later than March 1, 2021.

4. Please upload both required documents at the same time with the application.
5. A student may submit only one essay, during the 2021 Annual Meeting and only one (1) student author per essay.
6. If the student is participating in more than one contest, each contest requires a separate entry form.

Essay Requirements

1. The essay shall include the following:

• • A properly formatted title page (separate page)
  • A 150-250 word abstract (separate page)
  • The body of the paper containing an introduction, methods, discussion, and conclusion sections.
  • An AMA or APA formatted reference list (separate page)
  • An appendix with any figures, graphs, or other artwork, properly cited if warranted (separate page)
  • 10 multiple choice questions with an answer key

2. The essay must be Microsoft Word docx format, double-spaced, and typed using one (1) inch margins on all sides.  Acceptable font styles are Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, or Courier in a 12 point font size. Either APA or AMA formatting will be used for all references and in-text citations.
3. All figures, graphs, photographs, and illustrations must be placed in an appendix at the end of the essay and referred to within the text. If any of the above is from an outside source, it must be cited properly
4. The essay must be an original composition of the student. Plagiarism of any type will result in disqualification. org is an excellent website to consult if the student has questions about plagiarism.
5. The essay must not have been previously published or submitted at any previous TXSRT, ASRT, or ACERT meetings.
6. The essay must be at least five (5) pages and not exceed ten (10) pages.  This does not include the cover page, abstract, reference list, any appendices or the 10 questions with answer key.
7. The student author by entering this competition, grants the TXSRT a non-exclusive right to publish the entry in either print or electronic format. The TXSRT may edit the essay to conform to any publishing length requirements.  The student author retains full ownership of the essay and may publish it elsewhere.

Essay Judging

1. The Vice President of TXSRT and/or the essay chair will appoint the judges for the Award of Merit Competition.  Only the Vice President of the TXSRT and/or the essay chair shall know the names of the judges.  There will be a minimum of three (3) judges selected for the final judging of the competition.
2. Judges will review the essay to see if it meets TXSRT Rules.
3. Judges scores will reflect their evaluation of the essay using the included rubric.
4. The judges are responsible to the Vice President and essay chair.
5. The decisions of the judges shall be final.

Below is an example of the judging rubric:

Essay judging rubric

Award of Merit Essay Chair Duties

1. The Award of Merit essay chair is responsible for the revision/distribution of the Rules for the 2021 Award of Merit Competition and with the TXSRT EOM, the receipt of all essays submitted for the competition.
2. The essay chair along with the TXSRT Executive Office Manager will verify the TXSRT membership of each student and that the email dates of the application is between February 1 and March 1, 2021.
3. The essay chair will notify the student by letter/email if the essay has any obvious violations of these rules and regulations.  Judges will have final say if an essay does not meet the criteria of the competition.
4. The essay chair will email the student if the application/essay is dated too early or too late or if the student’s TSRT membership cannot be verified.  Deadlines will be strictly enforced.
5. The essay chair will distribute the judges the essays which have had the student name and affiliation removed.
6. Names of the authors of the essay authors will not be released until the judging results are completed and received by the Vice President and essay chair.

Conflict Resolution

Any questions regarding the eligibility of an applicant’s essay that cannot be settled by the essay chair must be submitted to the Vice President of the TXSRT.  If not satisfactorily settled by the Vice President, eligibility status will be decided by the TXSRT Board of Directors and Officers and their decision shall be final.

Presentation of Awards

The presentation of awards will be at the annual conference at a date and time which will be published.  Any awards will be sent the student via their program.

Submission:

Submissions closed March 15th.