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So You Wanna Win A Scholarship?

Time flies when you are serving your community! Graduation is quickly approaching and that means our scholarship deadline will be here before you know it. Your final submission needs to be submitted by May 28, 2022 11:59pm MST. To increase your chance at winning, you can still submit your working strategy form for feedback until April 28, 2022. For more information on our scholarship, head here.

I’ve been having so much fun reading through the submissions so far and I’m excited to see what else you guys are working on!

Here are a few recommendations for those who want to fill out their strategy plan and get direct guidance for your project:

  • It might be an optional step, but the more specific you can be, the more specific we can be with our feedback.
  • Use the SMART goal model when talking about your goals and include short and long-term goals.
  • Think past, present, and future when describing your resources. What skills have you already developed? What materials will you need to collect? How much time are you currently putting toward your goals?
  • Allies are wonderful assets but really focus on who the decision makers will be during your project. How can you use the connections you already have to get your project off the ground?
  • Tactics are going to be what propels you to accomplish your goals. A tactic is only effective if it’s delivered, in some form, to a decision-maker. For example, “raising awareness” doesn’t help unless you’re raising your decision-maker’s awareness or using that awareness to mobilize individuals to pressure specific individuals in charge. What steps can you take to do the most for your community?
  • An additional $5,000 is rewarded to the winner to help fund their project so think long-term and brainstorm ways you can continue to help change and shape your community once your project is completed.

Best of luck to everyone applying for our scholarship! I have been inspired by the submissions and I can really feel the passion you have for improving your communities.

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Teaching BLUE: Using the True Colors Personality Test in the Classroom

This post is part of a series of posts on teaching to different personality types as found in the True Colors Personality Test. To see more, head here.

The color blue has often been used to represent sadness but that is not the case with a blue personality. Those with a blue personality often take on the roles of peacemaker and caretaker. These are the students who are enthusiastic, compassionate, and idealistic. Consequently, they are also the students who are easily stressed out by conflict and negative criticism. They want their peers to look up to them, but not for their academic achievements–blues want to be recognized for their authenticity and ability to make friends.

Don’t be surprised if these students also score as ENFJ and ESFJ personality types. They are eager to learn and help others and they are constantly asking how their actions can benefit others. They dream big dreams and are comfortable going with the flow but they still like to plan for things–mostly because they are always thinking of how they can use their time to benefit others.

They prefer to let their emotions guide them. As someone with a blue personality, I find it difficult to dedicate myself to any material that I’m not passionate about and the second something makes me feel anxious or uncomfortable, I tend to abandon it completely. (I was also once exiled to the back of the classroom with nothing but a chair and a clipboard because I was too chatty. My teacher quickly realized that wouldn’t stop me from talking, it just meant I had to talk louder so people could hear me). Instead of trying to restrict these students even further, allow them to have free time and explore the subject in a way they can get excited about.

Blue personalities thrive on validation and it resonates most when praise is manifested in a physical way; a touch on the shoulder, high fives, and gold stars are good places to start. If you are vocalizing your appreciation it is best to be honest and sincere as well as enthusiastic. Because they rely so much on their emotions, they don’t handle criticism well and can become very withdrawn in situations where they’ve been chastised. If you do need to correct them, you can’t be too quick to also remind them that you still care about them.

Like McKenzie mentioned in her posts about Sensing and Intuitive students, it’s important to utilize both methods of learning. Blues are often already able to switch between the two pretty seamlessly and can use them simultaneously. They love hands-on activities and they absorb information more effectively when they can experience it. They learn by “connecting the dots” and using what they already know to bridge the gap from familiar concepts to new material. Blues are very intuitive and use that skill to make connections and apply what they are learning to their personal lives.

Your blue students might come across as overly-emotional, passive, and a bit of a pushover. If you want to help them grow, teach them the importance of boundaries and how to express their opinions. They have a tendency to avoid conflict and will try and stay away from competitive activities–start them out with small-scale classroom competitions where they won’t have to stress about the whole class watching. Keep an eye on the other students to make sure they aren’t taking advantage of a blue’s generosity and keep an eye on the blues to make sure they take a break from taking care of those around them and take care of themselves.

It is critical to foster their desire to help others. Let them help and influence others as often as possible. For those teaching high school students, present them with extra-curricular opportunities to volunteer. Provide them information on tutoring programs and service projects. Like gold personalities, blue students also do well in leadership roles because it allows them to make decisions that will help others.

What experiences have you had teaching students with a blue personality? How do you help them balance their social side with the structure of the classroom?

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Teaching GOLD: Using the True Colors Personality Test in the Classroom

true colors personality testing, gold

This post is part of a series of posts on teaching to different personality types as found in the True Colors Personality Test. To see more, head here.

There has never been a better use for the term “solid gold” as there is for describing the gold personality types in your classroom. They are the dependable, responsible, and organized kids in your classroom. They flourish under the structure of the classroom and they like to plan for every detail of the day, month, and even the school year. These are the students that can easily become stressed by a disruption to their routine or when there is too much going on at once.

Much like the ENTJs and the INTJs of the Myers Briggs Personality Test, these students need clear objectives. Providing them with a visual goal and a written schedule can provide them a sense of stability and allow them to put their head down and dive into their work.

Gold students are typically on top of assignments and can often handle more work when needed. Consider assigning them “executive” tasks: passing out/collecting assignments, having them help with rearranging/reorganizing the classroom, even having them assist you in retrieving supplies from other teachers. These are the kids who get a thrill going into the teacher’s lounge because it shows them that the teachers trust them.

In order to help gold students feel valued, it’s crucial to be sincere and specific in your praise. They want to know their thoroughness, skills, and responsibility are recognized and appreciated. Make sure to remind them that their contributions are important to others and that they are an integral part of their class.

The best way to push your gold students is to challenge them to think about how their decisions affect others. Pair them with those who think in more abstract ways (think the blues and greens) to introduce them to new ideas and ways of seeing things. Give them support while showing them that the world won’t end if they don’t have a plan and caution them against passing judgment. Remind them to take breaks throughout the day as they have a tendency to put work before play, even if it means working overtime.

Other people might see their gold classmates as bossy, controlling, and judgmental so make sure to help the other students focus on gold’s dependability and their willingness to help solve problems. Encourage the other students to express their appreciation for the ways a gold contributes to the classroom. Help guide your students to rephrase the challenges that can come from working with a gold personality into positive opportunities for growth. Remind them that everyone has something unique and valuable to offer.

Someone with a gold personality might complain of psychosomatic symptoms when they are stressed; keep an eye out for the students who constantly complain of stomach aches or ask to call their parents to come pick them up. They are most likely feeling overwhelmed, so check in on them and see if you can help lighten their load.

Your gold students are most likely going to be a healthy mix of introverts and extroverts. The extroverted gold is probably the first student to raise their hand when the class is asked a question (a Hermione Granger, if you will), while the introverts are content to tune out others and get to work. Group projects can be challenging for gold personalities because they can feel held back by their peers and they don’t have space to think for themselves. However, because golds want to share their knowledge and absorb as much information as they can, keeping them in pairs or small groups works best. They can be stubborn at times and butt heads with other gold or orange personalities, but simplifying their differences down to colors can help them better understand each other and use those differences to their advantage.

For those teaching middle and high school students, encourage your gold students to sign up for honors classes. Discuss with them the idea of joining the debate team or applying for student leadership positions. They are probably already looking into extracurricular activities but some might not know where to start or which to choose so it’s important to provide them with the right resources.

Do you have any stories from teaching gold personality types? What have you done to help them be more flexible?

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Have You Heard About our #GoGreek Interviews?

An open letter to college freshman tips and advice

Over the last several months we’ve been interviewing members of sororities and fraternities and sharing their stories here on our blog. It can be fun and eye-opening to read different experiences of different organizations at different schools, whether you’re also involved in Greek life, considering Greek life, or just wanting to learn more about Greek life!

You can find each interview here, on our new page.

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What We Look For In A Scholarship Application

Our annual scholarship is due in a few short months, so we can only hope that scholarship applicants are gathering everything they need to submit their final project. 

Do you know what goes into choosing scholarship winners? A lot more than you think! Hours and hours of reading, re-reading, crowdsourcing from everyone in our company, and even late-night chats with family members discussing each individual applicant and what their project entails. Oh, and more re-reading of applications. Yes, that’s right. Every single application gets picked over, analyzed, and discussed, we take each application very seriously and everyone is considered, it’s not just a skim read of all of the information and picking and choosing what sounds good. When I say that we pour hours into this, I am very serious about it. 

So what exactly is it that we are looking for in your scholarship application? You can read an overview on our scholarship page, but here’s a deeper dive to help you see our thought process. 

1) The quality & quantity of work already completed

We want to see a quality project that has been given time and effort, meaning there is a large quantity of information we can see and read. Your project is your baby, you’ve put so much time and effort into it, but we know nothing about it! Paint us a picture of exactly what you’ve been working on, how you’ve achieved it, and your why behind starting the project in the first place. If it’s written well, we can hear the passion behind what you’re doing. And spoiler alert: we also pay attention to correct grammar and punctuation. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it is something you should be mindful of when submitting. 

2) The potential for future long-term impact

Unless you are selected as the top winner winning the $5,000 grant toward your project to continue funding it, you are not required to continue your project after you have received your scholarship. However, we are more likely to choose the winners based on the likelihood of a continuing project that will keep impacting the community in a positive way. 

3) General community relevance of the project

Your project can be just for your school, your school district, or even more widespread in your community in some way. However, it needs to directly impact those in your neighborhood. Meaning, if you’re creating materials or resources for a third-world country, you will need to find a way to tie it back into your community. That can be by them volunteering to help with your project or having it impact them in some way, too. 

Finalists may also be asked for proposals on how they would use the $5,000 grant if selected as the top recipient, and the more specific those plans, the better (especially if they involve plans to seek additional funding or perpetuate the fund toward your project in the long term).

Once we’ve narrowed it down to our top projects, one final question to help us pick apart the final winners is based on how you answer our question about the $5,000 grant. It also helps us choose the grant winner as well. If asked this question by our team, take it very seriously! 

Other things we are looking for while choosing the winners: 

Completion of the project- If we have to track down your project information, pictures, videos, etc., it can be a red flag. Make sure all of your information is completed and in the final submission. 

Organization of project- If it’s jumbled and hard to pick out the information, it can be easy for us to overlook the project and not spend the time picking through all of the minute details. 

The passion- Again, we can tell in your submission how passionate you are about the subject based on how you present it to us. Show us your passion! Tell us what got you started with the project you are working on and what’s driving you to continue working on it. 

Take these tips and put them into your final project. I promise by doing so will help your application shine above the rest.

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Scholarship Interview: Swetha, Ben, and Johnathan

This is part of a series of interviews with our scholarship recipients for our 2021 Build A Better Future scholarship sponsored by Honors Graduation. We hope you will find their stories as inspiring as we do! For information on our 2022 program, click here”. 

Introducing our next scholarship winners: a group of three working together on the same project and splitting the scholarship winnings. Swetha Palakur, Johnathan Polucha, and Ben Kim. These three high school students worked together on a project for their engineering class, where they specifically needed to come up with a solution to a problem. 

They chose to create a keyboard specifically for persons with Parkinson’s Disease and other similar, neurodegenerative diseases. The reason for choosing this group of people specifically was for two different reasons, first that they realize what vital importance of using a computer is in this day and age and they recognized the struggles those with PD have using a typical keyboard. And second, they had close family members with Parkinson’s Disease, meaning this project hit close to home for them. 

After creating their first humble prototype made of cardboard, they were able to meet with the head neurologist at the University of California Irvine. She gave them great insight into how the minds and bodies of those with PD work, as well as some feedback on their prototype. One worry Ben, Swetha, and Johnathan had was that the keyboard would be too complicated to figure out, but she reassured them that it would be a great cognitive and problem-solving practice for the PD patients. 

After more teacher and peer feedback, more prototypes, and working out some wiring issues, they were able to create a functioning keyboard! Ben, Swetha, and Johnathon hope to someday patent their keyboards and spread them to Parkinson’s Disease patients all over. 

Ben is attending Princeton University, Swetha is attending the University of California, and Johnathan is attending Oregon State University. 

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#GoGreek Interview: Emma Movick

alpha chi omega interview

Welcome to our #GoGreek series! This blog series focuses on interviewing past and present members of sororities and fraternities. We are able to learn more about their experiences and ask them questions to help others learn more about the Greek world, bust stigmas, and find out if Greek life is right for you. 

Today we are interviewing Emma Movick from Alpha Chi Omega at the University of Colorado. 

Emma chose Greek life because she wanted to meet new friends and feel connected at a new school. She also had the chance to meet a lot of great girls during recruitment and wanted to stay connected with them. She transferred to the University of Colorado her sophomore year and felt like she had missed a vital year there as a freshman to interact with the school and get to know peers, so joining a sorority was the perfect answer for her. 

Alpha Chi Omega’s philanthropy is centered around domestic violence awareness. Emma felt like this was a great philanthropy to support because she knows personally sisters and classmates affected by this. 

How has your experience helped or shaped your life beyond college?

“I was on the executive board, so I had to deal with conflicts while being in a role of power. I learned a lot about how to manage work conflicts and pick my battles on things I am not pleased with.

Going through recruitment (both when I was rushing and when I was recruiting new members) helped me to communicate with many different people, which has helped me with school and job interviews as I feel comfortable speaking with others.”

In what ways do you feel like being in a sorority or fraternity boosted your resume?

“It helped to make my resume well rounded and separate me from others. Also, connections are great. I had a job at lululemon, and during the hiring process, I spoke with employers who were also alumni of the same sorority which helped to make me memorable. I can also demonstrate my multitasking as I was on the executive board, working, and taking classes – showing that I can succeed while working on multiple tasks.”

When asked what advice Emma would give someone who wants to or is about to enter a sorority or fraternity, her recommendation is to be yourself, because you want to attract people with similar hobbies and interests. Be open-minded as well and don’t take it too seriously. Emma also added that being in a sorority was a great decision for her and she met some lifelong friends through it, as well as came away with great, life-changing experiences.