Tag: honors graduation scholarship

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Announcing the 2024 Build a Better Future Scholarship Winners

I don’t think a single year goes by where I don’t comment on how hard choosing scholarship winners is. Spending time reading through each application and hearing about how each of these kids is making a difference in their communities is so encouraging. I want to at the very least give each of them a big hug and tell them they are making the world a better place!

We are so grateful for each applicant we received this year and inspired by the work they are doing. Five top projects stood out to us in the end and here they are…

Jack Voelker: All Latitudes Lacrosse

Jack noticed lacrosse players from opposing teams sharing equipment because they did not have enough gear to go around for everyone. Instead of keeping this as a simple observation, he did something about it, because he felt the players deserved more. He gathered gently used equipment to donate to teams in need around his community, and eventually grew and grew his project internationally.

Jack is our top winner and recipient of the $5,000 grant towards furthering his project, which he plans to put towards reusable period products for girls who are unable to play lacrosse during the week they are menstruating because of the lack of period products available to them.

You can see more of his work on his Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/alllatitudeslacrosse

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Thrisha Kalpatthi: Pittsburgh Metro Math

Thrisha has a love for participating in math competitions in her community but felt discouraged by the lack of diversity at these math competitions. She decided if there was anyone that would do anything about it, it was her! She brainstormed what barriers were keeping everyone from being involved and set to work to create math competitions that break these barriers and include everyone.

On top of creating an inclusive environment, she also worked hard to generate donations for The Brashear Association, a local non-profit that works towards community resources.

Elia Woods: The Recycling Project

Elia is an Arizona teen who found an impactful way to make a difference in her community. Water is one of the most basic human needs, so she took something some people have an overabundance of (reusable water bottles) and found a way to distribute them to community members who needed better water access. Not only did she do this project, but she also made sure accessible water spouts for filling the bottles were available.

You can see more at her website:

https://therecyclingproject.org/

Josephine Gardiner: Pool Panthers

Josie Gardiner is an avid swimmer who realizes the privilege and lack of representation of the sport. Water safety is also a big priority for her, so she set out to find a way to help more kids become water-safe and give them proper swimming gear. By providing free swimming lessons in low-income housing neighborhoods, she was able to reach her goal and provide lessons to the children who needed it most.

Sahana Gupta: Hani’s Heros

Sahana saw the positive impact the foster care system was making for children by providing them with their needs, but she felt like she could do more by helping provide for their wants as well, as those often are overlooked. She worked with her local foster care center to make free, extravagant birthday cakes for as many children as possible, even connecting with local bakeries to widen her ability to reach more children.

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Scholarship Optional Strategy Plan Due Date Reminder

Due date reminder!

Our optional Strategy Plan is a Google Form that gives you a very small glimpse of our final scholarship submission. It’s a few questions that generate critical thinking about the project you’re working on and planning to submit for the final application. It gives your project organization and meaning.

On top of all of this, it’s an opportunity for feedback from our scholarship team. Each strategy plan submission is read and then responded to with specific feedback as well as all questions submitted are answered.

This part of the scholarship process is not required but can be extremely helpful and can give scholarship applicants a big advantage.

The strategy plan for 2024 is due on March 1, so the deadline is quickly approaching. If you know anyone planning on submitting a scholarship application this year, send this their way!

Even if you miss the strategy plan deadline, you are still qualified to submit a final scholarship application by April 8, 2024.

To see more about our scholarship program, head here.

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Scholarship Reminder!

Your scholarship application is due, soon! The deadline for your final submission is May 28, 2023, 11:59 pm MST

This gives you just over 6 weeks to finish up your work, gather photo evidence of what you’ve been working on, and fine-tune your submission paragraphs.

PLEASE keep in mind that the scholarship submission will take a good chunk of your time to go through, write everything out, and upload your files. We strongly suggest submitting everything several days before the due date to ensure everything is uploaded and in before the due date. If you are worried about something not going through or just want to make sure we received your submission, feel free to reach out to us via email.

Our email is also always open to any questions you may have or guidance needed during the process.

For more information on the scholarship, head here.

For our 2023 submission link, head here.

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Scholarship Winner Update: Caitlin Gill

Our 2020 scholarship winner, Caitlin Gill, was an inspiration to everyone when she created F.L.EX.S.P.A.C.E., an online platform for students with disabilities to come together for various activities. You can read our original blog post on Caitlin here. 

One year later, here is the update Caitlin sent us: 

“F.L.EX.S.P.A.C.E. is doing very well! We currently have events six days per week including workouts, a Music Jam Session every Thursday, and a social event on Saturdays. Twice a month we have in-person events either at a park, food place or at the movies. We recently had a Movie Night Out where we saw Space Jam together. 

For the month of June, we provided daily life skills and wellness workshops online via Zoom. These were a huge success as we encouraged independence by teaching important skills. The most popular workshop was our “Cooking with Caitlin” workshop where we cooked something new every Monday. 

The scholarship that HonorsGradU provided has enabled us to purchase supplies for our in-person events, cover technology costs (since we are mainly online), cover tax document costs and provide a means to host our social events. I cannot thank HonorsGradU enough. I have received so many comments from families and participants expressing how important F.L.EX.S.P.A.C.E. is to their social well-being. We would not be able to impact our special needs community without your support.”