Tag: scholarship

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Confessions of a Scholarship Chairperson

substitute teacher quandry

When I attended college, I had a friend tell me about a scholarship for sophomore students that I qualified for. She was part of the scholarship committee and gave me some insight into what exactly they were looking for in a scholarship applicant, so I had a really good chance at winning. 

I put in the work and applied, but ultimately, was denied. 

I was devastated. Why wouldn’t they choose me? If only a few people had applied and there were multiple winners, why wasn’t my application chosen? It was a really good scholarship application! I felt like they hadn’t even read what I had submitted or cared about the work I put into it. 

Fast forward several years later and I become the scholarship chairperson for Honors Graduation. It was exciting that I could be behind the scenes of a scholarship and have the opportunity to choose the winners! Little did I know what emotions were in store for me. 

Each year I read through so many scholarship applications and in the end I can only choose five. Five winners out of all of the applications we receive. 

What I didn’t realize when I applied for a scholarship of my own several years ago was how emotionally intensive it would be to read through so many hardworking, deserving students’ work and have to deny the majority of them. I’m sure when I applied for my scholarship years ago, I wasn’t actually “just another applicant” that they disregarded. Instead, I think my application was one that they poured over, read and re-read, discussed, and came to the conclusion that the scholarship wasn’t for me. 

Because I’ve been in those shoes now, doing the exact same thing with our scholarship applicants. 

Over the next two weeks, my time will be filled with reading and re-reading applications over and over and over until I nearly have them memorized. It’ll be time spent calling the applicant’s references to verify projects and hear what stellar and incredible students they are. My time will be spent building a bond with each of these students and their projects, just to have to make the hard decision at the end on which applicants are the top five and deserve the scholarship money. 

So when that hard rejection email hits your inbox, just know that it’s hard on our end to choose the winners, too. I’ve been on that end of rejection, and it hurts. But maybe it feels a little better to know that your application wasn’t thrown in the reject pile, but read over and over and appreciated, even if you didn’t win. 

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Scholarship Reminder! The Scholarship is DUE

Scholarship reminder! The scholarship is DUE! There are four more days (from the time this was posted) until all applications need to be finished and submitted. Our application closes May 28, 2023, 11:59 pm MST. 

Our submission form is closed down and does not take submissions after the deadline has passed, so get your application in before this time. Each year we have one or two individuals that send us an email letting us know that they were working on their final submission but didn’t get it in on time, and ask if they can still submit. Sadly, the answer is always no. To be fair to everyone, we set a deadline and hold true to this deadline. 

So gather all of your work and get everything submitted! 

Our email is also always open to any questions you may have or guidance needed during the process, even after your project has been submitted. 

You can see more about the scholarship requirements by downloading our checklist here.

For more information on the scholarship, head here.

For our 2023 final submission link, head here.

Other helpful posts:

Scholarship Reminder! We Really Do Check Your References
Scholarship Reminder! Add Pictures to Your Submission
Scholarship Reminder! Video Requirements
Scholarship Reminder! We Want to Hear Your Story
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Scholarship Reminder! We Really Do Check Your References

Scholarship reminder! We really do check your references. Yes, we really do! I know oftentimes on job, school, and scholarship applications they ask for names and phone numbers to use as a point of reference, and oftentimes you fill this in but disregard the possibility of them ever being called. 

Well, for our scholarship application, we call each of your references and verify before you can even be considered for the scholarship application! This is an extra step to help us verify your project, and hear a little more about you as a student, even if your references don’t know about said project or scholarship. 

But don’t stress, we have yet to receive a bad report from a reference phone call. Most teachers and mentors have only glowing reviews of you! 

However, when you’re putting down this information on your scholarship application, keep in mind that there is a really good chance they’ll be receiving a phone call and will be asked more about you as a student and about your project. Choose your references wisely! 

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

You can see more about the scholarship requirements by downloading our checklist here.

For more information on the scholarship, head here.

For our 2023 final submission link, head here.

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Scholarship Reminder: Specific Goals!

A requirement on our scholarship application is to write out your goals for your project. The application states: “Your goal(s) should be specific and reasonable, considering both short-term and long-term. If you have multiple goals, type each one on a new bullet point.”

And when we say specific, we really do mean specific. This plays off of our post from last week about telling us your story. If you’re telling us about your specific goals, it’s telling us more about your overall project. Here are a few examples: 

Short-term goal: Plant flowers in our city park. Long-term goal: Attract more bees  

Revamped to more specific: 

Short-term goals:
-Reach out to our town’s local nursery and ask them for locally grown wildflower donations.
-Raise money to purchase additional local wildflowers
-Plan a day to gather the community so that we can work together to plant the wildflowers

Long-term goals:
– Help upkeep the wildflowers by weeding and watering when needed
– Attract more bees, butterflies, and other insects to our area
– Help local gardens and farms benefit from the higher number of bees in the area with the addition of wildflower beds

Can you see how much more information these specific goals give us and how deeper of a picture it paints when they are written in detail instead of in a general sense? 

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

You can see more about the scholarship requirements by downloading our checklist here.

For more information on the scholarship, head here.

For our 2023 final submission link, head here.

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Scholarship Reminder! We Want to Hear Your Story

We want to hear your story. No really, we do! If you’re writing up your scholarship application and feel like you’re typing too much, I want you to know that you most likely aren’t typing enough. 

In order to choose a scholarship winner we have to know everything we can about your project, it has to come alive for us and your story needs to be told through your words, video, and photos. The more details you give us, the more we can see what your project is, what it’s done for your community, and most importantly, what it means to you. 

When reading applications, we can tell which students completed the checklist to qualify for the scholarship to help their community in some way, and the students really took time out of their lives to serve, help, and literally build a better community. If your passion is in your project, let that show in your application! Tell us why it’s personally important to you and how it’s impacted your life, as well as your peers and community members. 

We want to hear it all, we really do. Tell us your story! 

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

You can see more about the scholarship requirements by downloading our checklist here.

For more information on the scholarship, head here.

For our 2023 final submission link, head here.

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Scholarship Reminder! Video Requirements

Here’s your weekly scholarship reminder. There is a video that is required for your final submission. This video can be uploaded to YouTube and shared with us, or uploaded to your Google Drive and shared with us. The video requirements are as follows:

2-5 minutes long including examples of your work in action (photos, video clips, etc.)

Include a few words directly from you regarding your project (can be a voice-over)

Include 1-3 brief interviews with people you are working with.

Address the following questions:

  • What would you improve with more time?
  • What new skills or concepts have you acquired?
  • What have you learned about yourself based on the experience?

If you already have a video created for your project for a different purpose, can you still use it for the scholarship application? Yes, if it still meets all of our requirements and answers all three questions within the video. You may also create a new video for this scholarship application specifically and send in a video you’ve already made as a supplement. But all video requirements must be met in order to qualify.

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

You can see more about the scholarship requirements by downloading our checklist here.

For more information on the scholarship, head here.

For our 2023 final submission link, head here.

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Scholarship Reminder! Add Pictures to Your Submission

Here’s your weekly scholarship reminder: 

Add photos of your work to your scholarship application! Not only is this a requirement in order to qualify for the scholarship, but adding these pictures only helps your application. 

No amount of pictures is too many, I promise. There is a limit on how many you can submit on our actual submission page, but additional photos can always be emailed to us after your final application has been sent in. You can also insert photos on a Word, Google Document, or PDF and submit this as evidence as well to work around the picture limitations on our submission form. 

By giving us a good visual representation of your community project, it helps us verify the legitimacy as well as literally “see the big picture” of what you’ve been working on. 

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 final submission link, head here.