Scholarships: Obstacles, Strengths, and Clicking Submit
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This document provides information and advice about applying for scholarships. It notes that many scholarships receive few applicants and boards are eager to award money. The basics of applying include reading applications fully, researching companies, setting deadlines, applying for specific and simple scholarships, and proofreading. Strengths should be expressed through the skills learned from jobs and passions. Letters of recommendation should introduce the applicant, ask the recommender directly, and provide submission details. A variety of scholarship types are listed like need-based, career-focused, and unusual sponsors. Websites to search scholarships are recommended and questions are welcomed.
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Scholarships: Obstacles, Strengths, and Clicking Submit
- 1. Scholarships: Obstacles, Strengths, and Clicking Submit Amanda Skorich Director of Development Minnesota State College Student Association
- 4. Facts about Scholarships Many scholarships actually don’t have many applicants. Boards are excited to give away their money. If you apply once and don’t get it, it’s ok to apply again. Applying should be free! Never pay a cent! In 2007-2008, The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study said that $2.91 Billion were awarded in Undergraduate Scholarships
- 5. The Basics Read the Whole Application Research the Company Set Calendar Deadlines Apply for as many as you can/set a goal! Apply for ones that are specific to you, not ones anyone can apply for unless it’s very simple. Proof Read
- 6. NOT!
- 7. Did I Do That…? What you will need to know about yourself Activities/ Clubs you are involved in on your campus and community Occupation you would like to enter Subject areas you excel at/favorites Honors/Awards/Special Recognitions Cumulative GPA Your positive qualities and strengths People who could write letters of recommendation People who could proof your application
- 8. Strengths Don’t Just List Your Jobs/Positions Held You need to express what skills you learned/used. Why you are passionate about it? Worksheet • List your Jobs/Positions Held Choose three skills to match up with each
- 9. Draw Them a Picture How will you do that? You don’t know them! Share your personal stories. Tell them the truth! What’s different about you that is memorable? Tell them things that they can relate to. Ex: Question: What is your favorite subject in college? I love history class because I’m always learning something new. My favorite history topic is the Civil War because I like to participate in reenactments in my spare time. People can relate better to the above statement rather than “History” being your answer. Always think of a question as ending with, “why?”.
- 10. Letters of Recommendation Components Introduction Explain that you are applying for scholarships and the criteria you want them to talk about. Express why you picked them to talk about those points. Hard Ask Inform them about the company they are writing the letter to so they can keep that in mind while writing the letter. Give them the due date. If you are giving them plenty of time, tell them the day before it’s due, just to make sure. List where/how to submit it. Tell them when you want to know if they can do it by. Thank them for their time, their patience with you, their mentorship, their support, etc.
- 12. There are Scholarships for Everything! Check out these areas you could receive a scholarship from: College Specific Athletics Academic Departmental Private Organizations Corporations Unions Volunteerism Religious Gender Profession/Career Need Based Parent/Family Member’s Employers Local Festivals Honor Societies Michigan Llama Association Membership Scholarships
- 13. Check these out! Careerinfonet.org/scholarshipsearch/ Search over 5,000 Opportunities ScholarshipExperts.com Helps you find scholarships that match your profile FastWeb.com Create a profile, scholarship opportunities sent to you based on your provided information Financialaidfinder.com Provides many sources for financial aid, not just scholarships. SFM Foundation Scholarship For Children with Parents Injured on the Job MSCSA McCormick and Leadership Scholarship www.mscsa.org/scholarship American Fire Sprinkler Association Scholarship: afsascholarship.org Applicants read about fire sprinklers and answer questions using the book for a chance at $2,000
- 14. Apply! Questions? Amanda Skorich Director of Development MSCSA 1515 Robert St. So. West Saint Paul, MN 55118 (651)203-9462 askorich@mscsa.org
Editor's Notes
- Hello and welcome to scholarships: obstacles, strengths, and clicking submit. I’m glad to see so many students ready to learn about free money. My name is Amanda Skorich and I am the program coordinator at MSCSA which means I work with scholarship, alumni, and fundraisers. Who remembers my presentation at the last conference? Every time I said Scholarship I wanted to hear, “Show Me the Money”. Let’s try it. Scholarship. Show me the money! I’m really glad everyone is so excited about scholarships because now we are going to get down to business. So one last time. Scholarship. Show me the money. I’m going to share my scholarship story with you. I now have a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science but getting there wasn’t easy. I was always conscientious about debt and in college it can pile up fast. I knew I had to get scholarships right away. When I was graduating from high school I was motivated to apply and yes, I did get some. Then, after I saw that I wasn’t getting enough I became very unmotivated. My father was pushing me to apply but I just didn’t have the passion. Finally, I sat down and asked myself, what do they need to know about me to get them to understand my full potential, and I asked myself, why me? Write this down, Understand my Potential, Why me? I’m going to help everyone put that on paper today. After a grueling time applying, I ended up receiving $55,000 in scholarships and grants. I’m not saying this to gloat or to say that I’m going to be able to help everyone get $55,000 worth of scholarships but I’m saying that because of the use of effective communication I made that possible for myself. I’m going to help each and every one of you have effective communication like I did to help you express your potential through your strengths and express to scholarship boards, why they should pick you.
- Almost everyone in this room has student loan debt. Raise your hand if you want debt. Oops! Gotcha there! Raise your hand if you don’t want student loan debt. That’s what I thought. Just wanted to see who was paying attention. Who knows the monthly payment on $25,000 of student loan debt on a regular repayment plan? It’s $300 a month! Reference Picture. Debt is scary! It sneaks up on you. Look at what some students referred to it as. Right now, who wants to apply for a scholarship? I want you to look to the people next to you and give them a high five a say apply! Awesome.
- Tell me your fears about scholarships. Eight Clicks. Let’s try and alleviate some of those fears in the next 45 minutes.
- Read the whole application so you know what you will need. Work on items that require you to depend on someone else first. Research the company and see what they are passionate about, if you are passionate about the same thing, make sure to include that somewhere! Many scholarship boards will not accept a late application even if you’re only missing one part. Make sure to meet or beat the deadlines (write that down)! and leave room for technical errors such as loss of internet, late mail, etc. Sometimes, winning one scholarship will help you win others! You cannot get your point across successfully with spelling errors, typos, and poor grammar. It doesn’t matter if you’re an amazing writer or a terrible writer. It doesn’t matter if you love or hate writing. Do your best and then have someone help you proof read the articles. Important Tip: Apply for scholarships that are specific to you, not just ones that anyone can apply for unless it is very simple. https://sites.google.com/a/weatherlysd.org/ms-ackourey/home/classroom-rules
- I know that we think we can find the answers to everything in google, and you almost can find everything on the internet but there are things you need to know about yourself before applying for scholarships that you can’t just Google!
- Everyone take ten minutes right now to fill out the first three sheets of the worksheet with these lists. Stop when you see STOP!
- Everyone has strengths in what they do. Expressing them however, is usually harder than we think. Let’s work through how to express your strengths to scholarship boards. When I read, I Volunteered at Red Cross. I think ok, they did something good for the world. I have no clue what you learned there or how you contributed. You could’ve told people to sign the registration sheet or you could’ve developed a program to end world hunger. Boards need to know these things! DO Page 4-6 of worksheet, refer to last sheet for examples.
- People are very visual creatures. I’m sure after an in person interview, someone would have a better picture of you than just reading your application. Make it your goal to give them the best impression of you that you can just from reading your application. You don’t want them to think why you, you don’t want them to think why not you, you want them to think, definitely you! Refer to page 7 of the worksheet. Think of questions you’ve seen on a scholarship application, now answer them using the information from the example in the slide here. http://www.clipartpal.com/clipart_pd/education/crayon1.html
- Refer to page 8 of the worksheet. Discuss these and explain them. Some of you might not know where to start when asking for a letter of reference and it can be sort of awkward sometimes so an email is a great way to get around that including important components is key! You also want to make sure that you get an effective letter of recommendation so that’s why it’s good to have it in writing so the recommender can look back at it.
- At this point, I think you have good tips on how to have detailed application content but now I bet you’re feeling a bit like this directional sign when thinking about where to get started. Don’t know where to look? Let’s learn right now.
- Think of these categories you may belong to when using the sites on the next slide.
- Add http://www.bestcolleges.com/financial-aid/ next time.