Show Me the Money! - Part III

As promised, I'll devote this post to resources that provide information on scholarships. Way "back in the day" I received a scholarship from a very unlikely source. My father worked as a pharmacist in a drugstore that gave out S&H Green Stamps. You would collect the stamps and lick them into books which you could then redeem for appliances, cookware, etc. (Ask your grandparents!) Since my dad worked in a place that distributed the stamps, I was eligible to apply. I won the scholarship and it paid for a great deal of my tuition. The only downside was that every time my tuition bill was due and I would present my award proof at the bursar's office, some comedian would always have to comment on how many books I must have had to save up! I would never have known of that scholarship had my father not worked in that store. Today the internet makes information on scholarships readily available.

collegeboard.org has a scholarship finder. Search "scholarship" to be taken to a comprehensive guide as to how to find scholarships and to link to Scholarship Search and FastWeb. The College Board co-sponsors a scholarship program with the Siemens Foundation to increase "access to higher education for talented mathematics, science, engineering, and technology students in the the United States". The Board also publishes a book, Getting Financial Aid 2012, which is available through this site. FastWeb at www.fastweb.com is another free scholarship search service which also offers career planning and information about special programs such as Study Abroad and the military.

I really like the zinch.com site. It offers a free scholarship search that includes information about college, grad school and vocational school awards. The search filters information for students freshman through senior year in high school as well as grad school students and working professionals. Information about awards provided by corporations as well as zinch itself is also available.

In my post about the Prudential Prestigious Awards and the Metro PCS Leaders and Scholars Program on December 10, 2010, I discussed how looking further into a program and investigating its website carefully may help you discover links to other sources that provide scholarship info. In reading about those programs, I found that the Prudential program is administered by International Scholarship and Tuition Services, Inc. at http://www.applyists.com . It provides links to ScholarUp (www.Scholarup.net), Scholarships.com (www.scholarships.com) and other sites of interest to scholarship applicants.

States have their own Higher Education Agencies. The New Jersey Higher Education Agency at www.hesaa.org gives information about New Jersey Tuition Aid Grants and scholarships available to NJ students such as the Dana Christmas Scholarship which is funded entirely by the Public Service Electric and Gas Foundation. Check your state's agency.

For those who want to apply for scholarships that require an essay or some type of competition, there are books such as Secrets to Winning a Scholarship by Mark Kantrowitz in conjunction with FastWeb. Get Cash for College: Secrets to Winning Scholarship by Gen Tanabe and Kelly Tanabe has also received good reviews.
There are many of these guides but the two listed are pretty recent. That's important when searching for funds, especially in this economy where many sponsors may have cut back or even eliminated their scholarship programs. That's one of the reasons I prefer using the program searches available online.

In preparing this post I am impressed, once again, with the wealth of information available to anyone who can access a computer. And to think I had to depend on a lick 'em, stick 'em stamp program which I was lucky to find by chance and circumstance. Thanks, Dad and the Sperry & Hutchinson Foundation!

Welcome Back

It's already September! The school year never seems to pass as quickly as the months of July and August. For those students who are entering senior year, this may be the first school year where this is not the case. There's a lot to do and many decisions to be made. For those who have followed my blog this past year and have acted on the suggestions given, this year will be much less difficult. For those who have not, review the archives and try to get up to speed.

Seniors who are planning to go to college after graduation should be at the point of finishing up their applications. If you would like another shot at the SAT, be aware of the deadlines for registration which can be found at www.collegeboard.org. Juniors should be aware of their school's process to register for the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) which will be given in October. More information about this test can be found at The College Board site as well.

In the 38 posts I've written since August 2010, I have detailed a process by which high school students can make some important decisions for plans after graduation. Therefore, I plan to spend subsequent posts reviewing special programs and sites in addition to refining the process as relevant topics come up.

For those who are new to this blog, I will outline the subjects of the posts since January 2011 on Wednesday, October 5. For descriptions of the websites and posts that preceded that, see the archives and the website review I posted on December 14, 2010.

Seniors: Don't get overwhelmed - JUST GET BUSY!

Eighth Grade - The End of Middle School Madness Part II

     I began my career by teaching middle school students.  The fact that I stayed in education for more than three decades after that first year is still a source of pride - like having made it as a Navy Seal!
     Middle schoolers are the most odious of creatures.  Seventh and eighth graders are in a larval state and, having no certainty of self-worth, they can be just plain MEAN!   I think it's because they are really afraid and they feel they're too old/cool to ask just to be held and read a comforting story.  They are the oldest kids in the building.  They know its ins and outs, the personailities of its personnel and on which days it's better to buy lunch.  They also have a nascent knowledge that it's all about to end and they'll soon be thrust into the high school like released hatchery fish on stocking day.
     I find it's very helpful for them to have an idea as to why they need to subject themselves to making the passage.  They need a goal.  They need to see going to high school as a means to an end - a way of getting to that  state of independence they both fear and crave.  Did you ever notice how kids at that age seem to stop telling you what they want to be when they grow up?  It's as if they know that sitting on the bench for much of their Pop Warner days rules out the NFL.  There's not so much verbaliztion of dreams anymore.  The realization has hit that talent and training must come into play at some point.  This seems to occur at the very same time that their estimation of their talents, abilities and even beauty is at its nadir.
     For these reasons I felt it a good idea to expose my eighth grade students to career interest inventories.  I would start by asking them to visualize where they wanted to be at that very moment in ten years time.  Were they teaching a class, preparing lunch for the family, manning a fire truck, etc.?  I would hand out paper and ask them to design their business card.  What would their title be?  Where would they be located?  What type of business was it?  These would be preliminary activities before taking the actual inventory. 
     An inventory I used and found very effective was available for free through the My Road program operated by the College Board.  I found http://www.college.board.com/ to be an invaluable website for students, professionals and parents.  Students who take the PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) are given free access to the My Road program (http://www.myroad.com/) which includes the ORA Personality Profiler inventory.  Most students take the PSAT/NMSQT as high school sophomores but a one year individual subsription to My Road is available for $19.95.  Many schools subscribe to College Board services or provide free career inventories to their students as part of the school guidance curriculum, so check with your child's/your counselor. 
     I prefer inventories that not only assess a student's interests but take their abilities into account.  Next week I'll discuss one I particularly liked.