Paying for College: Scholarships

Yes, yeah yeah yeah, I like very very briefly mentioned that like the merit scholarships, but I don't really say anything about it. I just have a slide that says George walks opportunities and it's listed there. So I'll just say for questions about those, talk to your admissions counselor.

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Albert

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Hold on, hold on.

Yeah hi thank you everyone. Uhm so yeah I'm sworn sweet. I am the assistant director of the Scholarship Resource Center here at George Fox. And we're just gonna take a couple minutes today to chat about where to look for external scholarships and just a lot of the pieces that go into that process. If you have questions that come up as we go, you're more than welcome to just type those into the chat. We have someone who will be answering those and then we'll also do a like a Q&A at the end for anything.

That comes up.

So the first thing is when should you start looking for scholarships? And the answer to that is right now. So the timeline is typically late fall to mid to late spring is when a lot of scholarship applications are going to be open and you will also receive a copy of these slides after this presentation. So if you're worried about.

Obtaining all this information just know that you will receive it in your email, but fall is usually kind of when you should start searching winter and spring as when applications begin to open and close. So here we are kind of getting to the point where applications summer still opening summer gonna start closing here within the next couple of months and then the summer time is really when places are starting to.

Uh, let candidates know whether or not they've been awarded a scholarship, so now is definitely the time to be thinking about scholarships. To be looking to be applying.

So where should you look? And we're going to start with just a really focused approach and then slowly build our way out into some more broader areas where you can search for scholarships. But to start, your local community is actually going to be a really great place to look for scholarships. This is where the bulk of students bring in their external scholarships. Your community really wants to support you.

And help you to succeed as you take on this next chapter of your education. So a good place to start with this is to reach out to a local Chamber of Commerce or Community Foundation, and oftentimes they will have an idea as to what other local businesses, foundations, organizations, clubs, nonprofits, offer scholarships in your community and sometimes community foundations will even have a running list of available scholarships.

So that's definitely a really great place to start, and it can look as simple as just sending an email or filling out a contact US form on their webpage. You could also give them a call.

But reaching out to them will be a really good first step. If you have a church you attend or a denomination you're affiliated with, this can be another really great place to look into receiving scholarship support. And it's one that I see quite often.

Some other examples of what this might look like, so I mentioned clubs. There's a bunch of chapter based clubs in different communities, like the key Club, the Rotary Kiwanis, the Lions Club, American Legion. These sorts of places oftentimes have scholarships for students, and they're not always membership based. Sometimes they do have specific things that they're looking for, but if you have one of these chapters in your community, it's worth reaching out.

In seeing if they have a scholarship that you can apply for touching base with your local YMCA, seeing if there's any listings there for scholarships. If you the student have been employed, seeing if there's any scholarship programs or opportunities there I've seen like Burger King and Chick-fil-A have some, but also parents. Sometimes parents employers will have scholarship programs and opportunities.

As well, so that's another one to consider.

Local credit unions have been another one that I've seen often, so checking in with the local credit union and seeing if they have a scholarship and then thinking about other activities or extracurriculars or things in your community that you've been involved with.

So 4H the scouts, if you've done any internships or volunteer work, checking in with those organizations and places and seeing if there's maybe a scholarship that can be attached to it. Keep in mind when reaching out some of these places.

They might not have like an application link directly on their website. A lot of the times you do have to take that extra step to reach out and see if they have a scholarship or if they would maybe be willing to offer you one some questions that you can ask yourself too. As you start this search if you know what you will be studying you can reach out to businesses in your area specifically within that realm. So for example.

If you're thinking of going into nursing, checking in with local hospitals or clinics and private practices, and seeing if they have scholarships for those that are wanting to get into the field and then just really thinking about what makes you unique and stand out as a student. And if you're a first generation student and anything else that really makes you unique as a student and as a person can help to really narrow down that search.

So our first focused approach is going to be to look in your local communities and then broadening that search a little bit. We're going to jump into your state so the state of Oregon has. Maybe you've already heard a lot about this through your high school or whatnot, but the Osac state scholarships and these are through the state of Oregon, and they're specifically for Oregon residents.

Washington has what's called the washboard.org. It's another database search for scholarships. If you're a Washington student, the Hawaii Community Foundation. If you're from Hawaii, has some really great scholarship opportunities. And then there's a link to nasva.org where they have a map that you can select your state and it will direct you to your local state.

Financial aid programs and any scholarship programs that they have, so again, you will get a copy of these slides, but these are just some other examples of where you can search for scholarships and to consider what your state may have to offer. I will say with the organo SAC state scholarships the application closes on March 1st, so we're getting close, so if that's something that you are hoping to apply for.

I have been thinking about but haven't made any moves on yet. At the application will be closing next month, so just something to be aware of.

So then broadening your search even more, UM, online databases. So I do want to.

Encourage you to be cautious with online databases. They can be a really great resource. They can provide some really great opportunities. They can also give you a really good idea as to what to look for when trying to narrow down your search. When you see the different criteria and eligibility requirements at different places are looking for, but there are definitely things to be cautious of and aware of, so some things to keep in mind. It's just to always.

Beware of scams and this just goes with whenever you're searching for things on the Internet, but you should never have to pay to apply for a scholarship and you should never have to get like personal banking or credit information. Typically if you do receive a scholarship, what will happen is the scholarship organization will send a check directly to the institution, so if you attend George Fox we would in the financial aid office, receive the scholarship check and then we would apply it to your account.

So there's not really any reason for them to have your personal banking or credit information and then just to remember to prioritize your time. Applicant pools become much much larger when you start searching online, so I really want to encourage you first to utilize searching in your communities, because that's where you're gonna have the best shot to receive a scholarship and then to slowly make your way towards searching those online databases.

There's a couple listed here. UM, and a useful tip is can be to create a scholarship email so this can be an email that you use specifically for these online databases as often a lot of the times they'll ask you to create a profile.

And that way you have a scholarship email where all the different opportunities and information can easily be accessible and filtered out from your other personal or school emails. So just something to consider if you decide to search through those online databases.

This is a list of some other scholarship opportunities you can consider. A lot of these are organ specific, UM. However, like the Trinity Scholars Program is one that's specific to the Pacific Northwest. UM again, you'll receive a copy of these slides, but these are just some opportunities to be aware of and to think about.

The Oregon Community Foundation is semi tide to Osac and it's another one that closes on March 1st. So something to think about. But another good thing to put into practice is to file your FAFSA or if your need to fill out an alternative or if you're undocumented, filling out the ORSA and thus this is because sometimes scholarships will take into account to financial need and they're going to look at the facts it to do so.

And that's specific with oh SAC state scholarships as well. So if you haven't filed your FAFSA yet, make sure to do so. That will be a really helpful other first step to take in applying for scholarships, but these are some opportunities that we've found for you that I would encourage you to take a look at.

George Fox also has some opportunities, so we have a handful of freshman donor funded scholarships. Uhm, I believe we're gonna send you the link here in the chat if you want to take a look and they are pretty specific in what they're searching for, but go ahead and take a look and see if maybe you would be eligible to apply once you are a student at George Fox. We have our continuing student donor funded scholarships, so there's an additional 200 scholarships that you could potentially apply for.

Next year, once you're enrolled as a freshman, so just something to look forward to and to know that there will be additional opportunities as a continuing student.

And then, of course, there's the merit scholarships and Scholarships summit, which is what you're working on here this evening. Uhm, so for more questions about those, you can put them in the chat here or reach out to your admissions counselor and they'll be able to help you navigate those.

Alright, so so far we've covered up when to look for scholarships. Kind of what the general timeline looks like, where to search for scholarships. The big one. And now we're just going to really, really briefly cover a couple of tips on writing scholarship essays, because a big part of the application process is the essay and oftentimes that is gonna be. Maybe what makes you stand out from your peers.

So some questions to consider when writing this essay is what are the donors looking for? What are the scholarship committees looking for UM? And they're looking for answers to these questions. They wanna know who you are. They want to know what you care about and they want to know what you have in common.

So.

It can be a really helpful and useful tool to do a little research on who who is providing this scholarship. The organization, the foundation, the business, figure out their values and then use that to build a connection with them and get the answers to these questions.

A couple of other things to think about. One is to always make sure you answer the question come. Oftentimes there'll be some sort of personal statement essay and will ask a prompt and you really wanna make sure that you are answering that prompt so consistently. Go back and make sure that you're staying on track because oftentimes it's easy to kind of go on a rabbit trail or to lose sight of what the initial question is. So always just make sure you're going back to that question.

And providing a clear answer.

Stick to the word count. This is another. This is an instance where you don't want to go above and beyond in a sense of they ask for a 500 word statement and you write.

1500 words think about the fact that there's potentially quite a few essays or applications that are being looked through and they really want you to stick to the word count and sticking under the word count is actually going to be beneficial to you in this ties back to one of our other tips here, which is to be clear and concise in your writing and to keep it as skimming friendly as possible. Because again, just thinking through that.

There could be quite a few essays and applications that these committees are searching through, so put the most important information first that you wanna be sure to get across and then know that there is the potential that there could be some skimming happening in the bulk of of your essay. So keep it as clear and concise as possible.

Show, don't tell so you can if you're, let's say you're considering going into nursing or healthcare field, you can tell me that you care about others. But can you show me or give me an example?

That displays you caring for others. That's going to really make you stand out more so and produce a stronger asset and then making your beliefs fact statements. So instead of thinking or saying, I, you know I feel or I think I deserve this scholarship because using language that's more like I I deserve this scholarship or I am a good candidate for this scholarship because so keep that strong.

Language that presents yourself in a very like, courageous and strong and bold way. It's gonna really help. So these are just some tips we have some really great videos on our webpage so we've looked at UM when to start looking for scholarships? Where to look for scholarships? And then how to write scholarship essays. And in those videos.

On the scholarship Resource Center webpage on the George Fox website, we dive a little bit deeper into some of these and for the essay one in particular provide a couple of examples of what it might look like to utilize some of those tips, so I would really would encourage you to head over there. And if you just search scholarship Resource Center on the George Fox website, you'll be able to find it pretty easily.

And to look into those and they can kind of help you along as well with some of this process.

But that is dumb.

Pig intro into the world of scholarships, so if you have any questions, I know that that we uhm covered quite a bit here and pretty quickly. Please go ahead and put them in the chat and.

Hi Ryan

and we will go ahead and answer them to the best of our ability, but you'll also see here we have the contact information for myself for the Admissions office and then also for the financial aid office. So if you have other questions that maybe aren't related to scholarships but are related to financial aid like the FAFSA or you just wanna connect with your financial aid counselor, you can also reach out there. But we'll see if.

We have any questions here.

And I think we have Guadalupe with us. She's been kind of monitoring to see if there's any questions or things coming in and so she might pop on here in a in a minute to to ask any of those, but go ahead and get those typed out if you if you have them.

Hello.

Hi.

So we have a couple questions. One of the question I think is more for Ryan. I'm so.

I'm I'm I'm a similar transfer student, so they won't be coming entering in a freshman. Is there any opportunities for those that are entering as juniors in terms of scholarships?

I don't wanna fall off.

Yeah.

I'll go ahead and add the scholarship submit and link in the chat as well.

Another question was I think this is more general. I have actually I could actually answer it, it's.

If a student wants to try to log into their George Fox email, do they have to make a Gmail account?

Clinton.

Hold on.

And to kind of jump off of that if you are considering applying for our incoming freshmen donor funded scholarships. If you think you may be eligible for one of those, you do need to use your George Fox email to apply because the application is in the form of a Google form, so just something to be aware of. If you do go into acts or try to access that application and if you have trouble, then yeah, you can reach out to to your admissions counselor or to.

Whoever you have the best relationship with and we can help to to get that sorted out for you.

I'm not.

I'm not going.

And those.

Have any other questions about scholarships?

That seems to be all the questions that we have.

OK.

Uhm well uhm, thank you everyone. So if you know you we have our contact information here. So if anything comes up UM that you didn't think of here or you know you just have a thought later on. Please feel free to reach out and we'll be happy to help you. But thanks for for listening and for joining and look out for that email with these slides and additional.

Access to those scholarship opportunities that were here.

Yeah.

All.

I don't know how, but hold on hold on.

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