Scholarships

Scholarships constitute the fourth form of funding your education. The process of applying for scholarships is also different and DOES NOT involve the FAFSA form. There are different types of scholarships as it will be described below.

I) College and universities:

They will always have a general scholarship for all entering students. Most schools like Houston Community College (HCC), University of Houston-Downtown (UHD), and Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) have a separate scholarship application that a student must complete. Below is a quick break down of local college scholarships.

HCC Open $500 and up

UHD 2.7 GPA $750 per semester

UH 600 verbal SAT/ 600 math $1500 per semester

PVAMU SAT 1010/SAT 1100 Varies (from $6,400 to $9,000 per year)

Remember that many colleges and universities will have individual department scholarships. For example, HCC and UHD offer additional scholarships for students majoring in science or mathematics. The same is the case for Prairie View A&M University with scholarships for students in Business, Chemistry and Biology to name a few.

II) Private companies & organizations:

Almost all major companies and many local companies offer good scholarships.

For example: Conoco-Phillips offers a number of local scholarship for students who show fi nancial need, write a good essay, and have a strong community service record. Last year very few students applied to these scholarships.

Then there are many national organization and local organizations that offer scholarships.

For example: Windows of Opportunity is a local scholarship created by a lady’s group for students wishing to attend college in Houston, who have shown improvement. The idea is not to have all A’s but to show that you’ve progressively brought your grades up.

II) Writing Contest:

Many organizations sponsor writing contest. Sometimes these are for scholarships, cash prizes, or even computers.

Remember some scholarships will stress grades and SAT scores while others will look at need and still

others your essay and community service record.

Scholarship Basics

WARNING:

1

^st

: Never trust any scholarship application sent directly to your home. Often times these are companies that say they will help you fi nd scholarships if you will pay them a fee. Never, never, ever pay anybody to help you complete your FAFSA or to locate scholarships for you.

2

^nd

: Never pay money to compete in a scholarship or contest.

WHERE TO FIND SCHOLARSHIPS?

1

^st

: Start at the college center of your high school. Some of them create scholarship bulletins every two to three weeks which are geared to minorities and immigrants. If you are not provided with the complete applications, log on to the scholarship’s website and downloaded from there.

2

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: Sign up for internet scholarship sites, such as Fast web.com. The web sites will search out scholarships for you and email you the names and links.

3

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: Always be on the look out for scholarships. The Spanish and English media often will advertise local scholarships. Ask at different stores if they have a scholarship. Many supermarket chains have scholarships for their employees.

WHEN TO FIND SCHOLARSHIPS?

Year round! The scholarship hunt is like a long race. You want to pace yourself. Starting in August you will be hearing on the media and the internet about new scholarships.

Starting in October you will see more and more scholarships. Generally, the scholarship season peeks at about March. Pay especially close attention between Dec. to Jan. Students often get off track of the Christmas holidays and will miss several important scholarship deadlines.

Take note, though, some of the best scholarships come out in April and May and even a few in June!

HOW TO APPLY:

Most scholarships no days can be downloaded. Instead of writing a letter and asking for

a scholarship, it’s better to go the company or organization’s website and down load the

application.

Most Common Mistakes on a Scholarship Application!

1) Deadlines: How many times has a student picked up a scholarship (sometimes up three times) and has put the project off and off until the deadline is past?

Often times you will see the word POSTMARKED on a scholarship application. That means it has to be into the post offi ce by 5:00 PM on that day. Other times the scholarship will say, “Application must arrive at _____.” This means that you must mail the application at least three to fi ve days before it is due.

Remember, the key to doing a lot of scholarships is DOING them. As soon as you get a scholarship, complete it!

2) Not Complete: You must complete the entire application!

o If the application asks for a picture, then buy a cheap disposal camera and take some pictures of yourself. If the scholarship asks for a color picture, then supply that. It’s a good idea to buy a packet of wallet photos of yourself your senior year.

o Make sure to have several transcripts copied.

o Letters of recommendation.

3) Follow Directions: Each scholarship will have its own set of directions. Some applications will want your name and address on the top of the application. Others will want you to sign and date your essay. Some will want the material stapled. Some will want you to make multiple copies. The LAST step of turning a scholarship in is to review the DIRECTIONS!

4) Grammar: This cannot be stressed ENOUGH. Your essays must be proofread. I will often make students write their essays FIVE times before I edit out all of their grammatical problems. Once a student works with me though he has a very clean essay that he can use over and over!

Always save your essays, resumes, and recommendations on two disks.

Keep a back up on a computer somewhere.

Always save your essays, resumes, and recommendations on two disks.

Keep a back up on a computer somewhere.

What Goes into a Scholarship Application

1) Essay

Often this is the most important part of a scholarship application. Most essays will center around the reason you need fi nancial aid. This is your chance to tell YOUR story. Discuss your set backs in coming to a new country and your triumphs. Be as descriptive as you can and always illustrate your points with examples. Remember, that as an immigrant you have a very unique story to tell. Discuss what it is.

See the handout at the back of his book about how to write good scholarship essays.

Make sure your essay is free of grammatical errors. Always have one or two of your teachers review your essays. You will use the same essay over and over because all of the topics are mostly the same on scholarships. So, it makes sense to spend a lot of time on writing the best essay you can about your experience of coming to the United States, starting back to high school, and now dreaming about attending college.

Generally scholarships are reviewed by a committee. I can say from sitting on many scholarship

committees that a student who turns in an essay with grammatical errors almost never wins. If you give your essay to a teacher, and she gives it back with very few corrections, it might mean that the teacher was busy and didn’t grade it very carefully. So, fi nd another teacher, who will spend the time fi xing your sentence structure.

Always TYPE your essays unless you have to write the essay on the scholarship. Most scholarships though will allow you to type the essay and staple it to the application. Never, turn in an essay in pencil.

2) Community Service

Scholarship committees like to see students who are actively involved in helping their community or their church. Often times immigrant students have to watch their younger brothers and sisters while their parents work, so it’s hard for them to be actively involved in clubs and organizations. If that is your case, then you need to put down as your community service that you are responsible for watching your younger sibling. Be specifi c as to what chores you do to help you family.

Immigrant students (no matter how busy they are) can make time to be active in a club. Even for students who work it is not uncommon to see that on their day off, they would do community service projects with our club.

Below are some ideas for community service:

Tutor: If you are good in math or another subject, volunteer your time to a teacher. It’s

better if you set up a plan with a teacher to help students than simply to do it on

your own. By working with a teacher, this show leadership and organizational

skills. Set up a schedule and make your own worksheets. Be creative.

JIFM: (Jovenes Inmigrantes por un Futuro): this youth group started at Lee High School in Houston. Besides the founding chapter in the high school, JIFM now has four university chapters in Texas as follows:

- Texas A&M University

- University of Houston-Central - University of Houston- Downtown - University of Texas at Austin

JIFM also sends its members to leadership conferences in Washington D.C. and other cities to advocate for immigrant rights, especially the DREAM Act.

Start your own club or ask a teacher to sponsor an organization on your campus, which you are interested in. For example, does your school National Spanish Honors Society?. Finally, it is better to do a few long term activities than join a lot of organizations and not be very involved. Scholarship committees like to see long term commitment.

3) Recommendations

Give people plenty of time. When you ask a teacher for a letter or rec. and give her only a day’s notice, she will not have the time to compose a good letter for you. What you will get will be a plain letter that just says some basic things about you.

Teachers: Find one of your academic teachers to write you a recommendation about your work ethic and creativity.

Community: Look for someone outside the school, whom you have helped. This could be a priest or a youth director.

Disk: Ask your teachers if you can save their recommendations on your disk. Also, ask them to save it on a template of your school’s letterhead. This way, any time you need a recommendation, you can change the name of the scholarship and date, then print and have your teacher to sign it. Trust me, me it gets OLD asking a teacher over and over to write a letter of recommendation every two weeks. So, just copy the recommendation (with THEIR PERMISSION on a disk) and copy it out whenever you need it.

Resume: Always provide the person who writing your recommendation with a resume.

This reminds the recommender of your accomplishment. But remember the

BEST recommendations come from teachers, coaches, principals, and people in

the community who can write about SPECIAL projects and conversations they

had with YOU. Not things simply pulled off the resume!!

4) Resume:

Microsoft word has a good resume “wizard” which will help you create a resume. Also your business teacher or any teacher for that matter can help you create a nice resume.

Make sure to include your school activities from your HOME country. You can also include these activities in your ESSAY! I’ve had a student who was a top swimmer in Cuba and another young lady who was a national champion gymnast in Mexico. They both got a lot of scholarships because people were impressed with how much they had accomplished in their home countries!

5) Grades & SAT scores:

Many scholarships will want to see that you taken the SAT. If the scholarship is based on need, then a low SAT score will not matter. Also ask your counselor or principal for your grade and your class rank. You will need this as well.

Remember, if you qualify for free lunch you can take the SAT two times free!

The fi rst test is in October and the DEADLINE is at the beginning of September.