Staff Writer
Students applying for scholarships need to have good grades, considerable community experience and extra-curricular activities on their resumes.
And, it is not enough just to participate students need to show leadership in those activities.
“Judges like to see growth in leadership,” Paula Ash, who gives seminars to help students with the scholarship process, said. “That they haven’t just been in an organization.”
It definitely helps to work a part-time job, too. Having a job shows a student knows the value of the money a scholarship contributes because they have experience earning it themselves.
“They don’t want their money to go down a black hole,” Marion High School guidance counselor Phoebe Janzen said.
Once they have all of those qualifications, students need to fill out an application, but they can’t be sloppy because organizations and schools will deduct points for that.
Next, students have to work on an essay selling themselves as a good student, a good person, and a leader. Some modesty doesn’t hurt.
“I try to tell them that any application is a marketing tool,” Ash said.
If these tests have been passed, a student might be in the running for a scholarship. But there are some factors beyond a student’s control: they have to financially qualify (they have to need the money), they are competing against thousands of other students who — on paper at least — look just as good, and they are at the mercy of the judges, who aren’t computers but people who make subjective decisions.
Currently, there are sophomores at Marion High School starting the scholarship application process. It is never too early if you want a scholarship, especially a competitive one like the Elks National Foundation 2010 Most Valuable Student Scholarship Application; their No. 1 national winner gets $60,000.
A $60,000 scholarship makes the difference between a school in state or an out-of-state private school. Three boys from the state of Kansas have won the national Elks scholarship, and one of them ended up at Washington University in St. Louis.
Kaylyn Spencer, a Marion High School senior, doesn’t have lofty aspirations to go to Harvard — she wants to go to Tabor College to study business accounting — but she has been working hard to fill out as many scholarship applications as she can get her hands on.
“Any of them I could do,” she said, “I just grabbed.”
Spencer said that she is about half way through the Elks scholarship application process. She has sent in the application and still has to write a small essay.
How does Spencer stack up?
Her grades are good enough to put her in the top 10 percent of her class.
She has been a big sister in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for three years.
She has worked at Marion Elementary School.
She is part of the Future Business Leaders of America and National Honor Society.
Finally, she plays flute in the school band.
Another Marion High School senior has already received a scholarship. Sam Ehrlich has accepted the Kansas Junior Livestock Association Scholarship. To qualify with the KJLA, Ehrlich had to exhibit one of his cows at a show. He ranked third out of the 15 awardees and should receive between $1,750 and $2,000. He’s leaning heavily toward attending Kansas State.
In the next two weeks, Janzen will have met with every MHS student. She has already met with all of the seniors and juniors to discuss ACT scores and college plans.
Janzen is informing the students of scholarships that are available such as the Wendy’s High School Heisman, which is specifically for student athletes. Any student with at least a 3.0 GPA that excelled in at least one sport qualifies.
She also gives students general college advice. She tells students not to decide on a school before going there at least once.
“I can remember arguing with one student about going to one school,” Janzen said. “I’ll set the students up with visits.”
This week, Janzen is speaking with sophomores. She talks with each student about his or her future interests and then encourages students to look at certain school’s Web sites based on those interests.
She knows which schools have the best programs in the state for certain subjects. She knows that Wichita State University and The University of Kansas are the only schools with aeronautical engineering programs in the state.
She can also recommend programs based on a student’s personality.
“I think if (a student) is real quiet they could get lost at a big school,” she said.
The Elks scholarship deadline is Nov. 2. The Wendy’s High School Heisman deadline has already passed; the school winners will be announced on Oct. 22.