[nabs-l] Different places to get Scholarships?

Tue Jul 24 23:05:44 UTC 2012

Mary had a good point. Blindness organizations seem to be unique. The
NFB of NC scholarship I won was the only one that gave me the check.
The others were forwarded right to my school.

Cindy

On 7/24/12, Mary Fernandez <trillian551 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
> There are many resources when graduating high school. My high school
> actually had an award ceremony. Basically, if you were a great
> student, very active, good grades etc., the guidance counselors would
> submit your name to various organizations around our township that
> gave out small awards to graduating students. It was actually a
> really, really nice thing, I got about four of those, that added up to
> $7,000. One of them was from the Rotary club, you can apply to your
> local branch. If you win that award, they are actually refreshable.
> So, you can submit your name each year and depending on your college
> GPA you can get another chunk of money from them. Along with that
> thought, the ELMS Club, Lions,, Knights of Columbus, and maybe even
> the Moose Lodge might have specific local awards. Sometimes the local
> Fire Fighters will have a small award for graduating high school
> students. And of course,, as you go on in college you will be eligible
> to other awards. Be aware that some scholarships, like the NFB and
> other private institutions will send you a personl check. Others will
> send the check directly to your school's financial AID office.
> Depending on what kind of financial aid you have, you might then get a
> refund check. In college I lived for refund checks!Like Cindy said,
> definitely check to see if your college has a national scholarships
> and awards offices. Often these are highly competitive, but many
> colleges have internal awards that you can apply for. If you would
> like to apply for Roads, Marshal, Soros, Fulbright, Truman,  and other
> nationally competitive scholarships, colleges often have an internal
> application process, and will then refer the applications they find
> the most qualified on to those scholarship committees. Keep that GPA
> nice and high and apply, apply, apply, you never know what you might
> win. After all, someone has to win them ,right?
> Mary
>
> On 7/24/12, Cynthia Bennett <clb5590 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm sorry. I got the fastweb URL wrong. But those are other great
>> resources. I'm sure that many states have college websites that help
>> you find colleges, apply, and find scholarships. NC's is www.cfnc.org.
>> So search for something like that. But a meeting with your guidance
>> counselor is definitely a good idea. They will have that kind of
>> information for you. My school had the Lion's club application on hand
>> since it was for all students, but if yours doesn't, it wouldn't hurt
>> calling a member of the club and asking.
>>
>> Cindy
>>
>> On 7/24/12, Humberto Avila <avila.bert.humberto2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> The lions club in my area does not offer any scholarships. I've asked
>>> them,
>>> and they said that they didn't offer any. They just give out special
>>> equipment for low vision offered through their low vision clinic and, if
>>> you
>>> request and get them to, they'll be willing to give other equipment.
>>>
>>> By the way, thank you for all these scholarship searches. I will
>>> consider
>>> these that you've sent out, and to you, Cynthia, thanks for yours also.
>>> I
>>> have also some suggestions. If you ever feel like you have a great sense
>>> of
>>> luck, there are a bunch of context-like and drawing-like scholarships,
>>> also
>>> called "sweepstakes", that you can apply for. Providers such as:
>>> 1.  Fastweb, http://www.fastweb.com/
>>> 2.  College Prowler, http://www.collegeProwler.com/
>>> 3.  Cappex, http://www.cappex.com/
>>> 4.  MulahSpot, http://www.MulahSpot.com
>>>
>>> And many others, one word of wisdom though. Don't rely on these as much
>>> as
>>> you would rely on, for example, the blindness ones. However, it doesn't
>>> hurt
>>> to apply for some or all of these; who knows if you are the winner, and
>>> then
>>> what? You go to college without Rehabilitation agencies paying for you!
>>> (Smile).
>>>
>>> You can also setup a profile on many websites that also attempt to give
>>> you
>>> with scholarship search results for you. Web sites such as:
>>> 1.  www.collegeanswer.com/
>>> 2.  www.fastWeb.com/
>>> 3.  www.scholarshipDetective.com/
>>> 4.  www.scholarships.com/
>>> If you live in Washington State, there is a free web-based tool that you
>>> can
>>> setup a profile with, it is http://www.theWashBoard.org.
>>>
>>> Have a nice day and happy scholarship hunting!
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>>> Behalf
>>> Of Brandon Keith Biggs
>>> Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2012 12:33 PM
>>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Different places to get Scholarships?
>>>
>>> Hello,
>>> Here's the Jewish guild scholarship website:
>>> http://www.jgb.org/guildscholar.asp?GS=TRue
>>> They are one of the largest scholarships I've seen.
>>> Just for reference, $1000 is average, $10000 is exceptional. $500 is
>>> pretty
>>>
>>> good.
>>> Jewish Guild is $10000-15000 and they are for high school students.
>>> Also attached is a document that talks about scholarships for the blind.
>>> There were some I've never heard of, but that I'm totally going to apply
>>> for!
>>>
>>> Also about the Lions Club, if you Google Lions club and your area, you
>>> should get a list of clubs in your area. I've never applied for lions
>>> club
>>> scholarships, but I plan on doing that this next year. I'm guessing that
>>> you
>>>
>>> call them in the fall and or send them emails and say that you want to
>>> know
>>>
>>> if they offer any scholarships to ambitious young college students.
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Brandon Keith Biggs
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Cynthia Bennett
>>> Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:50 AM
>>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Different places to get Scholarships?
>>>
>>> Brandon:
>>>
>>> You ask a very important question. I divided my senior year into
>>> halves. I spent the fall applying for schools and the spring applying
>>> for scholarships. This isn't always the best way, but that's what I
>>> ended up doing. There are a plethora of resources regarding
>>> scholarships. I would first look at the schools in which you are
>>> applying. Your application for admission will put you into some
>>> scholarship pools if basic criteria like GPA or SAT score are met. But
>>> some universities have more competitive scholarship programs that have
>>> separate applications. Even if you are already a student, many
>>> entities on campus have awards. For example, if you have been
>>> volunteering with the counseling clinic on campus, they might have a
>>> scholarship program. I know the psychology department at my school did
>>> a scholarship, and so did our chapter of Psi Chi. Sometimes these
>>> awards are smaller, but anything helps, and within university
>>> recognition will always help you if you want to apply for other
>>> accolades like doing an honors project or working in a research lab.
>>>
>>> You missed a couple of blindness-related scholarships. I know the
>>> Jewish Guild for the Blind gives out a nice award each year which is
>>> pretty competitive. Also, several Lions clubs have scholarship
>>> programs. Many Lions clubs accept applications from sighted students
>>> as well because of the lack of competition among blind students in a
>>> local area.
>>>
>>> www.fastweb.net is a potential resource. I personally thought it an
>>> absolute mess, but it would be worth your time setting up a profile.
>>> It is a giant database of scholarships, and you can enter in all of
>>> your information, and it will pull up scholarships that you are
>>> supposedly eligible for. Supposedly is an important word though. You
>>> need to triple check. You will see lots of giant scholarship programs
>>> for corporate companies like Coke and Wal-Mart. Go ahead and fill them
>>> out. The applications take about 5 minutes. But the way I see it is
>>> that if that is all the effort you have to put into the application,
>>> the winner is basically drawn. It wouldn't hurt to dedicate a small
>>> fraction of your time to those applications though just to test your
>>> luck. But you have to be careful. Any application asking for sensitive
>>> information should be carefully scrutinized. You should never provide
>>> your social security number or credit card number. Yeah, some
>>> scholarships are definitely gimmicks to get your money. Why anyone
>>> would pay money to win a scholarship, I don't know. So the moral of
>>> the story is that fastweb can be good, but as you will see in the
>>> following paragraph, local is better. If you are applying for
>>> scholarships based on financial need, you might have to provide your
>>> ssn. But, I would talk to a resource in person such as the examples I
>>> am about to give, because they will know the legit financial need
>>> based scholarships.
>>>
>>> Every school has some type of scholarship office. If you are in high
>>> school, it will be in the guidance counselor's office. If you are in
>>> college, then there will probably be an entire office dedicated to it
>>> or somehow connected to financial aid. These offices are the best in
>>> my opinion, because they have information about local scholarships.
>>> Local scholarships are better, because they might present less
>>> competition. If a scholarship requires that you attend a school in NC,
>>> or whatever state you're from, or if it even requires that you went to
>>> a certain high school, or to school in a certain city, you could be
>>> narrowing your competition. However, the bigger advantage is that your
>>> local involvement will mean more to the scholarship committee. There
>>> will likely be members with kids who do the same volunteering, or
>>> members that still volunteer with the organizations in which you are
>>> involved. I received 4 scholarships my freshman year of college, and 3
>>> of them were local scholarships given to me at the awards ceremony my
>>> senior year. Look for state-wide applications as well. Some pan
>>> disability organizations offer scholarships. One of mine came from a
>>> family in NC who had a son with a disability who unfortunately passed
>>> away. So the family set up a scholarship for anyone with a disability.
>>>
>>> The possibilities are endless, and as you can see, scholarship finding
>>> and applying can become a full-time job. So I would encourage you to
>>> concentrate on scholarships that are really looking for the strengths
>>> that you have or scholarships in which you fit more than the average
>>> criteria. Blindness-related scholarships are a great resource, but I
>>> would encourage you to get out of that mold. I personally enjoyed the
>>> 2 scholarships I had with interviews, because it gave me a second
>>> chance to prove myself, and many locally based scholarships conduct
>>> interviews with their top candidates.
>>>
>>> Cindy
>>>
>>>
>>> On 7/24/12, Brandon Keith Biggs <brandonkeithbiggs at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Hello,
>>>> I thought this thread would be good for those of us in college and in
>>>> high
>>>> school.
>>>> Where can one get scholarships?
>>>> The NFB has their large 30 scholarship program:
>>>> http://www.nfb.org/scholarship-program
>>>> ACB has their smaller but still substantial scholarship program:
>>>> http://acb.org/node/148
>>>> Light House has a rather large scholarship:
>>>>
>>> http://www.lighthouse.org/services-and-assistance/scholarship-award-programs
>>> /
>>>> AFB Has scholarships:
>>>> https://www.afb.org/section.aspx?Documentid=2962
>>>> CCLVI:
>>>> http://www.cclvi.org/scholarships/
>>>> ABC:
>>>> http://www.abc.org/Education_Training/Scholarships.aspx
>>>> Association of Blind Citizens
>>>> http://www.blindcitizens.org/abc_scholarship.htm
>>>> Learning Ally
>>>> http://www.learningally.org/Scholarship-Opportunities-Information/615/
>>>>
>>>> Your financial aid should have a website or list of places to get
>>>> scholarships. There are scholarships like the Jack Kent Cook
>>>> Foundation:
>>>> http://www.jkcf.org/
>>>> and all the other places listed on this page:
>>>> http://www.radford.edu/~nchc/other-links.htm
>>>> Gates, Churchill, Carnegie, Goldwater, Javits... All those rich
>>>> families
>>>> have scholarships.
>>>> clubs like 4-H, Girl Scouts, Pathfinders, FFA, ROTC, Basketball,
>>>> Toastmaster's...
>>>> Interest groups like NAACP, National Rifle Association and the
>>>> Christian
>>>> Coalition also have scholarships.
>>>>
>>>> I'd like to know where other people get their scholarships from?
>>>> Where do sighted people get scholarships? The above is mostly
>>>> scholarships
>>>> for the blind...
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Brandon Keith Biggs
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Cynthia Bennett
>>> B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington
>>>
>>> clb5590 at gmail.com
>>> 828.989.5383
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Cynthia Bennett
>> B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington
>>
>> clb5590 at gmail.com
>> 828.989.5383
>>
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>
>
> --
> Mary Fernandez
> Emory 2012
> "A pioneer is not someone who makes her own soap. She is one who takes
> up her burdens and walks toward the future."
> --
> Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
>
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-- 
Cynthia Bennett
B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington

clb5590 at gmail.com
828.989.5383