Money available for left-handed students, golf caddies and more
Published in the March 19-April 1, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Jan Bergkamp
As the clock ticks down to the graduation date for local high school seniors, many are now looking toward heading to higher academic pursuits at universities and colleges.
As the scholarship coordinator at Live Oak High School’s college and career center, Jan Bergkamp works with many of these students in finding money to pay the expenses of higher education. Morgan Hill Life recently invited Bergkamp to share words of advice to students in pursuing scholarship dollars.
There are many scholarships available for high school seniors going to college. Why is it important for the students to take the time to apply for this money?
The costs for all colleges just keep going up and up. Scholarships are a great way to help, and they are free. I tell students to think of applying for scholarships as a part-time job. It can be time-consuming to fill out all the applications, write the essays, get the letters of recommendations and transcripts, and everything else, but it can pay off immensely. If it takes a student a couple hours to fill out an application, and the scholarship is worth just $500, the student just made $250 an hour if they receive the scholarship. If students are willing to put in the time, they can avoid having to take out loans to help pay for college. Loans take a lot longer to pay back than the amount of time that it takes to fill out scholarship applications.
What are some of the more unusual scholarships that are out there?
The first one that comes to mind is a scholarship for the best prom dress or entire couple’s attire made out of duct tape. There’s also scholarships for tall students (5’10” and taller for girls and 6’2” and taller for boys). There are scholarships for golf caddies, left-handed students, and hip-hop dancers.
What might be two or three of the largest scholarships available for students and who provides them?
The largest scholarship that I am aware of is the Gates Millennium Scholars Award. This scholarship pays for all college costs that a student has that are not taken care of by financial aid or other scholarships. It will pay as long as a student needs to graduate with a 4-year degree and for graduate school as well. All of the military academies (Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, West Point) pay for everything for students who are accepted. Of course, students are then required to serve in the military for at least four years after graduation. Two others that come to mind are the Most Valuable Student Scholarship given by the National Elks Foundation ($60,000) and the Northern California Scholarship Foundation ($32,000)
How can students learn from career center people like yourself what scholarships are available?
Deadlines for scholarships are all year long, from August through July.
Most are for seniors, but there are some for younger high school students. There are lots of search engines for scholarships, such as fastweb.com, studentscholarships.org, findtuition.com — the list goes on and on. Here at Live Oak High School I keep our website (http://liveoakhs.ca.campusgrid.net) updated with “The Latest Scholarship Information from the Career Center,” which is listed by due date. I keep last year’s scholarships on the list, so students can get an idea of what’s coming up. Students can also just google scholarships based on their interests, ethnicities, major in college, parents’ employers, etc. In Morgan Hill, our high schools have a Common Scholarship Application form that seniors can fill out and submit in the fall that puts them in the running for many of the local scholarships that are available, such as the Mushroom Mardi Gras, Lions Club, AAUW, Ag Foundation and many more.
