Scholarships available to GCSU campus

According to GCSU scholarship coordinator Jarris Lanham, students who take the time are usually the one’s who reap the most rewards. According to Lanham and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, these are some easy steps to winning a scholarship for the 2010-2011 school year:

1. Consult the Office of Financial Aid

Located in Parks Hall, the office assists students in applying for the largest amount of financial aid. Lanham is available to help research scholarships, grants and loans according to individual student’s need.

2. Utilize free scholarship search engines

FastWeb.com and ScholarshipExperts.com are two of the most dependable and trustworthy. Some Web sites match student’s attributions to scholarships. Students should be weary of handing out too much personal information.

3. Check out the local community

Many civic organizations, places of worship, banks, utility providers and business organizations often offer small aid awards. “Students may have to contact the national office (not their local manager) to find out the details,” Lanham said.

4. Contact your academic department

Check for any specialized scholarships that are relevant to your life. Many departments receive offers and post them near their offices.

5. Pick a challenge

Scholarships that require extra work receive fewer applicants, and thus have a higher chance to win. Applications involving essays get overlooked often.

6. Know the secret, small scholarships

According to NASFAA, “studies show that families often overlook scholarships that are less than $500.” By loading up in small scholarships college costs will still decrease significantly.

7. Apply early

Make an effort to turn in the scholarship applications early.

8. Never assume

There are thousands of scholarships lurking out there for all types of characteristics, GPA’s, hobbies, even genetic traits. Anyone can get a scholarship if they try.

Before starting these steps all students must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which prepares them for awards and puts alerts them others.

Junior Courtney Kelly, a mass communication major was awarded $5,000 for the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Newspaper Advertising and Marketing Executives Scholarship on Feb. 16. The scholarship also included an all-expense-paid trip to the Mid-Atlantic N.A.M.E. Summer Convention in Charlotte, N.C., in June.

After Kelly created an advertisement for her fall 2009 advertising class with professor Angela Criscoe, she learned about the scholarship opportunity. The assignment for class was to design an advertisement promoting awareness of binge drinking. Students had the option to send in their designs to the contest.

After the project, Kelly only had to write a 200-500 word statement for the judges. As Kelly put it: “All we really had to do was mail it in.”

Kelly looks forward to benefiting from being awarded the scholarship for next school year.

“First of all, now I can focus all my energy on my classes rather than balancing my budget,” Kelly said. “It also confirmed my major for me. By them recognizing what I did it gives me a boost of confidence for my future career.”

Initially, Kelly was unsure whether she was going to apply. Now, with the aid coming in, she said she’s incredibly thankful she took the time.

Courtney Kelly is a staff writer for The Colonnade.

Posted by Chelsea Thomas on Mar 5 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry