Every semester, the SCCC Foundation disseminates thousands of dollars to SCCC students—incoming, continuing, and graduating—to help them meet their educational goals. Often this money helps them cut back on work hours so they can devote more time and energy to their studies or helps ease the stress of being able to afford textbooks and supplies.
I can tell you from teaching at SCCC for two decades that a major frustration for faculty is that we aren't able to distribute some of the available funding simply because NO STUDENTS APPLY. We hear from too many students that they either don't have time or convince themselves, often incorrectly, that they aren't eligible. So my advice is for you to apply to any scholarship for which you even think you might be eligible. If you're the only one raising their hand, guess who's going to get that money? And we honestly and truly are heartbroken by every scholarship that goes unawarded. So please, do this!
1) RESEARCH AND SELECT A SCHOLARSHIP
For this assignment, you will pick one scholarship that you might reasonably consider applying for and draft a personal/narrative statement or essay. Whether you actually use it to apply for any scholarships, of course, is entirely up to you (I understand that some of you may not need scholarship funding).
But the idea here is 1) to make you aware of the scholarship and funding opportunities and 2) to give you a chance to draft a statement and get feedback on it, as personal statements are often needed for transfer applications as well. So it's good practice.
** If you are truly ineligible for any of the ones listed on the college website, as an alternative if you're close to graduation, you could find a scholarship at your transfer college and use that for this assignment—or you could draft something that you might use as your personal narrative for your transfer application.
- Go to the SCCC Scholarships search page and enter the Online Scholarship System.
- Click the link to view the Opportunities. You can use the Filters box at top right to help narrow down what best applies to you (e.g., by keyword, scope, campus, or major) or, if you prefer to browse through them all, please note at the bottom that there are four pages of scholarship listings (presented in alphabetical order). Write down any and all that apply to you.
- Next, go back to the main SCCC Scholarships search page and give special consideration to the highlighted scholarships on the right side: Get There From Here, Honors Program, NYS Excelsior, Stay on Long Island, and NYS Presidential Transfer scholarships.
Knowing what's valued for the Stay on Long Island scholarships now, for example, can help you decide how to get involved in extracurricular activities so that by the time you graduate with an associate's degree, you can be very well positioned to receive at least a partial if not full scholarship to a four-year college or university on LI like Hofstra, St. John's, Molloy, Adelphi, Stony Brook, Long Island University, New York Institute of Technology, Farmingdale or Old Westbury.
SCCC has a strong track record at helping our graduates nab those full rides! So look into the SOLII scholarships now, especially if you're in your first semester here.
- Finally, go look at the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. This is a major national scholarship that awards up to $40,000 per year for your junior and and up to $40,000 for your senior year—yes, you read that right—to students who are graduating from community colleges to transfer into four-year universities. They put the price point that high because they encourage community college students to apply to top-tier universities.
I have personally helped 4-5 students apply for the JKC scholarship, and they have WON! So please look at the requirements now and talk to me if you're interested in learning more. JKC puts a special focus on awards to students who have overcome significant personal obstacles and yet are high achieving students (lots of campus or community involvement, GPA of 3.75/3.8 or higher, extracurricular involvement, etc.). I would be honored to chat with anyone who thinks they'd like to apply.
The odds of receiving a JKC tend to hover around 20%, but, hey, those are better odds than winning the lottery. And receiving a JKC scholarship feels like winning the lottery... again, it's up to $40,000 for your junior year and up to $40,000 for your senior year.
2) WRITE YOUR PERSONAL NARRATIVE/SCHOLARSHIP STATEMENT
Once you find a scholarship that most closely applies to you, whether it's for $250 or $40,000, read about what's required to be eligible and to apply. You'll use those guidelines to help shape your personal narrative/statement for this assignment.
The length of the statement is typically indicated in the scholarship description but if not, aim for between 250-500 words and post it in Discussions. Be sure to include the name of the scholarship, the question/guidelines provided, and the word count (if applicable).