Soroptimist International of Monroe County, Mich., invites local women to apply for monetary awards to help them in pursuing higher education.

The following awards are available:

• The Violet Richardson Award honors a 14- to 17-year-old for her commitment to make the world a better place through volunteer activities. This is a $1,000 award; the deadline to apply is Dec. 1.
• The Women’s Opportunity Award gives women the resources they need to improve their education, skills and employment prospects. Eligible applicants must be women who provide the primary financial support for their families and who are enrolled in or have been accepted to a vocational/skills training program or an undergraduate degree program. This is a $1,000 award; the deadline to apply is Dec. 15.
• The Virginia Wagner Educational Award honors a woman who is pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree in her chosen field. Emphasis is put on scholarship and effort toward education. This is a $1,000 award; the deadline to apply is Jan. 15.
• The Soroptimist Ruby Award: For Women Helping Women (formerly The Soroptimist Making a Difference for Women Award) acknowledges women who, through their personal or professional activities, work to improve the lives of women and girls. Honorees are ordinary women who have worked in extraordinary ways to benefit women and girls. This is a $500 award to the charity of the honoree’s choice; the deadline to apply is Dec. 1.

Applications for all awards are available by calling Soroptimist member Peg at (734) 242-4935.

Soroptimist International of Monroe County is a part of Soroptimist International of the Americas, a volunteer organization for business and professional women who contribute time and financial support to community-based projects benefiting women and girls.

Inquiries about membership in the Monroe chapter may be directed by calling Lori at (734) 241-6015 or Barb at (734) 243-0489.

Kalamazoo, MI – The Nazareth Association is offering two $1,000 scholarships to undergraduate students who will be a junior or senior attending a Catholic college or university during the 2010-2011 academic year.

Applicants must be full time students and maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA. The application process includes the submission of the Nazareth Association scholarship application, a list of collegiate and extra-curricular activities, all undergraduate transcripts, completion of an essay stating the applicants’ educational and career goals, and three letters of recommendation.  The deadline for the scholarship application is March 15, 2010.

The Nazareth Association is comprised of alumni, friends, and benefactors dedicated to the tradition and mission of Nazareth College, Barbour Hall, Nazareth Academy and the Borgess/St. Camillus/St. Joseph Schools of Nursing.

The scholarship program is intended to support students at Catholic colleges and universities that reflect a purpose and philosophy similar to those institutions.

For further information on the scholarship program, interested persons should contact the Nazareth Association office at (269) 342-1191.

If you are seeking scholarship money and are one of my local readers in Monroe County, Mich., pay close attention to the Classroom Page of The Monroe Evening News during the next two to three months. That page runs on Thursdays and features school news. The Classroom Page is also where my co-workers and I put scholarship announcements such as this one that the foundations and sponsors are asking to be put in the newspaper.

This is one of the few military scholarships that children of reserve and guard families qualify for. You don’t have to live on or near a military base, although the application process is handled through the commissaries such as the one at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan.

If the child is a registered military family dependent in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, has a current military ID card, has a grade point average of 3.0 or better, and plans to attend college on a full-time basis, he or she can apply. My daughter won one of the 2007 scholarships from this program (Her father / my ex-husband serves in the Army Reserves.)

CinCHouse.com has the details or go to the scholarship page at MilitaryScholar.com

The Michigan State University Library hosts a very extensive list of scholarships aimed at high school seniors and undergraduate students who live in Michigan, or plan to attend a Michigan college. You don’t have to fill out a profile form or read a bunch of advertisements to use this reference. You just scroll through the list to see which notices you or your student might be a good match for.

I sent my daughter, who is a junior in college, three leads from that list that were current and that she’d be eligible for.

I did run across some old links, but just backtrack the url to the hosting site and then search for what you are looking for. The database does have a “last updated” date stamp on each listing so you know how current the details are. Many of them were verified this summer.

Now keep in mind that the very first place to ask about scholarship money is at your high school office and at the financial aid office for the college where you are attending or plan to attend. Those people know where their students are getting money.

The scholarship databases are where you look after you’ve already checked those resources. I hate to say it, but it’s true: none of the scholarship money my daughter won came from a lead in a database. I still look in those lists from time to time, but I don’t get my hopes up.

But I really do like how extensive this MSU database is. Do check it out if you are a Michigan resident.

Tip #1: “Never pay for information that is available free. Ninety-five percent of money for college, including the vast majority of government aid, comes from the institution where the student attends.”

And if you want a free explanation on how college financial aid works, how and when to apply for it and how to maximize your aid eligibility, then go to this article at FinAid.com.

As part of the updated guidelines and procedures for the Girl Scout Gold / Silver / Bronze Awards, Girl Scouts has updated and reposted a scholarship opportunity list for girls who have earned the Gold Award.

Mark Montgomery, a college consultant, has this post: Five essential tips for a perfect college essay.

A snippet:

College applications are very superficial.  The blanks and the spaces in the application require you to fill in basic data about yourself:  parents’ names, grades in school, extracurricular involvements.  It’s all a bunch of facts.  Information devoid of spirit or humanity.

The essay, then, is your chance to show off your humanity, to display some emotion, some soul.

She remembered my daughter was in college, so she asked me about that situation.

Yes, it’s true. Many of the scholarships that students in Monroe County, Mich., actually win are one-time awards in the $500 to $1,000 range.

The awards that local students earn, outside of any college or university scholarships, are typically sponsored by  local civic clubs, charitable organizations or memorial foundation funds. Either the civic club has hit the amount it can comfortably afford (think about it: $1,000 is a lot of money for a club to raise in one year) – or in the case of the Monroe Thrift Shop, the organization has decided to honor as many students as possible with the money they have available.

Basically, as I told my co-worker, a $500 award is one semester’s worth of textbooks. Even if you attend Monroe County Community College, the textbook purchases for one full- time semester will very likely be in the $500 range. I helped a community college first-year student get through the textbook purchase ritual last fall, so I know this is as true for the MCCC students as it is for the four-year college students like my daughter.

The other reason that my daughter has sought out as many of those “little” awards as possible is that her four-year college scholarship pays only part of her expenses. If we’re going to keep the student and parent loans as low as possible, we have to seek out all available alternative funding.

So, yes, even the $500 scholarship can be worth the effort.

While parents across the city are clipping out those articles for scrapbooks, I want those of you who are seeking out scholarship funds – no matter where you live – to read the biographies. These are graduating seniors from a large public high school in Monroe, Mich., who really did earn scholarship money this spring. And the credentials from their resumes are great examples for those who are applying for scholarship awards.

Why? The sponsors and foundations who are helping to send students to college these days via scholarships are looking for volunteerism, leadership and community involvement – in addition to good grades and / or test scores and / or financial need.

Here are some of the biographical snippets from today’s newspaper:

In high school, she was president and founder of the Young Republican’s Club, treasurer of the Physics Club, Student Council senator, varsity cheerleading captain and a member of the National Honor Society. She volunteered for Ives Road Fen Preserve, Relay for Life, March of Dimes, Crop Walk, American Red Cross and meals for the needy.

In high school, he was Home Builders Association Student Chapter president, Drafting Advisory Committee student delegate and member of the National Honor Society and swim and dive and tennis teams. He received the Eagle Scout award in Boy Scouts and volunteered for Crop Walk, Relay for Life, Salvation Army, March of Dimes and 4-H.

In high school, she was president of the orchestra, an Ignition mentor and a member of the National Honor Society. She attended a leadership conference in 2007. She volunteers at Blue Bush Branch Library and was part of Monroe International Friendship Association’s cultural exchange program to Hofu, Japan. A nine-year competitive gymnast, she placed first in the all-around at the Farmington Winterfest gymnastics meet in 2008.

In high school, he was vice president of the Business Professionals of America. He was named Business Student of the Year and Co-Op Student of the Year.

In high school, she played tennis and participated in Science and Technology Related Occupations Need Girls. She was a member of the Bob the Builders team for Relay for Life.

If you have a student in high school or college, you will want to start a paper or computer file that can be added to from year to year with notes about all the various projects, clubs and activities that the student was involved in. You can’t expect your school, coach or club adviser to keep all those records for you. Besides, the 4-H club leader won’t have access to your athletic coach’s files and vice versa.

You need to keep that information for yourself in your home office area or computer. If you get involved in any activity outside the classroom, or as part of a career or community project for school, write it down. You will be surprised how long that list of notes can become by the time senior year arrives. This information resource is your scholarship resume.

Then when scholarship deadlines are approaching (the busiest season locally is January and Feburary of high school senior year), you have all the dates, awards and other details as appropriate to copy down on the application forms.

Remember: if the scholarship committee doesn’t know about your involvement in this or that, they can’t count that information as part of the review process.

The Michigan Education Association – Retired of Monroe County is offering a $1,000 scholarship to any Monroe County, Mich., resident who is pursuing a teaching certificate.

The student must have completed 30 semester hours or the equivalent from an accredited college or university, be accepted for admission and be registered at their chosen college/university and provide a one-page biographical sketch containing work experience and community activities.

Scholarship applications are available at the MEA office at 14576 South Dixie, Unit 1, Monroe, Mich., 48161, or call Bonnie Finzel-Doster at 242-2310.  Applications may also be obtained from any retired teacher / MEA-R member.

The deadline for submitting all application materials is Aug. 11.

We pretty much are at the end of the scholarship application season for funding for the 2009-2010 school year. But do check through my archives for keyword “scholarships” for tips on how southeast Michigan residents can find and how to apply for such awards.