Welcome to Scholarship Chat! Find introductions and discussions here!
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If you have a minute, go ahead and introduce yourself to the group in the discussion below - we'd love to get the networking started!
A couple of starting points:
- Have you ever been to Montana?
- Are you a dog or a cat person? (Request the Dog Person or Cat Person badge)!
- Name your favorite Bequet Caramel flavor. (Request the Caramel Lover badge)!
- What are you looking to achieve during this event?
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Hi all!
My name is Ciara and I am the program officer at the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois. Looking forward to these discussions, and the swapping of info and best practices!
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Hello Everyone! I'm Sara Cryan and I am a Scholarship Officer at Greater Toledo Community Foundation (Toledo, Ohio). I'm looking forward to discussions around using best practices and how everyone using SLM to be more efficient.
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My name is Danielle Fleer. I am the Administrative Manager for the Pedrozzi Scholarship Foundation in California! I was lucky enough to attend a You Fly, We Buy in Montana last year and learned so much from it. I really valued the time spent with other scholarship providers so I'm looking forward to talking all things scholarships with everyone!
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Hey Everyone!
I'm Alyse Braaten, a Manager of Client Services here at Foundant. I'll be leading our Scholarship Chat next week and I couldn't be more excited! Having spent 10+ years administering scholarships prior to my time with Foundant, time with my scholarship people is always a delight. Remember, you'll learn from your peers next week, but they will also learn from you. So, be ready to share and listen!
Alyse Braaten | Manager of Client Services – Grants & Scholarships | www.foundant.com | Bozeman, MT
alyse.braaten@foundant.com | Direct: 406.922.3376 | Cell: 661.364.1012
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Good morning everyone! I'm Lisa Pickerman, the Grants and Scholarships Associate at the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne. We've used the SLM for one cycle and I'm looking to hear how others are using it to be more efficient and learn any tips/tricks that I may have overlooked.
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Hello everyone! This summer, I joined the Quad Cities Community Foundation team as a Grantmaking Specialist. I relocated from Chicago where I had lived for the past 5 years engaged in work around youth development. In my role, I am responsible for donor-advised funds, our competitive scholarships, and supporting our rural affiliates with their grantmaking. Here are my responses to the questions listed as starters:
- Have you ever been to Montana? Nope but it's on my list!
- Are you a dog or a cat person? I actually don't like animals...and I'm not ashamed of it. It is what it is.
- Name your favorite Bequet Caramel flavor. I've yet to try one! #newbie
- What are you looking to achieve during this event? Connect with other scholarship providers and gain tips.
Looking forward to connecting with you all soon!
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Hi everyone! I am the Communications & Scholarship Coordinator for the Healthcare Foundation of La Porte. Our mission is to empower our residents to live healthy and well in and around La Porte, Indiana. This mission includes providing funds for medical-focused educational goals (nursing, doctors, PAs, etc). Our scholarships are provided to residents of our county and are provided in conjunction with the hospital auxiliary here in La Porte.
- Have you ever been to Montana? No, unfortunately! I am hoping that I can make a trip out to cross a few national parks off my list.
- Are you a dog or a cat person? I have two 1.5 year old cats, Clark and Petunia. I love both dogs and cats though!
- Name your favorite Bequet Caramel flavor. Haven't tried yet!
- What are you looking to achieve during this event? I'm looking forward to bringing back some fresh ideas and upgrading our current process. I'd love to see what works, what doesn't, and how knew ideas can be implemented to streamline processes.
Looking forward to tomorrow!
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Hello everyone! I am the Director of Scholarships at the Communities Foundation of Oklahoma. Our foundation focuses mostly on rural areas of the state, though we have a few large programs in urban areas. I am responsible for all aspects of our scholarship program.
- Have you ever been to Montana? - Nope! September was going to be my first time, but alas COVID has cancelled that trip.
- Are you a dog or a cat person? - I have two dogs and cat and I am most definitely a dog person.
- Name your favorite Bequet Caramel flavor. - I have somehow narrowly missed the caramels at every turn - so the verdict is still out!
- What are you looking to achieve during this event? - I'm interested to hear more about how other providers are making adjustments due to COVID.
Look forward to "meeting" you all soon!
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Awesome. I was hoping the recordings from the breakout sessions would be recorded as I was eager to hear what was discussed in the scholarship reception group. Thanks again to the Foundant team for putting together the space for all of us to chat. As a newbie to this scholarship world, I really enjoyed it!
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Hi everyone,
1) I'd love advice on what guidance is given to scholarship evaluators on how to score applicants. Do you have a rubric or any other type of metric that shapes what criteria is important to look at while reviewing applicants? Our foundation has historically stayed away from rubrics as we don't want to box in our reviewers. However the individuals who review our scholarships are eager for more guidelines around what are the defining factor(s) between an application that is rated a 7 versus a 5 (on a scale of 1-10) I look forward to the event!
2) Creative ways to engage donors and scholarship recipients if we're unable to host our in person scholarship reception in spring 2021. How can we recognize donors and recipients if we're unable to bring them together.
3) Experience with including videos in scholarship applications. Is it optional or required? If using UA, has it been a common question or opportunity-specific?
4) Question group type for scholarship criteria and scholarship preferences on UA
5) Gender Identity Criteria -- we have a scholarship that is only open to female students, advice on how to ask this on UA?
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It would be great to hear opinions about addressing COVID-19 within the scholarship applications. I imagine many students will want to write about this in their college essays and/or scholarship applications.
Will you add a question or section of your scholarship specifically about COVID-19 or will you leave it out of applications?
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I'd love to hear about the ways SLM users are challenging their students year to year. I feel as if we've sunken into the same routine questions year after year. Any questions that work really well within SLM?
Has anyone conducted zoom meetings for interviews with applicants?
I'd like a general overview of what others are doing for evaluations. As I mentioned before, much of our process seems very mundane and could use a revamp in questions for evaluators and applicants.
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Hi all,
We recently had a donor approach us to create a faith-based scholarship (Christian specifically). We currently don't have any awarding scholarships that have faith-based criteria. Does anyone have a fund like this? If so I would appreciate any information on how you ask this question and the essay question you ask. Also, please let me know if there are any regulations I might not be aware of for faith-based scholarships (I did a search on NSPA and didn't really find anything).
Thanks! :)
Ciara Stahly
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Hi @CiaraStahly! This is a great question. I encourage you to also post it in our public Faith-Based Organizations (Philanthropic Best Practices>Faith-Based Organizations) category, that way you have the opportunity to gather examples from this focused group as well as from our larger community!
Kara
Community Manager
Kara Adams, M.Ed., CAE (she/her/hers)|Community Manager|kara.adams@foundant.com
Headquartered: Bozeman, MT| Remote Location: Chicago, IL | Direct: 312-802-1374 |www.foundant.com|
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@DanielleFleer I added a "COVID-19 impact essay" after sports, work, and extracurriculars (one essay to cover all three areas):
While in high school, your activities, community service/volunteerism, and employment may have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Please explain how COVID-19 has impacted these areas of your life, and how you have responded. If this section does not apply to you, answer "not applicable."
I also ask students to explain special circumstances in the financial need section and emphasized that this is an opportunity to explain how COVID-19 has impacted their finances, and I have an overview short answer question that asks "Is there anything else you would like the committee to know about your life that isn't included in the application?" as an opportunity to explain a fluctuation in grades or something to that extent.
Hope that helps!
Audra Clodfelter
Communication/Scholarship Administrator, Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation
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I work for the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation in Jamestown, NY as the Scholarship Officer. Love dogs, have not been to Montana, love all caramels and hope I'm not to late to the party. Enjoy the information and different ways everyone tackles their processes.
Referring to female as part of scholarship criteria. We also have a few that are female specified. But we are expanding the gender question this year to add non-binary and prefer to self describe. Also adding racially/ethnically for demographic tracing.
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Hi! I'm Jodi Kateiva, the Scholarship Administrator for Legacy Foundation, the community foundation that serves Lake county, IN (just east of Chicago). This month we transitioned to C Suite (financial part) and will begin the transition from CommunityForce to SLM this summer. I'm looking for any helpful tips/tricks for my journey ahead.
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