Winning Scholarship Tactic: Top Off Facts With Memorable Word Picture
Published: January 31, 2018
Author: Carla Morris
Scholarship winners are all about making their applications reader-friendly for the people who review them. You can do this by organizing facts into a table that's easy to read, followed by a memorable knock-out word picture that adds meaning to the facts. The word picture in this example came from a letter of recommendation.
Task: Show Your Volunteer and Service Activities
Activity: Community service through Youth Force
Grades: 9-11
Approximate Hours: 6 per month; 12 months per year
Details: Park and neighborhood clean up, nursing home companion, worker at car washes and rummage sales, server at charity dinners.
Activity: Summer service - Appalachia Service Project
Grades: 9-10
Approximate Hours: 168 hours
Details: Mobile home repair, tarring roofs and installing insulation and windows.
Activity: Environmental Science Community Service
Grades: 11
Approximate Hours: 1 hour each week for 32 weeks
Details: Collected recyclables and trash, tested water, surveyed neighbors on water use.
Activity: Summer service - Red Lake Indian Reservation
Grades: 11
Approximate Hours: 168 hours
Details: Provided childcare, produced kids' fun fair, painted interior of facilities.
Activity: Reading tutor
Grades: 9-10
Approximate Hours: 5 hours per week, 18 weeks each year
Details: One-on-one reading help to second grader
"Jordan is the one that I can always count on being there, ready to help in any way that we need it. I have always said that amazing things would happen if our group could have ten Jordans!"- Samuel Washington, Youth Force Director
Measured distance, memorable grace . . .
When it comes to throws, results are all about measured distance, but shot putter Marideth Tate also paints a memorable picture of strength and grace in the process. A competitor that has helped the Greenville University Panthers earn conference titles, she envisions a future in high school or college athletics, helping to shape an atmosphere that reflects the care she's found on Greenville's track team. She is the first in her family to attend college, an achievement helped in part by several Greenville University scholarships.
