National Scholarship Month
PWCS is partnering with the National Scholarship Providers Association (NSPA) in recognizing November as National Scholarship Awareness Month to help students learn about, search, source, and apply for scholarship money to aid in their post-secondary education. In PWCS, local, national, and college-specific scholarships are promoted through Naviance. Our College and Career Counselors strengthen scholarship seeking behaviors and awareness in students and families throughout the year.
National Scholarship Month was established in 1998 by Scholarship America (formerly, Citizens’ Scholarship Foundation of America). It provides recognition to communities, organizations, and businesses in the scholarship industry and serves to encourage others to step forward and join this movement to improve educational opportunities and educational achievement around the world.
This past October, district wide financial aid awareness and scholarship search sessions were made available through the Parent Learning Series. College and Career Counselors promoted and supported seniors in the application process during VA College Week, October 24—28. High schools also facilitated the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) and the Virginia Alternative State Aid (VASA) application process with workshops and financial aid information sessions. All seniors are encouraged to complete the FAFSA as many college specific scholarships require a FAFSA on file for even the distribution of merit-based scholarship funds.
November encompasses many early application deadlines. While College and Career Counselors (CCC) support students in completing many components of their applications, CCCs are also strengthening scholarship awareness. Many local and SPARK Business Partnership scholarships become available in the springtime and November provides a favorable time to build awareness of the scholarship process, the process, and information on national and college-specific scholarships.
College & Career Counselor Promotes Scholarship Month
Courtney Jaeger, College and Career Counselor from Osbourn Park High School, shares how OPHS is promoting National Scholarship Month:
To help promote the importance of scholarships, not only do I have an open-door policy with my students to come work in the Career Center as a group or one-on-one with me, but I have helped to organize a several student opportunities including a classroom lesson with our Early Child Education students on Growing Our Own and educator scholarships, a webinar with Sallie Mae for all grade levels, and offering help sessions during lunches. We are also doing Fun Fact Friday over the announcements with different facts about how scholarships can help post-secondary paths. On top of this, PWCS is promoting a scholarship drawing for all seniors in the county and as an extra motivator for our Yellow Jacket seniors, any who enter the PWCS drawing are entered into an OPHS Chick-fil-A gift card raffle as well. Our weekly “Bee in the Know” newsletter also lists new scholarship opportunities posted in Naviance. The scholarship bulletin board [encourages] students to scan a variety of scholarship websites as [they] walk by the Career Center.
