Want to Go to School and Have No Paycheck? Here's Some Help!

If you want to go to school but have no paycheck because you have recently lost your job, then you should read this New York Times article by Tara Siegel Bernard, "How to Bear the Tuition Burden Without a Paycheck": http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/education/20COST.html

There are several links within the article that are worth exploring.

One such link is http://opportunity.gov , which collects all financial information and other opportunities for unemployed workers.

A friend also told me about a program that pays 65% of your COBRA premium while you are unemployed.

On the website, "The premium reduction applies to periods of health coverage beginning on or after February 17, 2009 and lasts for up to nine months for those eligible for COBRA during the period beginning September 1, 2008 and ending December 31, 2009 due to an involuntary termination of employment that occurred during that period."

For more information on this program, http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html

Some more information I found: http://www.familiesusa.org/issues/private-insurance/understanding-cobra-premium.html

I hope you find these links helpful and a good starting point, but answering questions about COBRA and medical extensions is beyond the scope of this blog.

3 Scholarships Offered by ScholarshipExperts.com--Potential $7,000

In the next five months, ScholarshipExperts.com will be offering three separate scholarships, each requiring less time than two hours to complete.

Shout It Out Scholarships 2009
Amount: $1,000
Deadline: Sept. 30, 2009

"Education Matters" $5K Scholarship 2009
Amount: $5,000
Deadline: Oct. 31, 2009

"Top Ten List" Scholarship 2009
Amount: $1,000
Deadline: Dec. 31, 2009

For more information, explore the guidelines here: http://www.scholarshipexperts.com/apply.htx

All of these scholarship applications require you create a profile at ScholarshipExperts.com. Not a bad deal, since ScholarshipExperts.com has bee touted by Forbes.com "Best of the Web" Review as "the best scholarship search engine we found."

ScholarshipExperts.com boasts "2.4 million scholarships worth over $14 billion."

If you have completed a scholarship profile at http://www.fastweb.com and http://www.scholarships.com , it wouldn't hurt to complete one at http://www.scholarshipexperts.com/ .

40+ Ebook, Using Google and RSS Feeds to Find Scholarships

Very short post today.

I wanted to alert you to a 40+ page ebook about how to use such tools as google and RSS feeds to help you find scholarship money.

The ebook is downloadable here: http://www.studentscholarshipsearch.com/ebook/

If you find the ebook useful, tell me your experience in the comments.

Get Started by Entering Competitions—Essays and Songs, Oh My!

I recently picked up Louise Doughty’s book, A Novel in a Year: from First Page to Last in 52 Weeks : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3649184/A-novel-in-a-year.html

In the introduction, she wrote that she got her start by entering a literary competition.
There are two competitions I want to bring to your attention. Winning them would be like winning scholarships.

1. Life Lessons Essay contest--$3,000 prize

The magazine, REAL SIMPLE, has a yearly Essay Contest.

The top prize is $3,000, essay published in REAL SIMPLE, round-trip tickets for two to New York City, and more.

The deadline is Sept. 7, 2009, and there is no entry fee.

Details here: http://www.realsimple.com/lifelessonscontest

2. NSAI Song Contest presented by CMT

The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) sponsors this songwriting competition.

Whoever wins the Grand Prize will get a 90 minute mentoring session with Jewel, your song pitched to music industry executives, and a three-day trip to Nashville.

There are more prizes and possibilities.

Details here: http://www.cmt.com/asm/contests/nsai/2009/

Read all official rules.

The entry cost is $35 per song for NSAI members and $45 per song for all non-NSAI members.

Deadline to submit your song is October 31, 2009.

Why I Deserve A Scholarship Video Contest, $2500, Deadline: Sept 7, 2009

The second leg of FastWeb’s Scholarship Triathlon is on. Why I Deserve a Scholarship Video Contest runs from August 1-September 7, 2009.

Details here: http://whyideserveascholarship.com/index

The Grand Prize is $2,500.

Also, one voter will get $1,000 for voting in this competition.

Some information from the official rules: “To enter, submit a 1-3 minute video describing/showing/depicting “Why you deserve a scholarship”. Video must be no more than one to three minutes in length, in a compressed Quicktime, Flash or Windows Media format. Entries must include a title and description for your video."

Read all rules. Also read about Leg 3 and Leg 4 of the Scholarship Triathlon: http://whyideserveascholarship.com/rules

Mine university websites for scholarships and Muhammad Yunus

When you begin searching for scholarships, you can find all kinds of information about scholarships in the strangest places.

I found the following list of scholarships on the Theatre and Dance departmental website for Winthrop University:

http://www2.winthrop.edu/vpa/Theatre_&_Dance/scholarships/UndergraduateScholarshipsdownload.pdf

There are over 10 pages of scholarships with deadlines dating from August 1, 2009 – July 31, 2010.

Two of these scholarships are the

Maureen V. O'Donnell/Eunice E.Kraft Teacher Training Scholarships, deadline Dec. 1, 2009, with scholarships for people interested in teaching Latin;

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Management Internships, deadline Oct. 25, 2009, with internships for college junior and seniors, graduated students, and recently graduated students who are interested in beginning careers in performing arts management and/or arts education.

This list is worth exploring at length.

The university website is Winthrop University: http://www.winthrop.edu/

Muhammad Yunus, Education into Action

Education is more than just ideas, but ideas put into action. Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, is a graduate of Vanderbilt University. He taught for three years at Middle Tennessee State University. He saw poverty in his native Bangladesh, and he started to see a different way to approach the problem of poverty by using microloans.

Listen to this podcast when the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus delivers the Vanderbilt Senior Class Day address http://bit.ly/15z5lE

His website is http://www.muhammadyunus.org/