Scholarships for the Unemployed and the Young (14-24)

In this current economy, it's good to know that there are retraining opportunities available for people who are unemployed.

In Tennessee, WSMV recently reported how one worker, Alvin Phillips, who had recently been laid off may qualify for a $4,000 scholarship to go to college or a technical school.

Worker retraining programs are getting recent stimulus money, encouraging workers laid off to strengthen their skills or change careers, especially in fields like technology, health care, and transportation.

Story and video are here: http://www.wsmv.com/money/19304876/detail.html

Money for this program are being administered through One Stop Career Centers. The one mentioned in the story, the Nashville Career Advancement Center, can be found here: http://www.ncacworkforce.org/

Besides money for training, there is also money for youth employment. For example, in Tennessee, there are 11,639 jobs available for disadvantaged youth between the ages of 14 and 24.

This chart reflects the money and general criteria for those who qualify:
http://www.tn.gov/labor-wfd/EconomicFunding.html

What if you are not in Tennessee?

Your friendly neighborhood ScholarshipMan has done the heavy lifting.

Here is a news release from the US Department of Labor describing how about $3.5 billion will be used to "help Americans get back to work through the national network of One-Stop Career Centers": http://tinyurl.com/dcmn3p

To locate service centers in your state, I have pulled out the pertinent information from the article: "Americans can access these services through the national network of One-Stop Career Centers. To find a local One-Stop Career Center, visit http://www.servicelocator.org or call 877-348-0502 or TTY 877-348-0501. Online resources to support job searches, career exploration and planning for education and training can be found at http://careeronestop.org."

Please share this information with everybody you know.

April 30-May 1, 2009: Deadlines! Deadlines!

Several deadlines for scholarships and other opportunities are looming!

Here are a few you might want to learn about and enter.

1. 2009 Digital Media Sandbox Consortium Governor's Challege Academic Media Tournament, May 1, 2009, deadline

If you are a student or faculty member at one of the following institutions in Tennesseee, North Carolina, Virginia, or Texas, you can enter this competition. Here is a list of participating institutions: http://www.tnsandbox.com/site.php?content=institutions

Competition homepage: http://www.tnsandbox.com/site.php

Eligibility guidelines: http://www.tnsandbox.com/site.php?content=eligibility

Prizes/categories: http://www.tnsandbox.com/site.php?content=prizes

2. Co-Alliance Scholarship, April 30, 2009

Information here: http://tinyurl.com/dfkly7

3. Google Scholarship 2009 administered by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), April 30 deadline

Open to college juniors and seniors, college graduates, and graduate students who are enrolled in one of the following: computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, and software engineering. Potential of $10,000 scholarship at 2009-2010 academic year at participating schools (http://www.uncf.org/members/index.asp).

Details here: http://tinyurl.com/claurh

In researching this scholarship, I discovered that the UNCF also has a complete section for students, where you can explore other opportunities:
http://www.uncf.org/ForStudents/index.asp

I knew about the first competition; the other two I typed into the search field at google.com scholarships april 30 deadline. There are several more.

Click on the link below and find out what they are.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=scholarships+april++30+deadline+&btnG=Search

Once you click on the link above, notice the search terms I used in google.com. You can use similar terms for May, such as scholarships deadline May 15 or scholarships deadline May 30.

Here, then, is another trick to use in search of scholarships. Go to google.com and type scholarships April May 2009 to learn about other scholarships.

Try several different tricks and tell me what you learn.

Several More Scholarship Resources

I have listed below several scholarship resources.

I have included some resources for getting through these difficult economic times: more resources to help pay necessities mean more money to go to school.

1. AARP Foundation and the AARP

http://aarpfoundationwlc.org/content/view/27/62/

AARP Foundation Back-to-School Financing Guide: A Financial Aid Guide Book for Midlife and Older Women Seeking Education and Training

http://www.aarp.org/about_aarp/aarp_foundation/

The AARP Foundation also sponsors several helpful guides, including information about benefits for people 50 and over. The Benefits QuickLink is described this way on the website: "Last year, 90,000 adults in all 50 states used AARP's Benefits QuickLink to find financial help to cover the costs of groceries, utilities, health care, and medications."

http://www.aarp.org/internetresources/

These are internet resources on Aging.

2. Smart Money Article

http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/college-planning/free-money-13275/

Free Money for College: This article contains links to three scholarship databases: CollegeAnswer, FastWeb, and the College Board.

Also included in this article is a link to Scholarship America and its chapters that feature scholarships.

Only click on the orange links in this article.

The Scholarship America web site includes interesting resources.

http://scholarshipamerica.org/

Scholarship America is a highly rated charity which features many scholarships.

http://scholarshipamerica.org/chapter_search.php

The Dollars for Scholars Program of Scholarship America--you can research which states have chapters.

http://scholarshipamerica.org/open_scholarships.php

Available Scholarships that Scholarship America administers.

Look for Solutions, Not Problems

A friend recently sent me a link to a Times article, "Colleges Face a Financial-Aid Crunch," that details the admissions process at one private college. Many students, due to the economic times, are not finding it as easily to get into college.

Since many colleges receive their funding from students' tuition, the loss of revenue can affect the programs at the college.

Here is the article: http://tinyurl.com/cycok9

After reading this article, I have to admit I got a sense of hopelessness. The article conveyed accurate and valuable information, but what I perceived from the article was doom and gloom.

What is important here is the word "perception." I may perceive something, but that perception is being filtered through my expectations, my values, my world view. Perception is not reality.

Many people are having a difficult time finding money to pay for college. Many people who used to finance their way through college did so by loans, and now those loans are not as available.

The problem of not getting easy loans can become an opportunity. Some statistics about students and debt:

• From 2001-2007, an estimated 60% of bachelor's degree recipients borrowed to fund their education.


• From 2001-2007, average debt per bachelor's degree recipient increased from $10,600 to $12,400.


• In 2007, nearly 2-out-of-3 college students reported having one credit card, with seniors in college having an average debt of $2,623 on their card.

More statistics about students and debt can be found here: http://www.amsa.com/policy/resources/stats.cfm

Now, for some solutions:

1. In this page of educational statistics about students and debt, I saw the following information:

According to 2008 study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity, 81% of organizations offer some kind of tuition assistance.

If you are employed, check out your human resources department and company's web site for information about tuition assistance for both you and/or your children.

Notice I said to do both. Sometimes one person in an organization (a person in the human resources department) will not know about all the possibilities. Ask, inquire, be positive and polite. Send thank you notes for all help you receive.

2. In the Times article, there is a link to College Confidential (http://www.collegeconfidential.com/) , a web community for college bound students, dealing with searching for college programs, financial aid, and the college admissions process.

Here you can find information and discuss topics that might interest you.

3. I learned from a financial aid book review by Dave Berry about Chris Vuturo, author of The Scholarship Advisor, Fifth Edition. This is the latest edition of the book he wrote.

Chris Vuturo got over $885,000 in aid award offers.

Berry writes that Chris Vuturo goes into detail about how to search for money: "For starters, there's information on more than 100,000 scholarships with a complete explanation of the scholarship application process. This includes sample essays and interview tips . . . Chris tells you how to organize your scholarship search, focusing on not-so-obvious sources such as employers, companies, and not-for-profit organizations."

Much like the other authors I recommend like Ben Kaplan, Marianne Ragins, and Gen and Kelly Tanabe, Chris Vutoro has actually found money for school and describes the process.

Chris Vuturo's latest book was published in 2002. What's important is the process, which you can duplicate in your search for money, not the publication date.

If you are looking for scholarships within this book, you will have to look for more up-to-date information about those scholarships using the Internet.

Chris Vutoro has some good advice in this 2009 article: http://tinyurl.com/d9gkx7