Pride Foundation

The first question everyone asks when I tell them that we have a 113% increase in scholarship applicants is; how did that happen? I have heard some people make assumptions that it is due to the economy, and so many people returning to school, but I don’t think that tells the full story.

I believe there are two major factors that attributed to this record increase, and those are outreach and accessibility. We had a significant increase in outreach efforts this year as more and more past scholars are volunteering to do scholarship workshops at their schools and in their local communities. I think it is tremendously helpful when a prospective scholar can talk directly to someone who has received a scholarship. It demystifies the process and can make their goals seem that much more attainable. I really have to say a special thank you to all the volunteers who took time to do scholarship workshops- you made a huge difference!

Moving to an online application also seems to have contributed to the increase, by making the application more accessible. This year we have record applications from Montana and Alaska, two states from which we have consistently tried to increase applicants. We will do some follow up with our scholars to see how much being able to apply online helped them find out about the scholarship.

Now that all 1,155 applications are in, the fun begins! Volunteers are hard at work reading and screening applications and deciding who will be interviewed in April. And thanks to our community’s generosity we will be increasing the amount we award in scholarships from $285,000 in 2009 to $330,000 this year!

Tags: Education, Scholarships

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