Scholarship Blogosphere

Scholarship America's Northwest Dollars for Scholars region held its Light the Fire for Education event yesterday; as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer mentions, University of Washington president Mark Emmert was honored with the 2008 Community Hero Award, thanks to his work in developing the Husky Promise scholarship program (which provides free tuition to UW for low-income students.)

We'd like to congratulate President Emmert, and Northwest Dollars for Scholars; stay tuned for a full recap of the Light the Fire event.

Monday's Washington Post features an inspiring story about Ashley White, a recent graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C. As a middle schooler, Ashley competed in the National Spelling Bee and was featured in the documentary Spellbound. By 18, though, Ashley had gone through a number of foster homes and found herself living in a homeless shelter with her newborn daughter.

The Post ran a story on Ashley in 2004; in an amazing display of community support, readers offered her financial support, jobs and mentoring. With their help, and through a series of part-time jobs of her own, Ashley was able to attend Howard, where she just graduated magna cum laude. In addition, one of those part-time jobs, at a nonprofit advocacy and support group for teen parents in the D.C. area, will now be full-time, as Ashley prepares to attend graduate school.

For more on Ashley White's remarkable story, you can visit her Web site; we at Scholarship America salute her efforts, and those of her community.

There's been a lot of talk, lately, about the rising cost of tuition for college students and the seemingly insurmountable debt that more and more college graduates are facing. (Thankfully, Scholarship America is helping to offset the cost of tuition by making available a wide variety of scholarships through community-based Dollars for Scholars chapters and Scholarship America's national scholarship programs, so students can graduate with fewer loans rather than more.) It turns out that this year's upcoming college graduates, who may be worried about being bogged down by large student loan payments, can worry a little less. CNN.com has recently reported that 2008 college graduates can look forward to entry-level salaries that are 4 percent higher than last year's alumni, according to a recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. It gets even better - hiring those who are fresh-out-of-college is predicted to increase by 8 percent.

Salary increases vary according to the discipline - those with liberal arts degrees may see increases as high as 9 percent! Check out the article to learn more and to see where your degree fits in. (We should also note that these are national averages so salaries for your discipline will vary according to what region you live in.)

For a look at much more about Scholarship America than we have room to post here, check out the new issue of The Scholar, our quarterly newsletter, which is available for download right here.

This issue features a message from our president, Dr. Clifford L. Stanley, an update on the Dreamkeepers Emergency Financial Assistance program, a look at some dedicated students and their teacher in one of our Learning Communities, and much more.

Vanishing Graduates & Minnesota's Future is a documentary focusing on Scholarship America's home state of Minnesota, but the lessons in it are both universal and sobering. LearnmoreMN.org, an alliance of business, education and citizen leaders, has extensively studied the roots, causes and impacts of falling postsecondary graduation rates, and is working to reverse these worrisome trends; Vanishing Graduates is a powerful look at the state of higher education, and valuable viewing for anyone interested in learning how to face them head-on.

The entire documentary as well as a series of clips is available here, and is also airing on Twin Cities Public Television on May 11. You can also request a DVD of the program, and discuss the show as well as other Learnmore initiatives at the LearnmoreMN Blog.

Of all the ways we've seen to raise money for scholarships, volunteer Leroy Werkhoven of Toppenish-Wapato Dollars for Scholars in Washington just might have hit on the most grueling: starting this September, Leroy is hitting the road on his Trek Pilot 2.1 and cycling 3,000 miles from Santa Barbara, CA to St. Augustine, FL ... all to raise money for his local Dollars for Scholars chapter. His goal is to raise $100,000 for his chapter, a pledge of around $30/mile.

You can follow Leroy's training and his journey at his blog, Cycling 4 Scholarships: Leroy Pedals Coast 2 Coast. We'll also be setting up an online donation page; for now, if you'd like to sponsor a mile or two of his trip, you can donate by mail to: Kit Brown, Treasurer,Toppenish-Wapato Dollars for Scholars, 241 Joyce PL., Yakima WA 98908.

Best of luck to Leroy; check his blog -- or back here -- for updates.

Whether you're a homeowner or not, the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis is hitting you one way or another—including in the world of higher education financing and student loans. Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing about the impact of the credit crunch on the quality and availability of student loans, and both witness statements and a video of the hearing are available at the committee's Web site.

Scholarship America's Curt Trygstad recently told Miami's NBC 6 about some useful tips for students looking for financial aid. As noted forest philosopher Winnie-the-Pooh once said, "You can't always sit in your corner of the forest and wait for people to come to you ... you have to go to them sometimes," and these are just a few suggestions as to just how to get out of the corner and start looking. Read the full story here.

In addition, InsideHigherEd.com recently ran its own piece about ways to find financial aid, and how students can learn to maximize it. That story is right here, and we'd like to hear more from you. Students, parents, counselors, lend us your secrets: how do you find, apply for, and manage financial aid? Let us know in the comments.

The world of scholarships and financial aid is anything but simple; Scholarship America's 50 years of expertise are here to help guide you, provide advice, and discuss many other scholarship-based topics. During your visit or interaction with this web page, you will find frequent posts on what our donors, volunteers and staff are doing, as well as our take on the news that matters most as it relates to our organization. This will be a place for you to read, react and discuss whatever is on your mind.

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