My name is Ann Shubert and I’m the Operations Coordinator for the ACC Foundation. The Foundation brings in money to get scholarships for our students. We;re college wide and we have many different scholarships for many different programs.
As many of you may know there is the Faulkner Scholarship which we’ve had for years, it’s an endowment from Faulkner Construction. In addition to that scholarship, Grainger, I’m sure many of you have heard of Grainger Company here in Austin – last year they gave us 6 scholarships for Welding and Heating & Air Conditioning. That went so well they said “we want to expand the program to Building Construction and Automotive.” So we have 3 – $2,500 scholarships just specifically for Building Construction students in addition to our Faulkner scholarship which is usually about $1,500. So there are 4 scholarships for Building Construction students.
Ask me how many applications we received last year from Building Construction students? Two scholarship applications. [students murmur surprise] That wouldn’t work this year because we have 4 scholarships to give out. We need more applications!
In addition to these, we have a book of scholarships; we’re giving out over $410,000 in scholarships this year. So in addition to these there are also other general scholarships that you can apply for. So let’s say we get 10 applications (from Building Construction). We do 4 of these, you may still qualify for some of these other scholarships that are available.
Basically if you can apply online, that’s the best way to do it. There is a paper application available if you don’t have access to a computer or aren’t comfortable filling it out online. When you go to our website, it does list all of the scholarships that are available to our students. It lists them by department and then all the general scholarships as well.
So for the Grainger scholarship you are already meeting the first qualification, being a Building Construction major. You must have already completed 12 hours of coursework in the program, so they want you into the program pretty well, a minimum 2.5 GPA and financial need. That’s determined just off your application. It doesn’t mean that you have to qualify for a grant; a lot of people think that with financial aid I don’t qualify for a grant so I can’t get any scholarships’. That’s not true. We base it differently; we base it just by what you put on the application.
And then once you have a scholarship you just have to take 6 hours each semester and maintain a 2.5 GPA. The scholarship pays for tuition, fees and books and with your major it would also cover tools that are required for the class. And it’s $2,500 for the year. So if you’re a part time student and your tuition, fees and books wouldn’t use all the $2,500, you could use the additional money to pay for some tools that you could use in your career. It’s a one-year scholarship so it’s good for the academic year of 2010-2011.
The same thing goes with Faulkner, it’s the same type of scholarship. But it’s only for Building Construction majors, so it’s only for this department. It’s usually about $1,500 and it also requires a 2.5 GPA but you don’t have to already have the 12 hours completed for the Faulkner scholarship. It requires the same 6 hours (per semester) and covers tuition, fees, books and the tools if you have money left over. Some students already have their tuition and fees covered by other organizations or other entities, then that money could be used for tools because your tuition and fees are already being paid by other companies or sponsorships.
The application is online, it’s pretty easy; much of the information is pulled in from the Datel System, which what all ACC students are on. So you really just have to fill out your major, any types of extracurricular service you do, community service, any awards that you’ve received and then fill out your income information: do you have a job, how many hours do you work, how much do you make? And if you’re a dependent student you fill out that information for your parents. If you’re married, fill out that information for your spouse. If you’re single, just for you. If you have dependents, it just give us a picture of your financial status, how much do you need a scholarship, that type of thing.
It also asks for an up to a 300 word essay. It doesn’t have to be pages and pages, just a couple of paragraphs. Your essay is what are your education goals, how is ACC going to help you reach those education goals and what is your career? What do you want to do with that degree that you’re looking to achieve? Nobody knows better about the subject than you.
The best way is to type it in a word processor and copy and paste it into the application. So that way you can go over it, look at it, read it, edit it. The Learning Labs on campus will always look at those for you and go over it and see if you need to do any more edits. Save it, copy it and paste it into the application, push Submit and we get it. If you have trouble with it you can always call the Help Desk. And you can use any of the computer labs on campus, they will also let you do the application in there. You can also get the paper version, you can submit that to the Financial Aid office with a typed or hand-written essay.
I’m sure any of your instructors would be happy to give you a letter of recommendation. It doesn’t require it but it does make your application stronger if we know the department sees your ability and sees your talent and sees your passion for what you are doing.
That’s about all; any questions?
Student: You mentioned tools. Would that also include building materials required for cabinetry and advanced coursework?
Ann: Yes. Once you submit the receipts for the tools or materials or what you want to buy, the person who handles the funds once they’re awarded sends the receipts or the information to the department head and he would look it over and say “Yes those are required tools or materials. It’s okay to reimburse that student.”
June 1 is the deadline for this. You don’t have to wait to June 1 to apply. (note: be sure to check the Scholarships information page for the current application deadline.)
Student: The 3 Grainger scholarships, do you think those will be continuing after this year?
Ann: They were very happy with the program last year so we’re hoping we’ll get good candidates again this year and that they will continue the scholarship.
Student: So it sounds like it depends on the submissions and the candidates.
Ann: Yes, if they say “we gave you 3 scholarships” and we say “we only had one application”, they’re going to wonder if there’s really a need for that scholarship, if nobody is applying. If you were applying with a company like Grainger or with a company who does a lot of business with Grainger, having that on your resume is going to look really good.
If it’s offered again next year, you get it this year and you still have another year on your academic program, you can reapply for the scholarship.
I see a lot of faces in here so I expect to see a lot of applications. Any more questions? Thank you. [applause]
The ACC Scholarships Application and Information web page is http://www.austincc.edu/tuition-and-financial-aid/scholarship-opportunities/acc-scholarships; the list of scholarships is available at austincc.academicworks.com/
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