By Educational  Foundation  Chair Diana Bernstein

dianatbernstein@yahoo.com
Text Box: Volume 29, Number 9 May, 2009 Page # Text Box: Educational Foundation

AAUW Branch & State Local Scholarship  Program
Text Box: The Corvallis Branch has chosen to participate in this scholarship pilot program. The following information is extracted from the AAUW Current Topics Briefing #21, dated March 3, 2009. This voluntary program, set to launch August 1, 2009 for scholarships to be awarded for the 2010-11 academic year, preserves the ability of branches and states to establish their own scholarship amounts and eligibility and selection criteria and to retain their authority to decide which candidate/s will receive its scholarship awards, and how much each will receive. The purpose of this voluntary program is to create a centralized, standardized, online undergraduate scholarship application posting and processing initiative that will support our local scholarship program. As a participating branch, we will post our scholarships and their eligibility criteria on the AAUW website. The branch may continue to advertise locally and on our website. The goal is to provide a simple, reliable web portal for students seeking funding, make it easy for applicants to find out about our scholarship opportunities, and to Text Box: submit an application online. The program verifies the accuracy of the applicant’s information for our branch. We continue to select our recipients. An overview of the process follows: The branch completes the information data form included in a notification e-mail sent to the branch president and other branch leaders on December 15, 2009. When applicants go to the AAUW undergraduate scholarship webpage, they will find a drop-down menu listing all participating branches/states and the specific criteria specified by the branch. Each scholarship applicant will fill out only one standard form online application form that includes her general eligibility criteria. Once an applicant has completed the online form, the drop-down menu of scholarships for which they are eligible will appear on the screen. Each applicant can then apply for the specific scholarship(s) for which they wish to be a candidate. Text Box: These applicants will be processed and verified by the AAUW educational contractor, ACT, Inc. and sent to the branch by March 14, 2010 for their award determinations. The branch must inform ACT of their award decisions by April 15, 2010. If desired, ACT can notify the winner and non-winners on behalf of the branch on May 14, 2010 This program is meant to extend scholarship marketing to a wider student audience and to give confidence that that the applications that are received are accurate representations of the candidates’ qualifications. Lastly, it presents a more comprehensive picture of the AAUW community’s educational philanthropy and provides reliable data that can demonstrate the financial support provided to women by AAUW at the national, state, and local levels.