Mini Scholarships for 2011

One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2011 is to dig a bit deeper and give back to my community. I continue to feel that God has a special calling for me to help those in need, especially college bound students who may need a little extra boost from time to time to make ends meet.

At Thanksgiving I visited with family and a conversation came up about one of our family members who is in college. She had called one of her cousins and asked for a few dollars for gas. My mind wandered back to my college days when I used to sit in my apartment wondering where my next meal would come from because I was completely tired of oodles of noodles and had little to no funds left. I remember my sister, who had already graduated from college, sending me a $25 check and writing in the memo section 'for survival'. I can laugh a little about it now, but back then it was no laughing matter. That $25 was like a life line to me. One that came just in the nick of time and I stretched it as far as I could. It gave me the motivation and encouragement I needed to push on and finish my education and I was grateful for it.

So, in addtion to the annual $250 Willie Mae Richardson Memorial Scholarship that is awarded to one incoming college Freshmen from New Hanover High School in Wilmington NC to offset the cost of books, I am awarding 12 mini awards in the amount of $25 for all eligible college students enrolled in a community college, technical college, 4 year college or online college!

Details and guidelines are listed below. Please share with everyone you know.

1. Must be a minority, actively enrolled in college and have proof of enrollment if selected for the award.

2. Must reside in the United States.

3. Must have a GPA of 2.5 or greater (a copy of the latest transcript or grades is sufficient).

4. Must submit two short paragraphs telling us about themselves and their college plans, as well as detailing a time that they went the extra mile to help someone else who was in need and why they feel it is important to help others.

Once the applicant submits their paragraphs, the Willie Mae Richardson Memorial Scholarship committee will vote and select the top three entries. We will post those entries to this blog and then allow the public to vote on which entry they believe is the best and should be the recipient of the mini scholarship/award of a $25 Visa giftcard. Each entry must have atleast 10 votes to qualify for the award. If any entry has the same amount of votes, then the committee will place those names in a drawing and draw one name. All entries must be submitted by January 22, 2010.

Applicants please be sure to include contact information (email, phone, address etc.).