en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:56:39 GMT 15 By Emely Srimoukda
  Many students at Fremont Federation qualify for hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of local and national scholarships, but often ignore them. "Some students are just lazy," said Paul Robeson counselor Yvonne Campbell. "They don’t want to write essays. What they don’t understand is they have a personal statement and they can tweak it into whatever they need." Shanina Hill, a Mandela senior, is a student who fits Campbell’s description. "I don’t want to (apply for scholarships), it’s too much work and I’m lazy," Hill said. Students like Hill, who say that scholarships are too much work, should consider Media Academy graduate Torbertha Torbor. Torbor said that as a high school senior she spent about five or six hours total for all scholarships she applied for and won $35,000, or about $7,000 per hour she put into the applications. Torbor is now a UC Berkeley freshman who has not held a job since she started college. "All I do is focus on school," she said. "My tuition and housing is paid for by the scholarships that I won." Aside from students who don’t apply at all, there are some who will only apply for certain types. "I apply to all kinds, but I try to avoid the ones with essays and recommendations they are too long and too much work," said Paul Robeson senior Jaholly Collins. Some students say it's not laziness. "I’m just too busy and I just need help and there’s not enough people to help," said Mandela senior James Green. Mandela Counselor Ana Vasquez, agrees the process is not always easy. "There’s just so much requirements; they have to get recommendations, you have to do an essay, sometimes you have to do an interview, and they just fall off, they think it’s too much work," she said. Another reason students resist certain scholarships is because they don’t think they qualify. "Students think they have to be a certain race to do some scholarships," said Campbell. "My non-black students weren’t applying because they don’t read everything. They think just because it's a black organization they have to be black, but they don’t." You can’t let the title stop you," said Campbell. "Apply for everything." Yet another reason students don't apply for college money is that they are just so focused on graduating that the scholarships aren’t so important. "It just depends on the student," said Vasquez. "They might just have a specific goal and they focus on that. Some students are only focused on graduating that they aren’t thinking beyond high school." Many students wait until senior year to apply for scholarship because they believe they have to be a senior. But this is not true. Many scholarships are open to underclassmen. This year, for example, students in all grades at Media Academy were all required to apply for the Save Me a Spot in College, a scholarship that California students from sixth grade to high school seniors can all apply for and the qualifications are easy. The idea was for students to learn that scholarships are out there for people who aren’t 4.0 GPA students or star athletes and that they are available for students before their senior year. (See story on page 5) Vasquez believes all students are capable of winning scholarships as long as they commit to the work. "If kids are just consistent and just apply, then they are competing against kids who are just as consistent, but if they just commit to applying to as many as they can, it is definitely possible," said Vasquez. "They just have to commit and do it and follow through with it."     ]]> Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:47:01 GMT