Arizona Is My Home Scholarship
January 7, 2009 by Carl Chapman
Filed under Arizona Is Home
What happens if you offer a scholarship and no one applies? Well that’s the question I am dealing with this morning.
On September 15, 2008, I launched my fourth Arizona Is My Home scholarship program. It was to be innovative and something fun for the students. I guess I was wrong. To date, no one has applied or entered the program.
Maybe my concept was unclear, or too much work for the students. Still, no one asked any questions or complained about the process. They just choose not to participate.
The reason I went to the blog version of the scholarship program was the volume of past applications. Most years it was over 1500 essays. That is a lot of reading and reviewing for the review committee and myself. My hope was that by having the public become part of the process I could better manage the reviews and give everyone a part in the program.
It did not work. No one applied or became involved. I guess $2500 is not worth the effort.
As of today I am suspending the program until I can come up with program that interests students. If you have any ideas, please share them below.
Carl Chapman, Realtor
Mr. Chapman,
My name is Caleb Hanger. If you’ll recall, I talked to you on the phone a few days ago. I called to inquire about how the scholarship contest worked. In fact, I was personally quite excited about the idea of this scholarship contest and looked forward to blogging about Tucson. My only problem was that I was extremely confused as to the instructions….I couldn’t figure out what exactly was supposed to be done. Many students don’t want to spend a whole lot of time just figuring out how to do something, before doing it. They won’t even go as far as I did to make a phone call. I’d venture to say that’s the reason nobody expressed interest. If you still want to offer a scholarship, I’m very interested in competing for it. I’ve been thinking about what kind of input to give as far as how to run the contest. I don’t have any of my thoughts completely organized yet. I am about to head down to Tucson for the coming semester of school. But classes don’t start until Wednesday, so within the next 2 or 3 days I will have time to hash out my thoughts and get back to you again, if you’re still open to suggestion.
-Caleb Hanger
Hi again,
I’ve thought about the contest some more. I think that, in addition to the original publication being a little bit unclear, a lot of students cringe at the word “essay” because EVERYTHING is an essay these days. I think that what would be really cool is a contest purely of blogging and discussing. You’d blog regularly, maybe once every two or three days, if not more often than that, about your hometown and experiences pertaining to the area where you live, or even just thoughts of such. And people would be able to comment on and discuss your entries, guests as well as other competitors. Then, after maybe a month or two, the blogs would be judged based on whose writings were the most thought-provoking, etc. I think that would be really different and innovative as far as scholarship contests go, and students would be able to enjoy it and have a lot of fun with it. Just my thoughts. I hope that you do continue the program as I’m eager to participate.
-Caleb
Dear Mr. Chapman,
I am a Graduate of Red Mt.Highschool in Mesa and I was due to graduate in May 2009 but finished early in Dec.2008. I have been searching and applying for scholarships and was disappointed to find that you ended yours early due to lack of interest. I will tell you that I for one am Very interested!
I have plans to attend Scottsdale Comm. College and enter into their film program, I’m trying to start my own video/film business.
I have delt with Epilepsy since I was in junior high and find school to be a challenge but I have succeeded in graduating early and really want to go to college. Please continue with this scholarship!
Thank you,
Braden
I am very dissapointed to discover you are no longer allowing students the oportunity to benefit from your scholarship. I am very interested in completing the blogging requirements for any amount of money. Especialy because of raised tutions at ASU. Please contact me if you are ever willing to re-institute another (or the same) scholarship in the future.
Dear Mr. Chapman
I am a native of Arizona and have been involved in Agriculture, and plan on making Arizona my life long home. I am attending CAC this semister. If you are still going to offer this scholarship I would like to recieve some additional information. My website will give you some information of my background and intrests. Thank you for your time and consideration.
JC McDonald
Thank you for your input. I am currently working on the program and hope to have the scholarship back within the next couple of weeks. The main issue is coming up with a plan for evaluating the blogs. If anyone has ideas, please share them here.
Carl
Actually, now that I’ve been thinking about it more, I’m wondering if maybe my suggestion was not such a great idea. If the blogs are based on how much conversation they provoke, it could end up just being a popularity contest to see how many posts you can get on your blog. Maybe the best way to evaluate them is to look solely at the blog entries, and have some human judges decide whose blogs they think are the most thoughtful and discussion-provoking /regardless/ of how much discussion they actually provoked, if that makes any sense. In other words, if there is a blog that the judges think is very interesting and worthy of thought, but gets no responses, and another blog that seems pretty pointless and unthoughtful, but happens to have a lot of responses on it, then the judges’ favor should go to the former blog. Does that make any sense?
-Caleb
Mr. Chapman,
i found this website today and i would like to request that you continue with this scholarship program!
many people, including myself, need this financial aid to help with university fees!
this money will definitely allow students to have the opportunity to succeed their high goals. with tuition going up, and the time of school of school needed to succeed (personally, my goal is to have a profession in the medical field, which will yield around 8 years of school), this scholarship will make a big difference in allowing students to pursue their personal goals.
i will be very, very grateful if you do decide to have the scholarship back!
thank you so much!
Fiona
Mr. Chapman,
I’ve been thinking about this some more, and wondering if you’re still planning to do anything??
To further elaborate on my idea, here is a possible rubric that could be used to rate people’s blogs:
Length/detail of entry – 30 points possible
Depth/thoughtfulness of entry – 40 points possible
“Interestingness” of entry (maybe for this component, amount of provoked conversation should be considered to some extent)- 30 points possible
Relevance of entry (how fluidly does it tie in to the “Arizona is my home” notion) – 50 points possible
That’s just an idea, of course. It could have components added to it or the weights adjusted, but I thought I might throw in some more thoughts for consideration. I hope you’re still interested in holding the contest!
-Caleb
Hello,
I just heard about your scholarship. I am sorry to read that it is no longer offered.
Should you decide to open the scholarship back up, please feel free to email or mail any pertaining information to me.
Thank you,
Margaret Auclair
Career Specialist
Cortez High School
8828 N. 31st Avenue
Phoenix, AZ. 85051
McAuclai@guhsdaz.org
I would love to do an essay about what it means to me to be an Arizonan.
I almost feel like its a nationality.
I have incredible rich history and roots in this state, my home, and would love to share my story.
$2500 would help immensly.
Thank you,
Jennifer Gibson
I am interested in your scholarship and would love to make application. Please notify me should you decide to continue. I am a non-traditional student who was left widowed and the funds sure we help secure my future.
Thank a bunch! Dawn Harward