[00:02] Welcome, welcome, welcome everybody. This is Coach Art uh and welcome to Eagle. Thank you so much for joining me tonight. Uh I am so appreciative um for you joining me here tonight. Uh and as we know, we're doing our weekly training. Tonight I am going to um [00:21] provide you with the ins and outs of [00:24] scholarship searching. Okay, I guess let's say the inside track on on winning fast even during the summertime for scholarships. Uh again, thank you so much for joining me. Uh I do want to introduce myself for those who don't know me. Um I am coach Art with Eagle. I [00:41] am the uh head of coaching and chief [00:43] product officer here at Eagle. Uh I have been uh with Eagle for about four years, been in the college admission space for over eight years, was in technology for 30 years, but my biggest claim to fame is my the three boys. I'm so very very proud of them. My oldest graduated a couple years ago from uh UC Berkeley with a mechanical engineering degree. Uh my young my middle son, he is going to University of Illinois in Chicago and he's doing his nursing degree. and my [01:13] youngest is uh at Biola University and [01:17] he is um getting his physical therapy [01:19] degree and also playing college soccer. So for all you parents out there, I know where you're coming from. I know the feeling of how it is uh to not only have students going to college or or applying for college, but how it is to actually be in college and even graduating. So uh welcome to everybody. I appreciate you being here. Um, if you can see my [01:42] screen, can you please give me a uh [01:45] thumbs up if you can see my screen? Uh, greatly appreciate it so that I know. All right, so uh welcome, welcome. You know, today's training is all about unlocking strategies to find and win scholarships. Okay, so trying to get them quickly and effectively and even with the essays that you have already written. So whether you're starting from [02:08] scratch or you're just looking to boost [02:11] your chances, this is really a session [02:12] that gives you those those kind of [02:15] insider tips to make a real difference. Now, what we're going to cover today is um scholarship searching 101. So I'm just going to give you the basics. Uh I've given this talk before with respect to the basics, but it's still important for you guys to kind of understand how do you get started with looking for scholarships. going to give you some resources, some some cool resources out there. Uh also, uh where we can find [02:41] some niche and and custom scholarships. Uh give you some advice on how to repurpose your essays, you know, uh that you've already written. Uh give you just this really brief uh concept called weekend workflows that helps you win awards. Talk about some myths and mistakes and things that no one really tells you about. And then we'll finish it off with takeaways. and then also [03:02] we'll have some um uh Q&A at the end. Okay, so why don't we go ahead and get started? So, first of all, scholarship search 101. Um I love scholarships. Uh and the reason why is because I hate paying for education. I frankly think [03:19] that education should be free. And so, uh I hope that everyone out there, especially the parents that are listening, uh do agree with me. Uh it's funny how um you know a lot of students sometimes don't have the concept of how much it costs uh and and you know education is so very expensive now these days. And so anything that we can do right to find um uh some funds that will help offset the cost of of scholarships or to offset the cost of of colleges and the college uh expenses uh is always always welcome. At least it is for me. [03:56] So, first of all, when you're starting [03:58] with scholarships, it is vitally [04:01] important that you know is that [04:03] scholarship searching can start very [04:06] well in advance. Frankly, you can start as early as fourth grade. Normally, organizations what they will do is they will hold that scholarship for the awardee until they get to the college. So, that's not a problem. They will hold it for you. Um so that's the reason why [04:21] um starting in fourth grade and and [04:23] doing the the the little um the you know [04:26] the little essays and the little [04:27] contests or so those can definitely uh [04:30] help. Okay. The best time typically for finding scholarships is between fall to spring. Okay. And the reason why is because a lot of times um those who are providing these scholarships like to kind of uh coincide them when they do award them with those that um when the students are getting accepted um to colleges you know sometime in April or so and so it's kind of like the same time they they say hey look at all these amazing scholarships and look at the students that are going to be attending these schools. But I will say is that [05:04] scholarship searching is a yearround [05:06] event. Okay? And you need to make sure that you make it a habit. Okay? I can't say this enough. Students and sometimes [05:14] parents will also say, "Oh, okay. Um it's just um and I'll do it a couple months here and then that's it." And they stop. Well, that's the mistake. People make that mistake. If you make it [05:25] a habit and you make it a continuous [05:27] habit that every month you are looking [05:30] for scholarships and applying for them, [05:32] eventually you get really good at it, [05:34] frankly. And secondarily, you will find you will you will um kind of open up the the the Pandora's box with respect to scholarships that are available. Okay. Uh it always seems and I I know I've experienced this. It always seems that when you when you keep on going and you keep on being persistent that things just start opening up and especially you also have this formula database which we'll talk about now if you're still working on your FAFSA. [06:01] Again a lot of stu a lot of people are [06:03] working still on their FAFSA. Um FAFSA again it's it's just been gosh a total nightmare. But uh remember FAA is for uh federal aid but it's also because you have to establish um the the facility at the colleges that will take you know the scholarships that you find. So it's very very important that if when I'm talking about scholarships today I'm talking about the private scholarships the scholarships that are not related to federal to federal funding. be aware that if your scholarship, okay, is not a renewable scholarship that it could it could cut into that, you know, awardee of of uh financial or federal aid. So, [06:45] for example, if if you qualify and they [06:47] give you a $20,000 [06:50] um financial aid package or so, if you [06:53] get, let's say, uh you know, um a [06:56] $5,000, okay, a $5,000 uh private [07:00] scholarship, then your federal um [07:03] scholarships can be reduced to 15. But that's not a problem if you get renewable scholarships or you're continually looking for scholarships um because you can make that up. Okay. Now the next thing is uh and here's here is the secret sauce. Okay, so this is something that I have taught for so many years and uh people still don't believe me until they actually do it. Um and [07:27] then what happens here is that uh they [07:30] become experts. Okay. So here is how you search. First of all, you the student and the parents can help in this. You will find keywords that are related to you. Your achievements, your [07:44] involvement, your service, your [07:46] leadership, your talents, your [07:48] backgrounds, everything that is [07:50] associated and related to you. Um your ethnicity, um your um your specific, you know, things that describe you. What you want to do is you want to go ahead and create a list of those. So, for example, you know, I do this one with surfing, okay? where maybe you are a surfer. [08:10] Okay. So, what you're going to do is is that you're going to go ahead and take a those keywords and you're going to expand on them. You frankly, if you get 10 of those, you um then you want to do is you want to expand by taking variations of that. So for example, if you do surfing, then you do water sports, body surfing, surfboard, ocean, everything that is related to surfing, you want to go ahead and start variating on it, okay? And making different keywords. [08:41] And then what you're going to do with [08:42] those keywords, now what I want you to [08:44] do is I want you to log these. And frankly, you should come up for with about a hundred um key words, okay, that you can use because if you think about it, even the smallest little thing, let's say you're a juggler or let's say you love to sleep. I don't care what it is, you know, uh you love bananas, okay? You just go ahead and everything that's about you, you want to use it as a keyword. Then you go into your browser, okay? So, let's say your Google search [09:11] or whatever you use as your browser and [09:13] you type in that keyword. So, let's say it's surfing. And then after that, you put surfing grant, surfing scholarship, surfing award. Okay? So, you're going to type that into your browser. And there's [09:27] going to be a list of things that come [09:29] up. All right? So, what you want to do now is you want to start research. You want to start clicking on those links and seeing what kind of scholarships or awards they're they're providing. And then you try the variations as I mentioned. So all the variations of [09:44] those keywords and then uh also you can [09:47] do that let's say surfing scholarship [09:50] and then add the local area. So let's just say um surfing scholarship Huntington Beach. Okay, that's one of the cities here in California. And so what happens now is is you're doing and and everything every single type of keyword that you use and grant awards scholarship or so and even especially in local areas now you are generating a laundry list of scholarships, awards and grants that could be available. You want to read those and if you read those and you qualify then you um then you apply to them and then there you go. Okay. And so [10:29] the key thing here is you want to make [10:31] sure is that you're creating a database [10:34] of this. So get a Google sheet or an Excel sheet or even if you just write it down on piece of paper. Well, however you record your stuff and you start recording this and you specially record again the name, the the the um what uh the description of it, what the award is and the biggest thing is is the due date. Okay, it's very very important to get the due date because what you're going to do is you're going to use this database to go through and every single time for next year and the year after and the year after you are applying to these every single time. Okay, so that's really really important that you're creating this database. Okay, so um so [11:18] now that you are an expert of of doing [11:21] searches, right, where do you search? Okay, you can, as I mentioned, you do the search online, but there's also other places. So, there's local community organizations, businesses and foundations, professional associations, cultural and ethnic uh organizations, um employer scholarships, niche scholarships, uh social media and online platforms, international scholarships, college scholarships. So actually, you know, the colleges that you may be applying to may also have particular scholarships or grants, alumni scholarships, okay, merit-based, need-based or major specific scholarships. These are all um areas where you can go ahead and search. And [12:05] if you expand your keyword list and [12:08] include all of these, now I mean you're [12:12] you have um you know a list of [12:15] scholarships that um will keep you busy [12:18] for a very very very very long time. Okay. And I can't I can't uh impose enough uh of how important um even the local communities are so because a lot of times the local communities they don't get a lot of applicants. um that just happens because again they're local um and they are more they are more inclined to give you the scholarship if you are local to them as well because of course they want to provide that to the individuals that live in their area. Okay so this is where a key areas is where to search okay and what what to search for. Now, I [12:58] will tell you, persistence truly pays [13:01] off. You want to make sure that you cast a wide net and apply for as many scholarships as possible. And I know that may sound so cliche, but remember, interpret loosely the requirements. Okay? I've had students that for example and and I I I don't mean this as as but there was a student he really uh enjoyed um juggling okay and um there was um a scholarship in which it was um about uh athletic equipment okay athletic equipment and so he's like I can't do that's not my the juggling balls are not athletic I'm like yes it is absolutely it is he applied for it. It was unique. He got it. Okay, [13:49] it was a $500 scholarship. But again, even the $500 scholarships, and I'm going to talk about this, you know, right after this, is really, really important. But don't read the, you know, the requirements of the scholarship and try to be so strict about it. Make sure that you loosely interpret. There is no problem with applying for a scholarship that you are so so slightly slightly remotely um you know applying to it. Sometimes I just [14:17] actually have to do it if it looks like [14:19] it's interesting or very cool because [14:21] you never know what's going to happen. I have seen it where the um scholarship committee loosely interprets because the problem is they don't get enough candidates or enough qualified candidates and then what happens is they lose the scholarship or they lose the funding and they would rather give a scholarship to somebody than to lose the funding and not be able to do it the next year. So always remember interpret the requirements loosely. There is a concept which I call scholarship stacking. And this is what is the key here. What happens here is that the [14:56] smaller renewable scholarships offer way [15:00] more flexibility and are easy to attain. If you look for and too many people do this problem, they look for the 20,000 the $25,000 scopes. Do you know how many people are doing that across the country? Everybody is because they all want the big payday. That is not how you want to do this. What you want to do is [15:19] you want to find the small ones. The 50, the 100, the 250, the 500, the 750, the,000, the,500, the 2,000, the 2500. Those are the ones you want to find. And you want to start stacking them. Meaning, you want to um you want to apply for them, get them, and you want to start aggregating them, okay? So, [15:41] they get bigger and bigger and bigger. And eventually, let's say your goal to be able to fund, let's say, $25,000 in tuition and fees, okay, for your for your school, then you find $25,000 worth of scholarships and you're done for the year. Okay? Now, the key thing here is if you find scholarships, which these are the golden key here, if you find scholarships that are renewable, meaning is that if they all if they accept you, all you have to do the next year is just submit an app and you automatically get it. those are the ones you want to get because if you can get if let's say again your um expenses for college are $25,000 a year then all you have to do is find $25,000 of renewable scholarships and then you're done because now you just have to renew them every year. Okay? Now, some renewables [16:36] might have some stipulations like, [16:37] "Okay, yeah, you need to hit a certain [16:39] GPA or you need to be still involved in [16:42] whatever they're doing." But again, if you make this a habit, you're still in still even past that, you're still looking for scholarships, you're set. Okay? Now, I know it's not the case where, oh yeah, just find them and that's it. Yeah, it's not that easy. It [16:56] isn't. I'm not trying to make this like look like it's a simple thing. It's not. But it is about the persistence and the habit you take to go ahead and pursue and look for scholarships based on the searching that I told you about. Now you want to keep track of every cycle of scholarships. Again, as I mentioned in [17:14] your database, you want to make sure [17:16] that you know you're aware of the dates [17:18] because as they come up, it's very, very [17:20] important. And you're continuing. Okay, so this is the key thing. You want to continue searching through high school and through college. So even when you make it to college, don't stop looking because there's a lot of scholarships available for college. Now unfortunately [17:34] it stops once you finish your bachelors. Okay? Once you finish your four-year there's not a lot of scholarships that offer for masters unfortunately but it is a numbers game. So the more applications you put in the more chances you get. Okay? It's really really [17:51] important. All right. Now, I want to make sure that you be aware of scams because um first of all, if they're charging you, okay? Now, now I don't mean the applications like the the search engine out there where maybe they charge you a fee to use apps. That's not it. What I mean is that if the [18:11] scholarship is charging you a fee and [18:14] they're asking for personal information [18:16] requests, that is a scam because all [18:19] they're doing is trying to just get your [18:20] email address or your contact [18:22] information so they can sell it and put [18:24] you on a list. Okay? Legitimate scholarships should never require any payment or guarantees. And usually they will ask for some type of information you have to give like for example an essay or a video or examples of your work. Always remember no work means no scholarship. Okay? So if it says just [18:47] put your email address in there and [18:49] we'll put you no it's not a scholarship. It's not a legitimate scholarship. Even if it was, I still wouldn't do it because again, you're going to get on a list and the likelihood of you winning that scholarship is very, very small. Okay? So, just be aware of that. Now, [19:06] scholarship resources. Okay, so let's talk about scholarship resources. Where what are some resources out there that you can use in order to uh look for scholarships? Okay, first of all, here are some scholarship engines. Okay. Uh [19:22] go Mary. So, Go Mary is like a one-stop shop. It has scholarships, has grants, it has like information about financial aid packages. Um, you can um uh direct apply to uh multiple scholarships. Okay. [19:35] Uh scholarship doc scholarships.com is another one. It's a database with millions of scholarships uh including merit and need-based. Now, the one thing that I will um caution you is scholarships.com and fast web. They are [19:49] the oldest. They are one of the largest platforms. But the only thing sometimes that I don't like about scholarships.com and fast web is that sometimes there's a lot of junk in there because they have so much in there. Um and and because it's so wellnown, a lot of people will, you know, go on there to look for scholarships. So, you know, I don't [20:08] depend solely on just them because a lot [20:11] of people they just look at fast and try [20:13] to apply and then they never make it. They get discouraged and then they're done. So, you don't want to do that. Um but you know there I have seen some merit in fasteb and scholarship.com but again uh just know that it's so big and so many people are on it that sometimes it's not that you know you don't get success on that. Uh capex they offer [20:33] scholarship matching and college [20:35] admissions support. So that's pretty cool. Um so again the key thing here is scholarship matching. Uh niche.com. So [20:41] niche.com I love niche.com. It has some good information. It offers um school rankings, student reviews, but it also offers easy uh to apply scholarships. [20:51] And then College Board, which you guys [20:53] know uh the AP exams and all that um [20:56] they call their uh their app the big [20:58] future. Uh it is trusted by scholarships and um they tie scholarships to colleges and major information. So that's pretty cool. Okay. The next thing is um local, state-based or hidden gems. Okay. So [21:11] first of all, ask your high school [21:13] counselor. Your high school counselor typically has a binder, has a list, or it's maybe through, let's say, SCORE or Naviance or some other type of systems that they use. And many offer scholarships to, you know, student account holders, meaning those that um have are signed up for that app that the the high school council uses um and they find ones that usually are not advertised out there. Okay. Community foundations. So, when you're doing your [21:41] search, you know, put your community. Again, I I live in San Diego, so I put San Diego community foundation scholarships, something like that. And again, it's the same thing as my search engine that I talked about, the keywords. And there's a lot of community foundations out there that will give you scholarships just because you're part of the community. Uh, the Rotary Club, the Elks, the Kiwanis clubs, you know, they offer a lot of regional scholarships that are based on service or leadership. [22:08] So, if you have a lot of leadership, [22:10] have a lot of community service, I'll [22:12] tell you these service-based [22:13] organizations love to give away [22:15] scholarships. Okay. Um, another thing that's an untapped, a lot of students don't do this is their parent employers or the unions that are out there. Really important. A lot of times, um, these, you know, these these companies have it because again, it's a good write-off for them, but as well as that they have actually, um, bigger SC type of scholarships at their companies. And so [22:37] many of these companies and unions uh [22:40] provide these scholarships. And so you want to make sure you tap into that everything that you do. For example, I belong to a church and I I didn't even think about that, but then I said, "Hey, do you guys I asked them, "Do you guys have scholarships?" It happens that they do. Okay. Um and it was a $500 [22:55] scholarship. Again, remember scholarship stacking. Um I would always go around to all of the businesses in my local area. I would go to the local um um business chapter or uh you know the the the business um what do you call it local business organization that supports all the local business find out and see if they have a database of business and I would contact those businesses and find out do you have scholarships a lot of times again scholarships go untaken because there's just no candidates because they just are not aware okay so it's really really important that that you um that you search locally because that is something that you can really find some really hidden gems. Okay, there are some sites that reuse your essay. So, for example, circled in, it [23:43] lets you apply to scholarships with a [23:45] profile instead of a long essay. So, what I mean is that that you fill out this profile. Again, it's not it's not something you're, you know, just just um putting in your email, but it's a profile. So you put out, you know, the type of person you are and answer these questions and then instead of a long essay, what they'll do is they will provide that out to um the the resources they have for scholarships. Okay. [24:08] Another things like ton.com. It focuses on easy to apply scholarships um that don't always require new essays but can be you know existing essays, right? And then one through Sally Sally May which is Scolie. It helps you organize and find essay light opportunities. Now [24:25] again, I will stress is that there are [24:28] times when you're going to have to do [24:30] work for these scholarships, but those [24:31] are normally the ones where are those [24:34] are the renewable ones. Those are the ones that you most likely will have a good chance in. Okay. Um rather than the ones that are so easy because then everybody will do it, right? Okay. Uh [24:44] some application and tools like raise [24:47] me. So raise me, they have what's called micro scholarships from colleges awarded for achievements like good grades or activities. These are really cool. And so raise me, what it does is again it provides you where you enter in a profile and then they help you look for scholarships based on your profile. Uh scholarships owl it aggregates and it mass applies to multiple scholarships. [25:08] So again you know your profile it goes [25:10] out and helps you. Okay. Now some of these are paid services through scholarship owl but again it can be worth it if you um uh it allow because then it uses the power of multiplication right and then of course as I mentioned scolie which is through Sally May matches scholarships as well as helps you track deadlines okay it is subscriptionbased meaning you have to pay for a subscription and then it allows you to um you know select and create a database of colleges but again it allows you to have that database Okay. All right. So, we were talking about all those resources. Are are you guys [25:46] tracking with me so far? If you can give me a heart because I want to know that you guys are still there that you're still tracking that um you get Okay, awesome. Because I want to make sure this is I'm giving you some good information here. My gosh, we have a lot of people on the line. Uh which is amazing. Thank you so much for being [26:03] with me. For those who are who know me, thank you. for those who uh have it's your first time I hope that you're getting a lot of um you know value in this information. So niche scholarship. So bas basically remember how I mentioned keyword keyword search exercise that I talked about is very very important. And what you want to be [26:24] able to do for the niche scholarships is [26:26] that that's what the keyword searches [26:28] you know identity based like for example [26:30] race or ethnicity or gender. Okay. Um if it's interest based like sports, music, art, STEM, aviation, community based like your unions or professional associations or your religious groups. um unusual scholarships like left-handed students, duck calling, etc. I'll tell you that I I there has been the oddest and weirdest things that students come up with that they are so interested in, but I'm telling you, I found one where there was um u one like I and I I joke about this, but the student loved to sleep and so he did one and he found a sleep therapy organization that that was happened to give a scholarship. I saw [27:09] one was uh green slime or making slime [27:13] you know the I think that's a big thing [27:14] with the you know it's a big thing with [27:15] the students the younger students were [27:17] making slime was one one there was one [27:19] for knife throwing okay and knife [27:22] creation or knife develop um knife um [27:25] manufacturing [27:27] um I had one where they were uh um uh [27:30] what do you call it sci-fi fans so there [27:33] is so many weird and odd types of [27:36] scholarships that you can find but it's [27:38] a matter of member of I mentioned [27:40] creating that keyword search because you [27:43] will find the oddest type of [27:44] scholarships and that no one is going to [27:47] apply to. Like I said, left-handed students, it's out there. Okay? So, niche scholarships are often the easiest to win because they're the fewest applicants, you know, and if you think about your identity and your interest and affiliations, you know, uh, and these scholarships are, you know, for being, you know, it could be like the child of a firefighter or an artist or or I I found one was like a student was a a big uh star uh Star Trek fan and and it was speaking Cllingon. So, again, a lot of hidden gems. Okay. [28:20] custom scholarships again keyword search [28:23] like I mentioned but you know use the [28:25] filters on those various databases that [28:27] I was talking about uh capex big future [28:30] um search with the as I mentioned with [28:32] specific uh keywords like left-handed [28:35] high school seniors okay um as I [28:37] mentioned ask your employer church bank [28:39] parents HR departments reach out to [28:42] professional organizations in the fields [28:45] of your interest so if you love biology [28:47] then reach out to you know um any [28:49] organization that that is associated [28:51] with biology. Okay, so that's how you find these different types of scholarships. All right, I'm not going to go deeply into the scholarship essays, but I'm going to go over general and highle concepts, okay? Because um I have gone through writing uh essays many many trainings so you can go and look back. But I will tell you about some tips with respect to shortcutting the process. Okay? Because [29:19] scholarship essays are the same as doing [29:23] your um you know your um scholarships [29:27] for um for your apps. Okay? And that's where you want to do is you want to go ahead and reuse okay your application um your application the college application essays. Okay. So uh here we go. The [29:44] fastest way to win is by reusing what [29:48] you've already written. Okay? If you have, let's say, a personal statement or let's say um a UCP, that is great. Start there. Okay? And so what you want to be [30:01] able to do is you want to reuse and [30:03] reshape your common application essays, [30:06] your PIQ's or your UCPIQ's [30:09] and build what we call a response bank [30:12] with strong different types of [30:14] paragraphs. Okay? Paragraphs about leadership, about overcoming challenges, your identity, your purpose. Okay? And you can shape those into any prompt, you know, with a little tweaks. Okay? So [30:28] what you want to do is if you have a [30:30] certain sentence that you like or a [30:32] certain paragraph that you've written, [30:33] you want to keep those in a database [30:35] somewhere like let's say a spreadsheet [30:36] or a document. And so it's really helpful if you take those and what you're going to do is you're going to tag those particular like snippets, okay, with a theme, leadership, identity, service, resilience. So that what happens is when a um a uh an essay comes up that's requested by a scholarship, you can just go let's say it's about leadership, you go straight to your leadership essay, okay? You pull it out and then you adjust it based on the question that they answer. Okay? So [31:09] uh it's also helpful. Okay? And here's a here's a pro tip. You know, track everything in your spreadsheet so you know which responses that you've already used. Okay? And this is the reason and [31:21] the one the reason why is because um uh [31:25] if you use them and you tag them then [31:28] it's so much easier to find them later [31:30] right uh this is where I talk about [31:32] creating you know base paragraphs [31:35] modular paragraphs okay because you [31:38] spend so much time on crafting your piqs [31:42] and crafting your personal statements [31:43] you can definitely use those and all you [31:45] have to do is customize them now [31:47] remember build a bank of short answers. Okay. Why you? How do you lead? Um, okay. So, I say this here is, you know, [31:55] using AI tools for idea generation. Now, I'm going to be very cautious in saying this because what I don't want you to do is I don't want you to go and just use AI and just say, write me an essay about leadership. Okay? That is absolutely not what I'm saying. is what we're saying is is that you want to go ahead and um you can ask us about what are some examples of leadership that you and then you read those examples and that might jog your memory of things that you've done in the past. Okay? But please please please do [32:30] not use AI to write your full essay. Okay? This needs to be about you. It needs to be custom about you. It needs to be personal about you. And remember [32:42] the 8020 to 730 7030 rule still applies [32:47] when writing the essays as I'm as I've [32:49] taught before. 70% insight, 30% about the story. It is really, really important because what they're doing is is they're not necessarily looking for what you've done explicitly because that will probably be in a separate section like um your like these applications you use for college. They're looking about the type of person you are. That is more important because they want someone to represent their organization that they know is a good person that has a good heart. um that that can that can [33:23] represent them well, okay? They don't want a person that's just looking out for money, okay? Um and is not kind and not is and is not courageous and creative. Uh so it's really really important that you keep the 7030 rule. Okay? Work smarter, not harder. start [33:43] getting all of the of your essays, start [33:45] getting all of your samples, putting [33:46] them together, and creating a [33:48] spreadsheet, a database of your [33:51] responses. Okay? All right. So, um, I have this concept here, and I and this is this is not a this is not a concept that I came up with. This is just a pretty common concept of how do you execute on um doing this process of scholarship searching and finding and and doing. Okay? Okay. And it's very, [34:12] very, very simple. Call it the weekend scholarship workflow. All you're going to do is on Friday, you're going to find three to five scholarships that are a fit. Again, you should literally be able to find these so very easy if you've done the work of the keywords, okay? And you have this database. Saturday, [34:31] customize your existing essays to the [34:33] scholarship prompt. So, all you're going to do now is if it's about the leader, you grab your leadership essay and you you customize it. you revise it so that uh it fits the scholarship prompt and then Sunday you submit and then you track it. It's that simple. Okay, you may say, "All right, Coach Art, that sounds too simple for me." But it's it [34:54] I'm telling you it's this this is about [34:56] a habit. Okay, this is about making a habit of finding scholarships. And if you if I can tell you that you could be successful at this to find so much money that again that it could be will that it will completely 100% um cover your expenses and it could even be more because I've seen students who got so good at this that they um that they actually make money off of this. And the reason why is because they're just given the money um and they they they will save it or they will use it for their other expenses. Okay. So, this is a very [35:32] easy plan to stick with. And we're not asking you to do crazy amounts. 3 to five. If you do this every week, again, that's 52 weeks a year. You multiply that by how many scholarships you're applying to, it's a numbers game. Okay? [35:47] A truly a numbers game. And if you think about it, let's say that you apply to, you know, uh, eight scholarships that each have $500. That's a again, you think about that. Okay. What's amazing is that's $3,500. [36:03] Okay. $3,500 goes a long long way, right? Okay. So, what are some scholarship myths? Okay. What are some [36:13] things that no one tells you about some [36:16] scholarships? Okay. And we're almost we're almost getting to the to the end here. Okay. So, uh bear with me here. [36:21] Okay. First of all, yes, deadlines are important. They really really are. Don't miss the deadlines. But there are a lot of times when deadlines may be soft and the reason why is because either the organization is not ready to review this stuff, the information or they didn't get applicants. So never just rely on [36:44] the um the date that you see on the [36:47] site, okay? Or what they say. What I would do is ask directly. Always ask directly. find out, oh, okay, is this scholarship still still going? Okay, [36:57] because you might find out that it is. Okay. Um, it is very very true that many scholarships are underapplied, meaning that is that no one applies to them or some or very u minimal uh amount of people apply to them and sometimes again they are not qualified candidates and so if you are a qualified candidate and you're good enough, they're going to grab you. Okay. uh judges care more about story than stats and that is again as I mentioned the 7030 ratio 70% about insights 30% about the story it's really important that you convey to them the type of person that you are okay the type of person that you are not necessarily stats now again it's not a problem if it asks you know what have you done by this and that but focus on the insights of what you learned learned, how you grew, the kind of person that you are now, what you're going to do with that, all of those things. They love that. They love the [37:58] warm and fuzzy stuff because again, it [38:01] makes them feel good that they're giving [38:03] the money to someone that really [38:05] deserves it and that's going to [38:07] represent them well. Okay? You don't need a perfect GPA to win these. It's not the game is not there. Again, just like the previous line there, they're not necessarily looking for stats. [38:18] They're looking for a good person. Okay? Now, of course, if you have great stats, of course, they want to go ahead, okay? Of course, they want to go ahead and and see and make sure that um you know that they have um they can be proud of that. But again, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to have a perfect GPA. Okay? Uh [38:37] scholarships aren't just for low-income [38:39] students. They're not. Okay? They will give scholarships to whoever it is. Again, I you know, um so my my my sons, they've got they got a lot of sculpture and I know that we don't may not qualify um for for necessarily um some some certain, you know, some type of of of compensation for for scholarships on the federal side, but again, they're looking for the good people, right? They're [39:04] looking for those who can represent [39:05] them. Well, you don't have to wait until senior year to start. Absolutely. As I mentioned, you can go as starting as low as fourth grade, okay? And the only reason why we say fourth grade is because I've seen that there's a lot of um there's, you know, at that point um students can write well. They can [39:21] provide, you know, good types of of um [39:24] of information or or works and projects [39:28] um to submit for for review. Okay. Uh winning one scholarship won't disqualify you for others. No, it won't. These organizations don't talk to one another at all. Okay. It really doesn't. So, you [39:41] know, um you remember how I mentioned [39:43] about scholarship stacking is very [39:45] important. But remember again, the key thing here is it it can it will cut into your federal aid. Okay? So, you just have to make sure that remember because this is a habit and you're doing it all the time that just know that the more successful you are with the private scholarship route, the less that you will have from a federal. But that's okay because if you you can you can find much more money and much more eligibility that way than you can the federal through the federal side. Okay. [40:15] Uh again, private scholarships can stack [40:17] with institutional aid. You got to check your college policies with that. Again, it's one of those things where as I mentioned, it could be it's exactly what I just talked about. it could take away from your federal, but as long as you're looking for and the main thing is looking for the renewable private scholarships, then that is where um you know that's where the money is, you know, no pun intended. Okay. Okay. So, [40:41] what are your next steps? What are the things that I want you to do starting today? You can even start this after my training is first of all build your essay bank this week. So remember how you build that Etsy bank. You do the keywords, you do the searches, you start uh logging them in to a spreadsheet. [41:00] Okay? Set your weekend workflow. So make sure that you go ahead and the Friday and the Saturday and the Sunday, right? Friday you're doing for 3 to five looking I mean looking for three to five scholarships. Saturday you're um going into your um your essay bank and then you're p pulling the essay bank from whatever it applies and then you're submitting on Sunday right track everything that you submit and ask for feedback from someone that you trust with respect to reviewing your application and your now if you are with us then we absolutely can do it for you because your coach can definitely help you with that okay so you don't need to wait start it now okay start it literally now as soon as we get off. [41:43] Okay. Um you know the and and again get the feedback before you submit. You know that that certain polish can make all the difference uh depending upon you know the the type of of writing that you do. Okay. So what are the takeaways from this training today? Okay. First of all, [42:04] start early, search monthly, submit [42:07] often. Okay. I can't tell you enough. This is a habit game. As I'm always mentioned, it's a habit. Start early, [42:14] search monthly. Uh, actually, start early. I'll change that to search weekly. Uh, search monthly, search annually, submit often. Right? Okay. No [42:24] work means no scholarship. So, remember, if they're asking just for um your your email address or your contact information, and they're asking you especially to play money for just that one scholarship, nope. uh it means that it's not a scholarship, not a legitimate one at least. Work smarter, not harder. Build your prompt database and reuse and revise. [42:48] Okay, it's really really important. Uh make searching for a scholarship as a habit as I mentioned. Okay, this is a long-term game. This is all a numbers game. And so it's really really important that you um just put it on your calendar. It is like a meeting. It [43:05] is like a task that you it is a [43:06] continuous thing and once you build that [43:09] database your essay your your essay bank [43:12] and that database of scholarships it's [43:15] an easy thing it gets so easy you get [43:17] very very good at it and then um in [43:20] those applications that I mentioned to [43:22] you um you can set up alerts for new [43:24] scholarships so based on certain [43:26] criteria they'll send you emails say hey [43:28] here's a new scholarship that came on [43:30] board you know you might want to look [43:32] into it Okay. All right. So, with that said, um I'm going to open up um um for questions. Um but with respect to the questions, okay, with respect to the questions, uh if you are looking for financial aid help, we do have coach David. Coach David is amazing. He is an expert at financial [43:56] aid, particularly uh federal financial [43:58] aid. if you want to uh take down this QR code, you know, snap it with your phone and even if you think your family makes too much money, we can help. Okay? So, go ahead and snap that. And uh if you are new to us and you are you don't you don't have let's say a coach or a program yet uh if you want to book a free um 15-minute assessment with us so that we can just give you a free assessment of you know where your student is please type the word book B O K to 949775865 okay book at 949775865 and we can administer a free assessment for for you. Okay, free assessment for [44:42] you. All right, so with that said, um are there any questions? Oh, well actually before that, how did you guys think about this content? Was it helpful for you? If you do, please give me a heart because you know I'm the reaction coach. I love to Okay, good. Because [45:00] remember, I take a lot of time in [45:01] putting this stuff together and I want [45:04] to make sure that I'm giving you the [45:05] content that you really really want and [45:08] need and it's valuable to you. So, thank you so much. Okay. Are there any questions? Oh, thank you. Yes, a lot. I [45:15] see a lot of thank yous there. Thank you so much as well. I greatly appreciate it. Are there any questions? This stuff's pretty straightforward. So, um [45:22] any questions from the gallery? I don't see any questions here. Okay, I'll ask one more time. Are there any questions that you guys have with respect to um the scholarships and how to find them and where to go? Okay. All right. Cool. All right. Well, [45:45] uh with that said, again, I'll just just [45:48] kind of preview again. If you haven't talked to uh Coach David yet, I would highly suggest a uh if not ethnic video. Okay. Now, there was one question here. Let's see. If not ethnic video, [46:04] okay, I don't know what that means, but [46:06] if you're saying is should you should [46:09] you provide a video? Um, if that's basically what they're asking for, then yes, you're going to have to go by the requirements of the scholarship. Uh, I don't know what you mean by if not ethnic, but again, um, I would say is if that's part of the requirements, then absolutely. Um ah okay so biased against a majority race. Well you know the the actually the key things here and I I'm just say again I'm minority is that I love I look for those scholarships that are you know a minority um minority um scholarships. Okay. I don't really care [46:45] about the the major ones or so. I look for those because that's where the uniqueness is and that's where you most likely will get um you know a bite. Okay. It's those major ones that I don't that I look at and I say, "Ah, you know what? Probably everybody and their mom are are applying to those." Okay. So, um [47:03] I understand about if not ethnic video. Yes, go ahead and do a video. But we we you know uh with respect to bias, there's nothing we can do to control that. But what we can do is is we can control the number of applications we put out there. Right? So that's the key [47:18] thing is the number, not necessarily um [47:21] the this the being selective. Do you have an Excel template for scholarship tracking? Actually, it's funny that you asked that. Um, I have put out a scholarship tracking. I was going to put some freebies out there, but uh I had I have to actually pull that out. So, um [47:36] uh so what I'm going to do is this. Um I will see if I can uh for the next time around is I will get some free resources out there. Um put it out for all of our families. You just need a background. Oh, yes. I'm so sorry. It was strange. [47:50] We had a little bit of technical issues. Normally we have an eagle lock background. So, but thank you for that. Yes, we do need a Coronado bridge uh because uh I am in San Diego uh and I love San Diego. So, all right. Uh with [48:03] that said, um thank you so much for [48:06] joining me. I always say this and I s it sincerely. Uh you guys um I love it doing these these training uh training sessions with you. And the reason why is because I know that you're coming home and you could spend time with your family, your friends, your loved ones or do other things but you uh you choose to spend time with me and I am always grateful for that. So thank you for your support. Thank you for always coming on. [48:33] uh it is truly truly appreciative and um [48:37] I will continue to do these as long as [48:39] you guys are showing up and as long as [48:41] you guys can give me those hearts and [48:42] show me uh show me that uh that the [48:45] information I'm giving is valuable. So with that said, have a wonderful the rest of your week and um and uh good luck in your scholarship searching and we will see you next Tuesday. All right, thanks you so much. Have a wonderful rest of your evening. Take it easy. [49:03] Bye-bye.