My HS Senior was recently asked to participate in an all-day meeting of a student committee to review scholarship applications. This was for a local scholarship administered by a large bank (local branch) and endowed by a former member of the police and civic communities. The terms of the endowment required that a team of 12 seniors from the school review all applications each year and decide who should be granted the scholarship funds.
I’m so excited about what it can mean for a young person to have some real experience at that side of the table. The only requirements here were that the students should be in good enough academic standing that they could miss a day of school, and of course they could not be applicants for this particular award themselves. And in exchange, they got a true understanding of how reviewers look at applications for grants, scholarships, internships, fellowships, and other competitive opportunities. I feel my child will be so much better prepared in the future to develop applications that really speak to a funder’s concerns. This is INVALUABLE.
We see a lot of questions on this site about how to improve one’s chances for college acceptance or merit scholarships or what-have-you. I think that experiences like this—walking in the shoes of those who read, review, and make these types of decisions—could be extremely helpful. It’s a type of service that isn’t often considered, as it’s not necessarily a resume-builder and there’s no immediate gratification. But my kid had a great time (what could be bad about a day off school in the company of peers?) and a greatly expanded vision of how decisions are often made.