Scholarship
Education, College, Sholarship, Environment
Finding More Scholarship Sources
Sep 2nd
It takes more than making the grades and scoring high on the SATs for students to be college-bound. Each year, students are faced with the burden of figuring out how they are going to pay for their college education. Knowing how and where to search for aid can make the difference in rather or not many students will be able to attend college.
Outside from personal or family savings, there are government grants, federal or personal loans, and scholarships. Government grants are almost always limited and only cover a fraction of the total cost of attending college. Federal and personal loans are debt, which has to be repaid after graduating. Loans are great resources for covering expenses left over after there is no other source of income available. Scholarships are, for some students, the only hope for attending college with little or no upfront cash and without piling up thousands of dollars of debt.
Each year, there are billions of dollars of free scholarship money that goes unclaimed. Students are just not aware that this money is available. The most visible scholarship monies are offered by large corporations and charities. These scholarships receive thousands of applications for a small pot of available money. It is usually the local, community based scholarships that are overlooked by students.
When applying for scholarships, students must be as diverse as possible with their search. National organizations advertise there scholarship opportunities in widely distributed media outlets. The competition for these scholarships is very high and is limited to a few exceptional students. Students should continue to apply for these scholarships despite the competitiveness, but broadening their search to local opportunities will be to their advantage.
Many scholarships are offered by churches and local small businesses. But these scholarships are not always widely advertised. Finding out about these scholarship opportunities are not difficult with a little work.
Visiting a few churches and reading the news letters can be an effective way to find out if a particular church is offering any scholarships. Listening to the local AM stations is also an effective way to get information about scholarship offers from local churches and charitable organizations. Many churches also have websites that are indexed in the popular search engines. Using Yahoo or Google to search on a few small organizations in town can yield some valuable information as well.
To reach even more scholarship sources, it would be a good idea to take notice of local small businesses. Many small businesses usually give scholarship to students that it has a direct or indirect affiliation with. For example, a local business may offer scholarships to sons and daughters of their employees. Asking mom and dad to keep watch for these opportunities can pay off big, as these types of aid almost always go without notice and have very little competition.
Taking advantage of every opportunity to receive the most scholarship funding can benefit students in two ways. First, students with an abundance of scholarship aid can attend college for little or no out of pocket money. Second, students will not graduate with an enormous amount of debt.
Miss Understood : Sporting Clays Article From the Paragon School of Sporting
Sep 2nd
I’ve just come home from the outstanding NC State shoot at Hunters Pointe where Chuck Frazier perpetrated on us some of his best, most well thought out target presentations. Standing in the box, I distinctly remember telling myself not to shoot that target right there. Did I remember to follow those instructions? Actually, to tell you the truth, well, I just forgot. It looked so good right there I couldn’t help myself. See, here’s what happened. After stomping the first bird, I moved the gun to intercept the second bird. And there it was, right on schedule. So I mosey up to it with my “never-fail” move and watched myself shoot right over the top of it! Chuck ambushed me. Twice! X0X0. It’s enough to make a person feel daffy. I did adjust the last 2 pairs, XXXX. Couldn’t get those lost birds back though.
And that’s what I want to take a look at, minimizing our misses.
In my opinion, sporting clays competition has become a precision sport. Never before have so many demands been placed on the competitor’s shoulders to guide the gun properly. Mistakes in the swing are rarely forgiven by today’s more creative and deceptive match presentations. While ours is not a game of perfect, scores are climbing. That’s why knowing where we missed and why is so critical. As scores continue to climb, there is less and less margin for missing, putting the emphasis squarely on better strategies and error free swing execution. Miss management.
Top shooters have good form. While their shooting styles may differ, the style each one uses is consistent, making it dependable, at the target and on the score sheet. But there’s more going on there than meets the eye.
Let’s start with a target presentation you like, a favorite of yours. Maybe it’s a left to right crossing target, medium speed at about 25 yards. This is a target that you rarely miss. Confidence on this bird is very high as you walk into the shooting box. Why? Because you know this shot. From the set up through the break you know every aspect of this shot cold. Swing feel and sight pictures are very familiar to you. I’m not inferring you can take the target for granted. I am saying you feel very secure, putting a lot of trust in your move on this bird. You know how to break it and it will break. So it’s safe to say you have this shot, any time, anywhere.
Now stand beside me at Hunters Pointe on Sunday at the state shoot, 15 yards to the left and under the 60 foot tower. Both traps are on the top. True pairs, the birds leave from behind us, on our right, overhead and away. The first thing we notice is the line on each bird is somewhat awkward, so putting the gun on the line will be touchy. To compound matters, the targets are fast, meaning time is limited and we’ll have to make good use of the time we have. The margin for swing errors is small indeed and swing mistakes, careless or otherwise, won’t be forgiven here. Like so many of Chuck’s well thought out presentations, precision will be at a premium……
***
This Sporting Clays Article was previously published in Sporting Clays Magazine by Dan Schindler in January 2006.
The Paragon School of Sporting is now making available the remainder of this article as well as numerous others, available for download on The Paragon School of Sporting Website.
Sporting clays continues to be an elegant sport born of long tradition, fulfilling our wingshooting passion to experience the wing and shot. Feather and clay, inescapably tied, grants us so many learning opportunities to hone our skills, a path of personal growth that affords us a refreshing, unbiased look at ourselves. Time and again, my students have learned how entirely more capable they are than once thought. The American sporting clays shooter can honestly and proudly say, in a very short period, he has indeed advanced to take his rightful place among the best in the world. And, let’s not forget, no one is having more fun out here than you and I are.
The events, times, places and persons in my articles are all true. While I changed a name here and there, 100% of the information came from my experiences with you. Each tournament, each lesson, each experience with you generated the material for my work. I am grateful.
We hope you enjoyed the first part of the article and will visit us online to browse the numerous collection that is available. Until then, happy Sporting!
http://www.paragonschool.com
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The Search for Scholarships
Sep 2nd
Students who are about to graduate from high school are already looking ahead toward planning for their first year of college. With this comes the concern for paying their way through college and the search for scholarship opportunities.
So what are scholarships, where do you look to find them, how do you apply and what do you need to watch out for so that you don’t get scammed?
There are a variety of scholarships offered. A scholarship is a gift to a student, one that does not have to be repaid, and is usually given do to the student’s grades, achievements or the student meeting other eligibility requirements. There are popular scholarships that attract a lot of attention and that are quite competitive and there are the off-beat scholarships that require a little more digging to discover, yet are less competitive.
One myth about scholarships is that you have to have a perfect grand point average. There are many scholarships for average students that focus on qualities besides academic merit. There are also many community service scholarships.
To start your scholarship search, first make a list that includes all of your hobbies, clubs and extracurricular activities. Having this information at hand will help when it comes time to ask for letters of recommendation during the scholarship application process. Teachers and counselors can better sell students to selection committees if they have thorough resumes and background information.
You can now match your specialties to eligibility requirements. Don’t waste your time and the institutes by applying for a scholarship you are not eligible for. For instance, if the scholarship is for children of veterans of war, be sure you have proof of this.
There are many small scholarships out there. There’s no scholarship that’s too low to apply for. The $200 and $300 scholarships add up.
Another way to search for scholarships is to contact schools that you are interested in and inquire about their scholarship programs.
When applying, save your applications so that you can revise them each time rather than having to recreate them. This applies to essays as well. You can make minor tweaks to essays and then use them to apply for multiple scholarships.
Where are the obvious places to start looking for scholarships? To name a few: Online; banks and credit unions; churches, alumni associations at schools the student’s parents attended; local Rotary, Elks and Lions clubs; departments that offer the student’s intended major, since they may have awards not handled through the university’s financial aid and scholarships office; any fraternal or community organization to which the student and immediate family members belong; college and university foundations and student’s and parents’ employers.
And last, if a particular scholarship sound too good to be true, it usually is. Learn how to recognize and protect yourself from the most common scholarship scams. The number one tip: If you have to pay money to get money, it’s probably a scam.
Buy College Posters to Revive Your College Memories
Sep 2nd
College life is the most memorable time in a student’s life. Everyone misses the college canteen, bunking of classes, the sports meet, annual fest etc. College life teaches us many things like patience, hard work and behavior towards society. The moments spend with the college friends are the most eventful moments of our lives. These memories resides in the heart of every individual throughout his/her life.
However, there is no magic wand that can take us back to our college time. Thus, people prefer buying college posters to relive those precious moments. These college posters portray various aspects of college life like college building, college festivals, college rock bands, basketball group, exams and farewell functions. Sometimes we become tired of the daily hustle and bustle of life and feel very lonely. In such a phase of life, a small glimpse at these college posters can bring a smile on our face and can take you to a trip down the memory lanes.
Some college students like pasting these attractive posters on the walls of their hostel rooms. Many college posters have impressive slogans that encourage the students to work hard and carve a niche for themselves. You can also find college posters that depict your personality during college days. For example, if you were in your college rock band then you can paste a poster depicting a college rock band on the walls of your room. You can also buy college posters on various themes and add all the more life to your dorm rooms.
You can easily purchase these posters through a poster shop or through an online poster portal. Many online poster portals offer heavy discounts on purchase of posters. You can even gift these vibrant posters to your room mates on their birthday or on a festival.
So, log on to an online poster portal in order to purchase college posters for yourself and once again relive your college memories.
Do not Overlook Institutional Scholarships When Looking for College Funding
Sep 1st
When most people think about college scholarships they tend to think about scholarships being awarded by major companies and by the larger academic bodies and these are certainly very good sources of funding. However, they also carry one major problem and that is that competition for these scholarships is fierce with hundreds of thousands of applications pouring in from all across the country. It might be a great feather in your cap to get one of these scholarships but your chances of doing so are almost as good as they are of winning the lottery.
For many students a better alternative would be to look for an institutional scholarship.
Almost every college will award at least one institutional (in-house) scholarship each year and many of the larger colleges will award several, often having scholarships available within each department of the college. If you are attending one of the larger colleges it is possible therefore that you could be eligible to apply for several scholarships within your own institution.
Although institutional scholarships have been around for many years, surprisingly a relatively low percentage of students tend to apply for them in comparison to the better known and well publicized national scholarship programs. Now one thing to note here is that not all of these scholarships will cover the full costs of attending college and many will be limited to just tuition fees, or to covering only housing costs. Nonetheless, the sums of money available are often substantial and they can certainly reduce your college costs considerably.
Many of the larger colleges will also have departments dedicated solely to student financial aid, including scholarships, and will provide you with details of just what scholarships are available and how to go about applying for them. This can be a very good place to start as you can get a great deal of information to point you in the right direction and help to ensure that you get your application in on time and prepared to put you in the best possible light for consideration. You will also find that some colleges have websites which also provide information about available scholarships, together with details of the application procedure.
For those people who are familiar with the application procedure for nationally available scholarships, you will find that the process is essentially the same for institutional scholarships. Each scholarship will however have its own specific requirements and so you need to ensure that you read these through carefully and follow the instructions precisely. Also, be sure to check carefully to ensure that you are eligible for a scholarship before applying. Most scholarships will have a list of criteria which you must meet before submitting an application and, if you are in any doubt, you should ask the awarding body before applying.
One benefit of institutional scholarships is that, because there is less competition, you do not usually need to wait too long before finding out whether or not your application has been successful. Another benefit (although it may not seem like a benefit at the time) is that, if you are not successful, you will nevertheless have gained valuable experience of the application procedure at your college and will therefore be better prepared when it comes to making a further application in the second and subsequent years.
If you have not investigated the availability of scholarships within your own college then take the time to do so now and get your applications in. If you are successful then it will certainly make your time at college (and in the ‘debt repayment’ years following college) a lot easier and you have nothing to lose by applying. If they turn you down you are no worse off than you are now, but it they award you a scholarship then you are sitting pretty.
Advertise of Your Driving School
Sep 1st
In an era where the mediums of communication are constantly changing, where does a small business owner go in order to maximize their advertising expenditures and turn it into revenue?
There are traditional mediums such as television, radio, newspaper, and the yellow pages. There is an emerging medium that many of you may have heard of, it is called the internet! The internet is a medium that is in fact less time consuming and less costly than most traditional methods.
TV Advertise
This type of business enterprise may not be terribly costly, but it may eat up a lot of time. Before going ahead and having the commercial produced, it would be best to call the local television station and ask what their going rate is to advertise your driving school.
Radio
It all depends on your municipality and the size of the market you wish to reach to advertise your driving school. If your goal is to only solicit your local area, the cost will be greatly reduced.
Internet
This medium is the fastest growing industry in the history of mankind. Surprisingly, many forms of promoting your business are not as costly as you would think. All of the methods mentioned below are not described in detail simply because this is an article, not a book!
• Priority Listings – There are umpteen websites on the internet that will give your business a priority listing for a fee. Be sure that the site you choose has relevant users to your industry, otherwise you may be paying for a priority listing on a site that does not have the clientele you are looking for.
• Website Development – A quality website that can be navigated easily is a great advertising tool. The key to marketing with a website is to make sure that the site can be found. This can be done through SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies, PPC (Pay per click) advertising, and directory submissions.
• Social Networking – Sites such as Facebook and twitter are used for more than just socializing. Many successful companies have used these tools to generate quite large followings of potential prospects using these methods.
• Free Classifieds – This form of marketing is quick and effective. Make sure to find a classified site that is relevant in your municipality. A well written ad can generate a lot of inquiries for your business.
