Tips to Get Money for College 7: What to Do When Children are Young

Saturdays we share tips or cautions to facilitate getting scholarships or avoid problems

Sally led a very active life from her childhood up. She excelled at sports, played the piano and clarinet, served as class president in junior high and high school, and participated in several service projects at school and for her church. All of these activities would have impressed scholarship committees. Unfortunately, she and her parents failed to record the details about what she did. As a result, she had to reconstruct most of her information and estimate the details. It took a lot of time and failed to impress as well as the full details would have.

Foster Activity in Themes

As we discussed in earlier posts, you will identify themes in your master application. Themes highlight important facets of your life. You create your themes by what you enjoy doing and how you spend your time. In addition, evidence of themes appear early in you life. They occur naturally. Examples of activities—based on themes—you may pursue include:

• Leadership activities include when you serve as
  • An officer in elementary, junior high, & high school classes
  • Team captain or co-captain of a sports or academic team
  • A youth leader in your church or service organizations
• Athletic activities include participating in
  • Childhood or teen sporting teams
  • Individual athletic endeavors like golf, tennis, track, or other
• Service activities include donating your time to help
  • Charitable or nonprofit organizations with service projects
  • Clean up or respond to natural disasters
  • Elderly people, single or battered women, people with disabilities

You should record the details of your activities beginning as young as 2 years old or more. Do not start searching for scholarships until after you complete 9th grade.

In closing, parents encourage children to pursue their interests. Their pursuit, however, should be a healthy balanced search for activities. We caution against obsessive, hyper-attention pushing children to unhealthy imbalances that crush interest, twist priorities, or overinflate self-esteem. We also caution parents against trying to live and achieve vicariously through their children.

Tuesday we review TG Adventures in Education scholarship search page and links