November 2012 DELTASIG

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explain what a scholarship is. A scholarship is a gift of money for educational purposes. There are different types of scholarships and I could explain how and why they exist, but I could also explain why the earth revolves around the sun. I do not want to provide you a history lesson however. I want you to go to COLLEGE FOR FREE, so let me tell you how to find, apply to and win scholarships. Rule 1. Apply. Rule 2. Apply to more. Rule 3. Apply to even more. You get it? You can earn $2,000 an hour doing this. Because I teach business classes I feel the pain of the students. Sometimes the books are $150+ a pop. It is not a mystery to us dudes in front teaching the classes. We get it. We know that you have six other classes. We know that college is expensive. Well, I work to solve the problem and in every one of my classes I post the link and phone number to the college scholarship office. If your college has electricity, you probably have a scholarship office. Call it. Visit it. Talk to people there. Ask them about what scholarships they have and will have. One of my students did this in a course. Neil applied for a small book scholarship. He did it online and it took 15 minutes. He won a $500 scholarship. Hello, folks, that equates to $2,000 an hour! Cha-ching! Another student won a $2,000 scholarship and it was presented to him at an awards banquet. Not only was this cash in his pocket, but he had pictures taken and articles written about him! The people at the banquet are perfect people to contact during a job search. I have been teaching for six years and I can share story after story of this working. You just need to do it. Now, a plan is only good if you put it into action. So, you need to do it. The following is your action plan. Follow these steps and repeat and repeat and repeat. Remember, I went to college for free and I have already been telling students about this for years. This stuff works.

your Action Plan 1) Go to your college scholarship office. Ask them for reputable scholarship websites. 2) Ignore the paid scholarship search services. Those are not the best use of your time and energy. 3) Visit the recommended websites and research and apply to scholarships. 4) Go to your departmental Dean and ask if they know of any scholarships. 5) Ask your immediate family members about scholarship programs at their work. 6) Ask any and every organization that you have ever belonged to about their scholarship programs. This includes Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Junior Achievement, church youth groups, and of course, Delta Sigma Pi. 7) If you or your parents have any military connections, you must research this extensively. The military is almost begging to give you money. You need to hunt to find it, but it is there. 8) APPLY! I once applied for a $750 scholarship after the deadline had passed. I WON! I didn’t even know until I had gotten the check in the mail. 9) Visit www.FastWeb.com a great, free, easy-to-use site. Read it. Do research on it and follow the best practices as documented on the site. 10) Keep records and build a scholarship file. Some scholarships might have short essays that ask you about yourself, your history or your educational goals. Keep that information, refine it and reuse it for other applications. 11) When you win a scholarship, share your success with the world. Let me

know how I helped you and how I can continue to help others. For my final thought, imagine that you are Angela, the new teacher saddled with a $116,000 student loan debt. Now, imagine that she read this information, took it to heart and followed the advice before taking on the loans. That could have made a HUGE difference in her life. I am trying to do that for you right now. I am giving you the success plan, telling you what action to take, whom to talk to and even where to click. You need to do it! Put this plan into action and you too can achieve FREE COLLEGE. s Mark Mikelat is a Golden Council Member and Trustee Emeritus of the Delta Sigma Pi Leadership Foundation. Mark is a business consultant, author, speaker, trainer, and college faculty member. He is the founder of www.BuildingAspirations.com a motivational and inspirational training company focused on small business growth.

november 2012/THE DELTASIG OF DELTA SIGMA PI

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