$3000 College Scholarship Essay Contest

I just received this information about a scholarship opportunity.

The scholarship is sponsored by Mig Vapor, a company that creates products designed to help people reduce their dependency on tobacco, and each semester they award $3,000 scholarships to students who help bring awareness to the dangers of smoking.

The scholarship recipients are selected through an essay contest with the winning essays to be selected on the basis of how well-written, compelling, and persuasive they are.

Applicants must be a full-time student at an accredited four-year or two-year university, community college or junior college, or a graduate degree program. There are no costs associated with submitting an application for this scholarship, and the application deadline for Fall 2017 semester scholarships is May 31st, 2017.

For more information, be sure to check out the MigVapor Scholarship Essay Contest page. Feel free to share this with anyone you know who might be interested.

The Money is Running Out

Cory has finished his first two years of college.  So far we've been able to help him out so that he's only had to accept the subsidized federal loans - the ones he doesn't have to start paying back until after he graduates - figuring it will be better for him in the long run to pay us back than to pay some loan with interest.  (or maybe we could collect the interest?)  Fortunately Jeffrey has a job, and he makes enough to support us.  Unfortunately, that means Cory does not qualify for any of that free money 'less fortunate' students get.  When he gets out of school, he's going to be paying.  Yes, I know, that's true for a lot of young people, and he'll survive...

As his mom I would love to see him put some effort into finding scholarships to pay for at least some of his remaining school.  I would have loved to see him actively seeking those scholarships all along, but there's just so much you can do when your kids grow up.  While there are things you would love to see them do, you can't do it for them.  When he graduates and starts having to pay back those loans - and we'll probably work with our bank on some kind of home equity line of credit to pay for the rest, because the interest rate will be better than anything they offer through financial aid - he may wish he'd listened to me, but I can't make him do it.

All I can do is keep sending him links to sites like Scholarships Online where he can search through scholarships and grants and hopefully find some he might qualify for.  I used to send him links to specific scholarships I thought he'd be interested in or would qualify for, but they just didn't grab his attention, so I must've been picking wrong - so he's just going to have to do the searching.  Scholarships Online lists nearly every scholarship and educational grant available in the U.S. - so if he can't find it there, maybe it doesn't exist.

I don't know what's available, but they have a large database and the site is designed to make it as easy as possible for students to find relevant scholarships.  Every one is real, and many are sponsored by organizations you are probably already familiar with.  If you've got a high school student who's planning to go to college, or a college student who could use a little help paying for college, you'll want to check it out - or send the link so your student can start looking.  He'll thank you later when his college loans come due!

Get Kids Active

When we were growing up, we spent a lot of time outside just playing.  (and working)  The point is, we were active.  Oh, I spent a lot of time reading books, but I also got a lot of exercise running around the pasture, playing in the creek, and riding my bike.  With video games, computers, movies, and so many other forms of indoor sedentary entertainment, today's kids don't seem to get as much activity and exercise.  Is it any wonder that childhood obesity is a growing problem?

Activitytree.com is committed to fighting childhood obesity and to promoting kids' active bodies and minds.  It's the largest online parent resource for kid's lessons, classes, and camps.  They make it simple for parents to find activities in their own areas by searching by area code and activity type to get contact information, web site links, interactive maps and activity descriptions for over 18,000 providers. Creating a FREE member profile lets them further narrow their activity search results by age of participant, gender, day and time of activity. Members can also sign-up for select classes with the easy, secure Click & Pay, organize and share calendars with myActivityTree, get directions to activities, join carpooling, and receive local Deals by email.

Parents can also join the Get Kids Active! Facebook Campaign for activity ideas and help in getting their kids active through social networking.  It's not as easy as just saying, "Go play outside!" but having all these resources will certainly help in finding some fun activities for the kids.

Right now ActivityTree.com is is making kids activities and camps more affordable by offering “Get Kids Active!” Scholarships. There are two ways to enter:

1. ActivityTree.com Kids Scholarships Page
2. ActivityTree Facebook Page via the Scholarships tab

College *GASP!*

This week Cory got accepted to go UW-Whitewater next year.  He's not sure what he wants to do with his life besides become a famous actor or some such thing, so it's a good place to go, take some classes and figure out where to go from there.

We submitted his FAFSA online today, so hopefully he will qualify for some kind of financial aid.  Something.  Because it's looking like putting a kid through college is not going to be cheap.  Whitewater is supposed to be a lot better than some, but still, that's a big chunk of money.  I've told Cory that he needs to go into the guidance office at school and get every scholarship in there that he remotely qualifies for, and fill them all out.  Every little bit will help.

I'm just having a hard time believing my baby is going to college.  How did this happen?  How did he get old enough for college?  I feel like I should be looking for exit signs to get off this road and go back to when he was just a little guy.  I guess that's not possible, is it?

Name the Firefly and Win a Scholarship

Both my babies were breast-fed, almost exclusively. I bought some formula once or twice, just to have for those occasions when I might have to be away from the baby or something, but mostly we didn't use it. For us, breast feeding was the right thing to do. Breast milk is best and contains everything a baby needs, all the nutrients, etc. Besides, it's a lot simpler - no washing and preparing bottles, mixing formula, and making sure it is the right temperature for your baby. I'm just guessing at that, since I never actually did it, but it does look like a lot of trouble - not that my babies wouldn't have been worth it if I'd had to do that. I did have to express breast milk while I was at work so Beth would have it during the day while she was at the babysitter's, so I suppose I went to a little trouble. Breast feeding is also a lot cheaper than buying formula. I haven't checked prices recently, but it seemed pretty expensive even 18 years ago.

I know breastfeeding doesn't work for everyone, for various reasons, and moms who need to supplement breast milk with formula, or replace it altogether, care just as much for their babies as moms who breastfeed. I'm sure they look for a formula that is as close to breast milk as they can get, that contains all the nutrients baby needs. The Comforts for Baby store brand found at Kroger owned stores has the vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy baby as well as lipids associated with mental and visual development, lactose and choline and more. It contains all the essential ingredients that must be in infant formula as dictated by the FDA and required by the Infant Formula Act. I never had to think about any of that because I was giving my babies breast milk. Also, because Comforts for Baby is a store brand, it's more affordable than the name brands, but you're not giving up quality just to save a little money.

Right now Comforts for Baby is running a contest to name their mascot, a cute little firefly. The winner gets a $10,000 scholarship. I'm horrible at coming up with names, so the best I could think of was Sparky, or Ferdinand - but those aren't very cute and definitely not original. Hopefully you can do better and win that scholarship for your little one. You have until July 31 to enter, so start thinking.

Update

I asked for votes to help a young lady from my brother's church, Kayleen Hannaway. I figured I ought to post an update and let you all know that she won. My brother posted this, and I grabbed it from him:

I have officially been informed I won the scholarship. =) I am so grateful for everyone who was willing to take time out of their day to help me win money for college. I know this whole competition has been fairly crazy and time consuming, so I want to thank everyone who was willing to be involved. Although it was an unconventional scholarship, I sincerely hope those who gave up their time found connecting with people, networking, meeting new people, and being involved in something with many others, as fun as I did. I am still amazed at how I could win, coming from such a small town, but I know UCG was a huge help, and of course God listening to all the prayers was the only way I could have won. For those who don’t know, I’m planning to attend Vanderbilt University this fall. I’ve been accepted and I will major in neuroscience with a possible minor in bassoon. Thanks again everyone. I really appreciate it. I’m so glad everyone’s help and time was well worth spent.

Kayleen Hannaway

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote.

Last Day to Vote

I just received this email, and I know I mentioned this young lady before, but, if you haven't voted yet, would you please consider doing so. All votes must be submitted by 10 or 11am Eastern time today. You are only allowed one voter per IP address. Kayleen is a young lady who attends church with my brother.

Kayleen Hannaway in Salem, Oregon is finalist for a $20,000 scholarship to Vanderbilt University if she wins a national teen contest through voting. (Kind of like American Idol). She has made it through five rounds and is about 20 votes behind in the last three hours of the contest.

Could I ask you to vote for Kayleen Hannaway. It’s very easy. Please go to this link and then scroll down Kayleen’s side to VOTE ME.

I would really appreciate it. It would obviously mean a lot to her.

This must be done before either 10 or 11 am Eastern TODAY, Wednesday.

Thank you. Thank you.

Please Vote

A young lady my brother goes to church with has made it into the finals to win a $20,000 scholarship from Zinch.

If you could please take a moment to go vote for Kayleen, I know she'd appreciate it. You need to scroll down and fill in the code first and then click the VoteMe! button. Whoever gets the most votes wins. You have until April 23 to vote.

Kayleen Hannaway

Philomath High School |Class of 2008 | Philomath, Oregon, USA

About me: My goal is to always continue improving myself. I respect any person or book, or any medium for that matter, that helps me reach my goal. The most important part of my life is my religion, but I don't like the stereotypes that go along with saying that, so I don't bring attention to it. I think any person should have a set of values that they live by, instead of making decisions depending on the situation. Human beings are too influenced by temporary emotions for that to be successful. I have specific short and long terms goals and don't expect anything less than success for my future.

Zinch is a way for students to show they are more than a test score. They create profiles to showcase themselves to colleges. They can learn about different colleges and what they are about, give a shout out to the schools they are interested in, and communicate with the schools. It looks like there is a lot of information about the college admissions process and a lot of great tools for high school students going through that process as well as being a place to meet and interact with other students going through that same process. I had never heard of it before being asked to vote for Kayleen, but I'm going to strongly suggest that Cory signs up right away.

We'll Have to Pay for College Somehow

Beth doesn't seem interested in going to college at all. In fact, she's not interested in school at all - no matter how hard we try to convince her that it is important. With the grades she has, she's going to have a hard time going to college if she ever decides she wants to. Cory, on the other hand, will surely go to college somewhere, though he still hasn't figured out what he wants to study. And his parents haven't figured how they're going to pay! A college education is very important, but it's also expensive, and we haven't been saving for it all along.

We keep telling Cory that he needs to find as many Scholarships as he can, so he can get a lot of his expenses covered. I don't know if it's too early to start looking at scholarships now, or not, but I signed up for an account on School Scholarships just to get an idea of what is out there. It's supposed to be a good resource for finding scholarships and financial aid. It might just lead us to the right scholarship for our son.