Mitchell Brown

Topic: Scholarship Opportunity Equality and Scholarship Education

3A

A. SUMMARY

I have chosen to research further about scholarship opportunity equality and

scholarship education because of the fact that most of us are planning on going to college

and most students are not aware of opportunities or are not eligible for consideration

because of specific qualifications. Many students who absolutely need financial aid and

scholarship money to be able to afford being able to go through college are not able to

obtain scholarship money based off of their background and qualifications. Based off of

information from The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators,

95% of low income students cannot afford to go through four years of college while

students who come from a more affluent background have a much higher opportunity to

be able to afford college.

In order to guide my research and project, my driving questions will be as follows:

● Why have college tuition costs skyrocketed in the past decades?

● How many scholarships are available to lower income students?

● What is the demographic of students who obtained the most scholarship money?

● Are there their laws or regulations that act as a barrier to keep certain students from

getting scholarship money?

 For my project I plan on actually starting a new scholarship. By creating a scholarship it

will be for a student who is in the most need for scholarship money to help them get through

college. I plan on holding a fundraiser at a restaurant or an entertainment venue (topgolf,movie

theatre, etc.) in order to be able to award said student/s with the most amount of money possible

so that they can further their academic career. There will be qualifications in order for students to

be able to apply and be eligible for consideration with my scholarship based off of their financial

status.

B. New Skills, Enhanced Skills, and Growth Goals

New Skills

● Marketing

● Fundraiser Planning

● Creating a scholarship

Enhanced Skills

● Research

● Communicating with business professionals

● Writing an in depth research paper

Growth Goals

● Better presentation skills

● Spreading out work and not cramming

● Getting big deadlines done on time

C. Marketing Plan/Facilities/Audience

For my project I plan on holding my fundraiser at a restaurant or a entertainment venue ie

(topgolf, mini golf, etc.) I will advertise for my project via word of mouth and fliers. My target

audience will be virtually all LSA classes since most LSA students plan on pursuing a greater

education and attending college after high school. Because of the fact that every student knows

that student debt in college is a national problem because of the stress that fall on students and

their families while trying to afford college, most of these students should be interested in

coming to my project and help raise the funds in order to create a scholarship for a student in

need.

D. Project Steps

Preliminary Steps Secure Venue, send emails to 5

teachers, research, advertise,
reach out to multiple venues
as precautionary effort,
beginning the scholarship
making process

Midway Steps Organize the event, confirm 5

event, continue scholarship
making process, begin
selection process of
scholarship recipient

Later Steps Create sign in sheets for 7

students and teachers, decide
on scholarship recipient

Follow Up Thank You emails/notes, 3

collecting the funds for the
scholarship
 Total 20

E. Project Documentation

● Screenshots of Emails Sent

● Receipts from ticket sales/venue

● Photos of event

● Screenshot text messages

● Scholarship paperwork

F. Project Justification

This project will be beneficial because my scholarship will allow a student to be able to

go to college knowing that that they will have this scholarship along with any other financial aid

or scholarships that they had been awarded. It is common knowledge that college is very

expensive and many people spend most of their lives trying to pay off their student debt while

working, and even a small amount of money could be very beneficial because that small amount

of money is money that they will not have to worry about. I have never done any in depth

research or project on this topic, so this will most definitely be a challenge for me to find

substantial useful information on this topic. I also have never put together a fundraiser or created

a new scholarship, so in the end this experience will help me develop new skills in

communicating with business owners along with event organization skills. Being able
successfully put together a fundraiser and create a scholarship in order to award a student with a

scholarship to help them pay for college would be a clear sign of growth.

G. Project Paper Connection

My research paper will focus on answering my driving questions mainly include the

demographics of scholarship money recipients, and why higher education systems are more

available to students who come from a more affluent background. My whole project revolves

around being able to create a scholarship that will be awarded to a student who falls into these

categories that will be in my paper such as low income backgrounds or being in a minority

group. My paper is there to explain why all students are not given equal opportunities, and how

they can be assisted with scholarships and financial aid, so a newly created scholarship intended

for those in need only seem logical.

H. Academic Honesty

I understand that any academic dishonesty by me on any part of the project will result in failure

of the Senior Project and forfeiture of the Legal Studies Seal on my High School diploma.