I am very poor guy in Asia who dreams of spending my college in a foreign land. Yes my dream comes true but until now those memories are vivid in my mind how did it happen.
Back in my homeland in the Philippines I am now a professor in one of the top universities here. For the last four years I have imparted the knowledge to my students whole-heartedly so that they will also have the courage to dream the seemingly impossible thing. If I did it they can do it too.
It was May of 2001 when I accidentally search a website that offer study grants abroad. The website started my dream on that very day I found it in one of the internet cafes in Manila. It took me three days searching for websites of the same purpose then I just filled up the forms just trying as they may call. To my surprise, a few days later I received an email from the school informing me that I was one of those lucky applicants. They told me through an email that the school’s study grant program has already selected the top 10 scholars and I was one of those. I cannot imagine my feelings that day and I spent the whole eight hours in the internet. I browse the whole site, the requirements again and again. I thought it was only a dream. It was indeed true. The school also told me that there were 10 Filipinos who applied but I was the lucky one. The other nine were from other countries. When I left the internet café I see to it that I have copied completely the requirements. My parent’s and brothers who were all in the house of that faithful day of May 20, 2002 were all happy with my report. The following I started getting all the requirements because I was instructed to fly to New York on the 30th of May 2002. I know I have only 10 days to complete the requirements so I did all I can to get them as soon as possible. Luckily, in the morning of May 28, 2002, I have finished all the requirements. In fact, in the afternoon of that same day I was already in Manila. I was so excited to fly to New York. I knew it was a dream-come-true for me.
The plane to New York took me six hours and my excitement grew stronger as the plane landed at noon of May 30, 2002. There at the airport I was met by my host family and they were very accommodating. Upon reaching their beautiful home I was formally introduced by the school’s dean to my host. They were the Schultz family. They were five in the family including a niece and I was added to make it six. It was a very memorable days of my life since it was my first time hosted by white Americans. They were very lovely and accommodating. There, I was reserved a guest room and it seems I was living in our own house.
The three years that I have stayed in their house were all good memories I can always remember. That’s why I was always grateful to the study grant program in the US. It really became part of my life.
Now, I am married to an American and she is luckily the daughter of my host in America. We are blessed with two healthy twins and they’re now studying in New York. My lovely wife who is doing business in the Philippines is the only one left with me. Hopefully in December of this year we can visit our twins in New York.
The study grant program is a wonderful undertaking of many colleges and universities of the world aimed at giving chances to many deserving students to reach their dreams in life even when the family is faced with financial dilemma.
The study grants are available every year from different colleges and universities that offer this privilege to already millions of students since the program started many centuries ago. There are grants that only offer supplementary budget and you still need to have your own additional budget. There are also grants that offer the whole package such as tuition fees, book allowances, monthly stipend, uniform allowances and all other benefits.
Here are basic grants you should learn so that as a student or parent of a graduating kid you can at least plan your program before your children could graduate in high school.
Kohler Family Foundation – The Kohler Family Foundation is one organization that also caters to the financial needs of many students. The company has existed in many years and has already benefited thousands of students.
ADA Study Grants – The ADA study grant is also opening its door now to deserving students who want to enroll in dental schools. The grant is only exclusive for dental students. ADA has two scholarship programs – the ADA Study Grants for Aboriginal Dental Students of $2,000 each of the five students who will be awarded every year and the ADA Study Grants for the Rural and Remote Regions which gives $5,000 each f the scholar.
Canada Study Grants – The Canadian Government is also giving scholarship grants for the physically handicapped, High-Need part time students, for students with dependents, and women pursuing doctoral studies. There are also countries that offer other grants to help their people who have no means of choosing a career because of financial problems. The Canadian government is so generous that it created the scholarship program to help people with disabilities and other pressing concerns of many people in the communities. The idea is laudable so that many countries should also start prioritizing education as a pressing concern.
Private programs – There are also private companies that offer to help many deserving students through their student loan programs. Although the interest rates are quiet higher but there are still hundreds of students that avail of the program every year. This means that many families even in developed countries of the world need enough financial support to augment the family expenditures for the education of their children. In fact, many private companies also offer loan consolidation to accommodate more students who are no longer happy with their present school. In a loan consolidation program, the student’s as well as the parent’s debts are consolidated by only one lending companies so that the family would easily pay their loans when the payment period starts, usually after the student lands a job. The payment term is usually 10 to 20 years depending on the amount of loan the student has incurred during his study.
STUDY grants can greatly assist you if you don’t have the means to be in college. There are lots of study grants available. If you are planning to enroll in a community college or even at a state university, that’s a study grant in itself already because by law, community colleges and state universities are supposed to give tertiary education for free to deserving but indigent students. However, expenses incurred during your whole eight academic semesters in college especially if you are far from your hometown come into play.
In this way, you need to apply for student loans. Now there are two kinds of loans present in this country. There are federal loans and private loans. Federal loans are those granted by the federal government of the United States. They have very minimal interest rates and are payable to up to 30 years. If that doesn’t sound like a study grant to you, what else is? Remember that a study grant is not a dole out. Dole outs have never been a policy of the federal government of the United States, even to indigent people.
Even homeless people are housed in welfare shelters but they are taught livelihood there. Ultimately, they have to go away from the welfare shelter and go back into the real world to compete living with the mainstream peoples. That’s the same in tertiary education. Even though how poor one is, the government is teaching us to be self-sufficient in whatever form. With this kind of policy, the government is teaching us to be diligent. It is implying that college education is a very valued tool and must be taken care of precariously.
That’s why any sensible indigent college student who’s got a grant must strive hard not to miss any lessons and must be diligent in his or her studies. He or she must not be influenced to go out and party, leaving the lessons behind. There are times for parties but there must be time set aside to study. Acquiring a college grant starts from your formative years in high school. When you go to your college fair at your own high school campus, impress the visiting college admissions staff with a very compelling and emotional essay. Oops, make sure that essay doesn’t contain any grammatical errors otherwise the college admissions staff will be unmoved.
College admissions staffs are composed of educational psychologists and they are easily moved by compassion objectively to accept you. Every college in the United States offers some kind of study grants so if there is one, grab it immediately. A good college admissions application essay can definitely spell the difference on whether the institution will grant you a qualifying grant exam or not. So write it well and show it to your high school teachers for professional evaluation before passing it to the college admissions staff.
Another thing to watch out for is the offering of athletic study grants. That is why I’ve said earlier that acquiring a study grant begins in high school. If you’re already a member of the high school varsity team, then you can easily squeeze in through college.
