I have a cousin in Virginia, now in
her sixties, who is a kindergarten teacher.
About 15 years ago, she and her husband wanted to up their charitable contributions
for tax reasons, and they decided to set up a scholarship fund for her former
students. When they were seniors in high
school, the former students could apply for the scholarship (which was about
5K), and she picked one lucky winner.
I always thought that was a nice
way to stay in touch with a few students.
As we’ve talked in class, I’ve wondered if it would be a way to motivate
any students? How about if the fund were
created in 5th grade, and anyone who applied for a scholarship was guaranteed
to get one? If you were in 5th
grade and you knew there was a bit of money set aside for you in a fund
somewhere, growing with interest, would you be more determined to get to
college? Could a teacher or school or organization
raise enough money each year to keep a fund like that going? Will the nature of college change so that
such scholarships don’t make sense? Has
anyone ever tried something like this on a larger scale than my cousin’s?
As I wondered about this, I liked
the idea, but thought it would be a lot of work to figure out if it made sense
and was feasible. But then I thought it
would be a pretty cool project for a high school class to work on, and perhaps
the class itself could be eligible for the 1st round of
scholarships. Of course their research
would be the first step, and there would be a ton of legal stuff in the
next. And that got me to thinking about
how cool it would be if the local fro-yo shop could have a high school class
design their advertising campaign, and so forth. These seem like cool projects, but are they
ethical or are they violations of child labor laws or school policy?
Could local businesses somehow pay the class or school? How would you take the first step?
Emily, I love this idea. I'm sorry, but I can't answer any of your questions though. It seems like I've always heard that there are tons of government and other types of grants out there that never get used. It would be a lot of work, researching and writing the propositions for the grants. But like you said this could be a great project for older students to help with. Let me know if you end up working of this, it sounds like something I would love to be apart of!
ReplyDeleteEmily, I like this idea! How thoughtful of your cousin Virginia to do this! I don't know if it would be a motivator for 5th grade kids or not. I asked my 6th grade son about the idea of him working harder knowing that there was some money set aside for him later and he didn't seem to impressed (but only because he can't get his little hands on the money now):) I think with some kids, it would be a great motivator. I think its a great idea. I'm just not sure how much work would be required to set this up.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this!
~ Christy