826LA’s In-Schools team, partners, and volunteers helped Los Angeles high school students draft scholarship application essays at our 9th annual Scholarship Day on March 21-22.
You might be wondering, “Why is the event called Scholarship Day if it took place over the weekend?” Like most of our events during the past year, Scholarship Day was changed from in-person to virtual. The two-day format helped our team better serve the 41 students who attended.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated existing disparities between wealthy students and those living in poverty. A study released in December revealed that most students in Los Angeles lack access to technology, a quiet learning space, and adult support. Add in increasing college fees and a lack of adequate education resources, and attending college can begin to seem nearly impossible.
Many high school students have nevertheless kept up their schoolwork and applied to college despite new barriers and historical ones. In addition to being scholars, Scholarship Day seniors also identified themselves as entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, caretakers, and more.
How could students even begin to capture their struggles and triumphs to write a winning essay? This is where our Scholarship Day volunteers stepped in to help.
On Saturday and Sunday, Scholarship Day started at 10am. Executive Director, Joel Arquillos and 826LA board members Sarah Veret and Susan Ko greeted students and volunteers to introduce objectives for the day.
Senior Volunteer Coordinator, Jennie Najarro and Director of Institutional Giving, Lauren Humphrey were joined by board member Eileen Shields on Saturday to welcome volunteers and “room” leaders, taking care to ensure all participants were prepared for the day’s agenda.
After the welcome, staff separated groups into Zoom breakout rooms to begin writing. Each student worked one-on-one with a volunteer to respond to scholarship prompts. Meanwhile, an assigned room leader observed, ready to step in if the pair needed resources or technical assistance.
Students arrived at different levels of the scholarship process. Those who started from scratch first had to select a scholarship opportunity. Then, the student collaborated with their volunteer to start outlining a response.
For seniors further along in the process, volunteers helped them continue to develop drafts or find more scholarship opportunities. This was the case with volunteer Wanda and her student, Michael.
“I really lucked out today. My young person is pursuing creative writing,” Wanda said. “I’m a writer, and me helping Michael just solidifies everything I know how to do… and to just help him get to the place that he needs to be.”
While they worked, Wanda also shared her experiences as a professional writer and the duo discussed the different avenues his writing career could take.
At noon, lo-fi beats played in the background as participants turned their cameras off to enjoy a half-hour lunch.
The writing really started to flow in the second writing portion of the day.
“Can I just free write now?” one student asked eagerly. “Yes!” their volunteer replied, and the student proceeded to type away.
Louise, an experienced Scholarship Day volunteer, believed the virtual format helped some students reach a productive space quickly. She remarked,
“I think sometimes students can be quite vulnerable in their essays, talking about their past experiences, and in some ways it might be easier to do that not in a room full of fellow students or even students who you don’t know.”
Just before 2pm, Director of Programs and Operations, Beatriz Garcia invited participants back to the Zoom main room where In-Schools Program Manager, LaTesha Knighten thanked everyone for participating on a weekend. She urged students to reach out to 826LA staff if they had questions or wanted additional essay edits from volunteers. Participants shared goodbyes and words of encouragement before logging off.
826LA’s virtual Scholarship Day was a success! Students walked away with developed drafts and new opportunities to finance their college education.
Senior Brian felt confident and proud of himself for the day’s work: ”I completed two scholarship essays, and they’re actually my first scholarship essays that I’ve done. I’m usually the biggest procrastinator!”
In spite of the amplified struggles of life during lockdown, students showed up. They committed valuable time and energy to their future, focusing that passion on their writing. It will be exciting to see where this grit takes the Class of 2021 on their college journeys and in life.
See photos from the day here.