Level Up Your Scholarship Selection Committee: Fresh Ideas from the Field
This spring, we've had the privilege of supporting our clients in their scholarship selection committee work. It's been an eye-opening experience, filled with insightful discussions and innovative approaches. Here's a roundup of their fantastic ideas that can help you level up your own selection process!
A Sense of Purpose: Motivate volunteers by sharing success stories of past scholarship recipients. This can include statistics on academic achievements, inspiring quotes or videos, or anecdotes about life-changing impacts.
CEO Welcome/Thank You: Showcasing leadership's involvement and investment can be meaningful. Consider having the CEO deliver the welcome and thank-you message to volunteers, demonstrating the importance placed on scholarships and their participation.
Real-World Insights: Include someone who knows the applicant pool well–a counselor, college staff member, or students themselves–in selection committee training to bridge the gap between decision-makers and students. They can offer insights into current student realities and challenges.
In-Depth Anti-Bias Training: Go beyond the basics by including comprehensive anti-bias training in your selection process to ensure fair and equitable scholarship selection.
Providing Context: Empower your committee with contextual data. Provide clear visuals like charts and graphs to give a comprehensive overview of the applicant pool, including information such as demographics and financial need. This allows for informed decision-making.
Crystal-Clear Roles: Ensure a smooth process by clearly defining roles for committee staff and reviewers. For example, share that staff handle administrative tasks, while reviewers focus on application evaluation based on established criteria.
Visualizing System Emails: Help reviewers avoid missing information by showing screenshots of the system-generated emails they'll receive with instructions on how to respond or next steps.
Sharing Results and Celebration: Foster a sense of involvement by sharing the final recipient list with committee members before public announcement. Invite them to the award ceremony to celebrate their contributions to the program's success.
We hope these ideas inspire you to enhance your scholarship selection committee work! By incorporating elements like these, you can empower your committee and ultimately select your program’s best-fit recipients.
