HRVHS changes scholarship deadline, award night

Which means that scholarship applications are due earlier, too. This year, the deadline is Wednesday, Feb. 26 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. in the HRVHS main cafeteria.

Students commit to their school of choice May 1; with scholarship night happening around May 23 each year, whether or not a student is fully funded for that school is often up in the air.

Part of the issue is that, because students are receiving so much scholarship money — last year, students were awarded $539,000, ranging from one-time to four-year allotments — that it is impacting where they are able to attend, said Laurie Stephens, executive director of the Hood River County Education Foundation, a large contributor to scholarship night.

Funding awarded could mean the difference between attending a two-year community college or a four-year university, she said.

“A lot of the kids who are awarded scholarships are AVID kids, first generation kids who normally couldn’t go (to college),” said Raenell Rafferty, counselor and scholarship coordinator at HRV. “There’s a huge gap (in costs) in some of the schools, so it makes a huge difference for some of them.

“We have hard-working, high-flying students who have worked hard on applications, have worked hard all four years — who do volunteer work, are highly involved in sports activities and are great kids,” she said. “… I think the situation too with the kids that we’re seeing is they’re trying to be smart with their money. They apply to a variety of schools and this gives them the opportunity to choose.”

It also releases the students from the stress of not knowing if they will be able to afford the school they’re committing to. Lisa Roberts, HRVHS ASPIRE coordinator, recounted a story of an AVID student in tears from not knowing if she had full funding for the college she was about to commit to.

The gamer changer, as Roberts calls it, is when students met with HRVHS Principal Rich Polkinghorn last year to discuss changing scholarship night to a date closer to the May 1 college commitment day.

“The students expressed to me that the decision about where to go to school is as much about the finances as it is about the college and college programs,” said Polkinghorn. “Should they know their total financial package before the May 1 deadline for decision, they can make more informed decisions about their future.

“As is often the case, the students had it right,” he said. “The decision to move the date was easy, and so logical. The tricky part was making sure we effectively communicate the date change as well as the rationale for date change with all our local scholarship families, organizations and the Hood River Education Foundation. This has taken a great amount of effort by Raenell, Lisa and Laurie; fortunately for our students, this date change has been well received.”

Rafferty and Roberts have been reaching out to parents and students since September to let them know of the earlier scholarship deadline.

 “We have (scholarship) workshops every week except for the week of finals, and then the week before they’re due, we have two,” Rafferty said. They’ve also spread the word via Habla HRV on Radio Tierra, hosted by HRV teacher Nan Noteboom, and at family nights. Roberts added that in AVID, students also work on scholarships in class.

The main focus is getting kids to apply.

“A lot of them think, ‘I’ll never get a scholarship because I don’t have a 4.0 or no volunteer work,” Stephens said. “But there are scholarships out there for kids who aren’t academically outstanding or didn’t do after school activities.”

She wants students to know that there are a wide range of scholarships, including those for tech and trade schools. There are 91 scholarships offered this year, and Roberts said she tells kids they need to apply for at least three.

“We have a tradition of doing this (scholarship night),” said Stephens, “but because of the ASPIRE program, we have a lot of hand-on time with these kids. Volunteers go around in the classroom. It’s a very bottom-up kind of thing and we think about how to make the program better inside and outside the school.”

Rafferty said the students additionally look out for and help each other, printing extra forms and encouraging one another to apply.

She has been at HRV for the past seven years and has worked in a variety of districts both on the east and west coasts, and said that she has never seen community scholarship support like that in Hood River County.

“We’ve got orchards, small businesses, tech companies and individuals offering scholarships,” she said, “and the drive for our kids to want more for themselves.”

“We’ve had an uptick (in available scholarships) in the last three years,” said Stephens. “Some people have had amazing educations and experiences, and want to give back. I seem to be seeing that more and more.”