Scholarship Essay Writing During the Summer

Friday, March 31, 2023 by Catherine Gilliland | Scholarship Essays

Summer is an awesome opportunity for high school students to begin exploring career interests.

There are plenty of free and not-so-free career interest surveys which can provide valuable information for students who are beginning the process of discovering or narrowing down their interests. Trying two or three surveys and looking for results that crossover is a powerful start.

CC Interest survey.indd (careertech.org)

O*NET Interest Profiler at My Next Move

Career Test Free for Students in High School, College, Teens, and Adults 

Summer is also a great time to begin searching for scholarship opportunities, creating some scholarship essay pre-writing exercises, and preparing practice essays for the 2023-2024 scholarship season. Beginning now is optimal because the distractions and demands of other coursework are minimal.

Scholarships are definitely more available for two and four-year degree programs, but with a little effort, a student can also create a list of scholarship opportunities for funding their vocational training and trade certificates as well.

Don't know where to begin? Have you seen my digital course Writing Scholarship Essays? Consider securing the valuable content in this self-paced, affordable, online course for your student. Alternately, I am available to work one on one with students as they navigate this exciting, but often challenging process.

Topics of Writing Scholarship Essays include:

• Getting your Past Together (compiling past experiences for future essays)

• Searching High and Low (for scholarship opportunities)

• Keeping Your Act Together (organization)

• Yikes, I Have to Write the Essay (strategies for writing essays)

• Managing Word Count

• The Power of Gratitude (effective follow-up)

Check out my blogs on these topics for more free information!

The How To of Documenting Your Family's Education Vision

Monday, March 27, 2023 by Catherine Gilliland | Family Education Vision

Vision is the North Star that guides you toward your family's future and is composed of your hopes and dreams for your family and for each member. It considers values, beliefs, a child's interests and passions, aptitudes, personality, and giftings. A written vision is made up of goals, objectives & activities. Goals are the high-level milestones of achievement necessary to reach a vision. Objectives are the more detailed milestones required to reach individual goals. Lastly, activities are those things that must be done to reach objectives. Each one builds upon the other. Altogether, vision drives a concrete plan for growth.

A written plan fosters continued focus on the value of your vision and helps get you back on track from the inevitable distractions that can so easily derail us. On days when one's energy or other resources are waning, reading your written plan can be an important source of inspiration and direction. Finally, taking the time to plan and document one's vision helps prevent huge disappointments like heartaches, regrets, and wasted resources that bring you sorrow.

Once recognition has been made regarding the benefits of actually writing down an education vision, we need to develop some structure for this plan. Think of the process like you would if you were drawing yourself a map. Work backward with the destination in mind. Once you have put words to your vision, write a 5-year plan of goals (drone view) even if more than five years are required to execute the plan. Remember that goals are the high-level milestones leading to the vision. Next, write a 1-2 year plan (expanded view) for shorter-term planning. This is a much more specific plan that includes objectives to meet the goals on the 5 yr plan. Lastly, construct a 12-month plan including the objectives on the 1-2 year plan and the activities you plan to experience to meet those objectives. 

An effective method to simplify the process is to create one plan per child. Divide each 5-year plan into categories guided by age,  Each "plan" can be drawn up as a spreadsheet. On the top row, create categories for character, relationship skills, academic skills, life skills, and any other category you wish to plan. On the far left column, create categories for age ranges and the goals, objectives, or activities related to the plan. This works for whichever length plan you are creating. 

The purpose of the written plans you create is to serve your family. Each plan should enable you to maintain a balance between laser focus and the flexibility necessary to keep the plan relevant. Periodically assess the effectiveness of your plan (5-year, 1-2 year, and 12-month). Assessment isn't an end in itself but allows for the inevitable fine-tuning or revamping necessary as one works out the plan. Pre-set dates for future assessments, revisions, or regular expansion of the 5-year or 1-2 year plans (that highlight goals and objectives) into the 12-month plans that identify the activities you will use to foster growth.

Treat the development or refinement of your plans as a special and exciting time. For young families, parents will be the primary planners. These planning sessions could become a special night out, a memorable planning retreat, or simply a dedicated time together, undistracted around the kitchen table. Whatever style your planning takes, they should build intimacy in your relationships because you are working towards a common goal. As the child grows, they will want to be more and more a part of the assessment and planning process; they should be-it's their life! As your older children participate, they will grow their own skills of personal management and growth, owning their plan and working intentionally toward their goals. As you begin your journey, aim to assess every 3-6 mo. As you gain experience, move to 6-12 months keeping in mind that some parts of your plan will require more frequent assessment. Expect yourself to need flexibility--life happens.

I am often asked this question: What should I take into account when creating my plans? There are many parts of development that you may want to consider, however, there is not a one size fits all protocol. Remember the purpose of the written plans you create is to serve your family. You may want to consider any of the following: 

• Normal Child development milestones 

• What does brain research indicate is important

• Character development 

• Age appropriate activities

• Reasonable Work skills

• Fostering thinking skills

• Academic learning milestones

• Value of spending time alone

• FUN- all work no play, leads to an unbalanced child (and all play and no work, leads to an unsuccessful child)

• Family team-building

Whatever your plan looks like, know and work with your child's natural grain, bents, or wiring. Doing so will set you up for seasons of joyful experiences, successful growth, reduced conflict, and satisfying parenting.

As the season to plan for summer and the following academic year draws near, families who have a vision and plan in place enjoy the guidance these documents provide when making decisions about summer opportunities and registering for upcoming classes and activities. 

The Value of Designing an Education Vision for your Family

Monday, March 13, 2023 by Catherine Gilliland | Family Education Vision

When I was schooling a half a dozen different-aged children all at once, while still nurturing a toddler, it was an intense, but wonderful time. Some called it chaotic. At times, I am sure it was. As I spoke with other parents in my circle, I realized that we were all experiencing in varying degrees the tendency to become distracted from "the important" because of "the urgent". Have you ever succumbed to the tyranny of the urgent? You know--"first aid" for the moment-by-moment or daily problems or saying "yes" to hastily pursued "opportunities".

Designing an education vision and written plan for our precious kiddos sounded like a wonderful plan, but I can't lie, it also scared me. What scared me about designing a vision was that I knew somehow we must integrate that structured vision plan with the reality of what went on day to day. I wasn't certain that I had the mental bandwidth to take care of the daily AND pursue the vision. Unless something changed, we were never going to reach our vision. I'm delighted to report that's NOT what happened. We did the work step by step, stumbling at the beginning yet eventually finding our stride. 

What I found was that because we had a vision and plan in place, I could enjoy the guidance these documents provided when making decisions about summer opportunities and registering for upcoming classes and activities. If the opportunities fit our plan, we could integrate them. If they didn't, we made the necessary decisions. We designed the plan to possess structure, yet it also held space for flexibility. Gone was that stressful feeling of "flying by the seat of our pants" and wondering if we were going to reach a purposeful destination. I can write to you today and say designing our family's education vision was one of the best things we did for our family.

I'll share more about the nuts and bolts of designing a vision in a future blog, but for now, let's address executing a vision. Obviously, the execution of a written vision is where the rubber meets the road. The truth, though, is that the pursuit of any vision requires real effort, sacrifice, and embracing choices when you may not feel like it. Initially designed & led by parents, the child who is becoming a young adult gradually takes more and more initiative in the process. Maintaining a team culture, however, is important. The plan works best when all team members are completely convinced of the vision's value. The more convinced, the more commitment or buy-in there is, and the better the outcome. Team accountability will strengthen momentarily weakened resolve. With time & engagement, focus on the vision takes hold, positively impacting day-to-day tasks, fostering the desired results, and building positive energy.

Designing Your Family's Education Vision

Monday, March 13, 2023 by Catherine Gilliland | Family Education Vision

As the season to plan for summer and the following academic year draws near, families who have a vision and plan in place enjoy the guidance these documents provide when making decisions about summer opportunities and registering for upcoming classes and activities. 

What is an education vision? An education vision encapsulates thoughts, concepts, and objects formed by the imagination pertaining to a child's development. Try asking yourself questions. What are the essential components of your child's education? While academics and the cultivation of a child's IQ are crucial hard skills, a child's true education is more holistic than traditional book learning. What education vision have you crafted for the young members of your family? Do you have a written itinerary for reaching that end? What are the benefits of a written, but fluid plan? What are the possibilities a parent could include? 

To protect the vision from becoming lost, and to create focus, it is always wise to develop a plan for manifesting the specific components of imagination deemed important for each child and for the family as a whole. 

Preparing a written (yet flexible) long-range plan that compliments your child's interests, natural skills, and personality aids you in keeping your vision on the targeted goals. 

Successful parenting isn't flying by the seat of your pants, and it's more than extinguishing the tyrannical "fires'' of daily life.  Designing your family's education vision enables you as a parent to keep sight of what is truly important, and experience peace and freedom to intentionally strive in that direction.