And so begins our new column… Ask Twinbro! Thank you to all students, parents, Facebook fans and the like for asking questions and inspiring us to get this started. Please continue to ask away on our blog or on Facebook wall.
Our first question is about applying for scholarships. It was asked by a participant at Twinbro’s “Developing a Scholarship Mentality” event at North Surrey Secondary. We hope it is helpful!
Twinbro at North Surrey Secondary
It’s been a busy week! We spoke at 3 different events, reaching over 300 students and parents with information on accessing post-secondary education and funding it through scholarships. A huge thank you to Julie, Connie and Hardip for organizing! Read on for the summaries, our suggested next steps, and a sneak preview of what’s to come on our blog!
Taking in the spirit at We Day
It’s not every day you’re in the company of 18,000 youth. It’s especially not every day you’re honoured by the presence of 18,000 cheering, chanting, dancing and inspired youth ready to take on the world.
It was enough to give anyone goosebumps. Probably a warm fuzzy feeling, a bounce in your step and a perma-grin too. As a volunteer with We Day in Vancouver, I was no exception. I’d heard about this “We Day” event before but had no idea just how huge and amazing it was.
“We Day” is an annual celebration of youth and their power to change the world. Created by Free the Children, it kicks-off the year’s “We Schools in Action” program in which students take action on local and international issues. With moving speeches and performances, youth are energized and inspired to lead themselves, our communities, and our world.
As a Parking and Transportation volunteer I got to jump on buses, greet people, wave signs, and help get the energy started. It was quite the sight as 18,000 students and teachers lined up around Rogers Arena waiting for the gates to open. There were We Day crowd pumpers running around in neon spandex and capes. Students with matching outfits, colourful signs, and an infectious spirit. Random cheering erupted from around corners, down stairways and out of the skytrain station. I was on Abbott street helping with buses and pretty excited when the first bus that pulled up in front of me was my old high school, Port Moody Secondary! As more buses rolled around, I got a sense of just how big this event was. There were bus loads of students with sleeping bags as this was an overnight trip for them! Groups from all over, including Vancouver Island and even Manitoba! Everyone was cheerful and cheering… and it wasn’t even 8am.
The energy only got bigger and louder with the official start at 10am. Hedley, Craig Kielburger, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, Colbie Caillat, Barenaked Ladies and more. I don’t know how else to explain it but intense. Intense in a good way. Intense in a deafening, powerful, magical way. You only had to walk into the bowl for a moment to realize the incredible energy in the arena. There’s something about a group of people all coming together both physically and in spirit, the sharing of emotion and the celebration of empowerment, that makes you feel elevated to another planet, yet so in the moment.
The buzz continued as everyone flooded out at the end of the event. There were high fives, the We Day dance and smiling all around. People were touched, moved and inspired. I hope now that we take action. Youth have every power to create change in this world. They are not the leaders of tomorrow, but the leaders of today. If all 18,000 youth and 700 volunteers were to take one small step in tackling social change, imagine the effect it would have. It would be a movement, a youth-led movement. I’m excited to see it all unfold.
We are using too many of the World’s resources!
At twinbro we are all about seeking out informational resources that can help us as individuals and also as a community. We are going to be on the hunt for other inspiring, educational and simply cool videos. If you think you have one that we should post on our blog or Facebook sent it to us at info@twinbro.com so we can share it with others.
Cheers and enjoy
By Erin Arnold Frith
Congratulations on taking the steps to create an exciting and fulfilling post secondary experience! As a scholarship winner, judge and active alumni participant I encourage you to think about a few necessary steps to ensure you can create an application that reaches all the requirements and exceeds the judge’s expectations.
As a scholarship judge for many years we are taught to look for a few key categories such as innovation, excellence and leadership. Of course these categories may vary slightly depending on what type of scholarship you are applying for. Therefore, look at the objectives the outline is asking for and make sure you give clear and specific examples of these traits and/or experiences throughout your application. Rather than writing about the same one or two experiences throughout your application, consider highlighting a few diverse stories from different life experiences to demonstrate how much you have to offer and the uniqueness of you! Make it clear to the judges why it would be a disservice for the organization to not consider you for their scholarship. Continue reading
By Connie Gibbs
The Chair of the Scholarship panel looked around the long table. Stacks of applications were piled up in front of each of the four panel members. The room was silent except for the sound of papers shuffling.
“We have to eliminate five candidates in this final round. Please read these applications with the closest attention. You have forty minutes.”
The stakes were high for this award of $10,000. What made the scholarship even more attractive was that it was renewable for up to three years. Once you won the award, you could continue to get $10,000 each year, as long as you maintained your marks and volunteering.
There were five awards to give out and ten good candidates in this final round of elimination.
When the time was up, the discussion began. Continue reading
By Connie Gibbs
Megan, a second year student majoring in Natural Resource Management, worked hard to pull all the pieces together for her application to a major scholarship. She took time to carefully write the personal statement required, describing the steps that had brought her to this stage in her life. Her transcript looked solid. She had used a tutor to bring up her marks in Math. She’d kept up her volunteer commitment to a River Rehabilitation project in her community. Her references were positive and enthusiastic. Everything looked good.
A month later she opened the letter from the donor. She had not won! Megan was crushed and called her best friend for support.
Why didn’t Megan win? Continue reading
The air is getting crisper and costumes are up in stores – must be back to school time! With this time of year comes the return of some familiar routines but also new experiences. Here at Twinbro we are incredibly excited to build on the old and introduce the new. This fall is going to be a big one and we are excited to share it with you!
1) First up, welcome to our new website! It will be a continual learning process as we dot our i’s and cross our t’s. Let us know if you have any feedback! A huge thank you goes out to Duncan (www.codeistry.com), our web developer extraordinaire, for creating our awesome site!
2) Thanks for reading our new blog! Check back often as we will be posting helpful articles, interviews, news and other exciting tidbits.
3) With all the new additions, we haven’t forgotten about one of our (and hopefully your) old time favourites! The ‘Developing a Scholarship Mentality’ presentation is back and ready to go! Contact us at info@twinbro.com to arrange a date for your school or group!
4) There’s much to look forward to on twinbro.com! In particular, we will be posting free application examples! Successful scholarship and graduate program applicants have donated their applications for others to learn from. Also coming soon is a ‘How to Win Scholarships’ guide book written by the Twinbro staff and some special guests. We’ll keep you posted!
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