You never know where you’ll find a scholarship connection; but there are tried and true ways of finding such connections. Start with a positive attitude, and the rest of the day is clear sailing. On Monday, I called 6 Chambers of Commerce and applied for two monthly scholarships. The monthly scholarships were the easy type: 200 words or less of your personal statement. It was a matter of cut and paste. The Chambers of Commerce calls took a bit more of preparation, and a lot more of sips of water, breeze on my face, and deep breaths to calm myself down. I don’t like phone calls, they scare me. But do you know, the people on the other line were all very nice and polite except two, and even those two just made me laugh after I hung up.
Why should I call Chambers of Commerce?
I am mentioning this because calling the chambers of commerce in the cities around you is your first step towards finding the most lucrative prospect of scholarships that you could find: Backyard Scholarships. How? Chambers of Commerce sometimes have a list of local business members belonging to companies that sponsor local scholarships that you couldn’t find unless you called through the whole yellow pages asking. The shortcut are the chambers of commerce in your and surrounding cities.
When should I call?
It is best to call starting at 9:30am-11:00am (don’t call at 11:30am, that’s close to their lunch break and they’ll be irritated or short), take a break until 1:30pm, then stop calling at 3pm. A lot of chambers stop work at 3.
What should I do before I call them?
I recommend opening the yellow pages to chambers of commerce. If you don’t have one handy, then internet search for the chambers of commerce in all the cities within 50 miles of your home, and writing down the name of the city and the phone number down so you can check off each city as you call. While you’re online, check the websites of all the chambers you are planning to call. See if they have a page on local scholarships or awards. I recommend doing this the day before so you can get that early start.
What should I say?
The first thing you need to understand is that you learn from each phone call. Every success and failure is a learning opportunity. If a phone call does not go well, hang up the phone, laugh to yourself to clear your head, then think seriously to yourself: what went wrong with that call, and how can I avoid it next time? My phone calls started off with a simple message this way, and changed with each call until by the sixth, I had a tailored message that was much friendlier and suited to my purpose. With that in mind, this is what I wrote down to have handy as I called the chambers.
First tip I learned after a few calls: LISTEN CLOSELY. The first sentence out of the secretary’s mouth is the most vital for you. She or he will say his NAME. Your next cue is to say the following.
“Hello, _____, good afternoon!” Pause here, let them respond.
“Am I on the right line for scholarship-related questions?” Here, you will probably be transferred. Try to sneak in a thank you before that happens. If you aren’t transferred and the person keeps speaking with you, either way this is the next thing to say:
“Hello, my name is firstname lastname and I am a college/highschool/graduate student at schoolname here in cityname (county name if calling a chamber out of your city). I was wondering if you might have a list of business members whose companies sponsor community-based scholarship opportunities.”
After this, it should be farely simple to find out what to say. Each person reacts differently. Generally, it’s a very positive reaction, even if they’re confused about the meaning of what you said. The trick is, it is a very specific request, which makes it obvious that you’re working hard and doing your research. I honestly did not find any such list in any of my calls, but they were worth it all the same. Most of the secretaries wanted to help me, even though they didn’t have the list. They all assumed that I don’t know anything about scholarships and referred me to internet searches and the local highschool’s counseling department. Be patient and polite, that’s what they are being by even giving you that information. After they said that, most of them kept going and gave me invaluable tips, either from their own experiences, or from scholarships and organizations that they had personally heard of. One was even on the judging committee for two scholarships. After monday, I got three calls back from different chambers who called me with other information that they continued to dig up for me after I had hung up with them! How cool is that!
Have notepaper and a pencil ready. The first secretary I called gave me a list of organizations and clubs for me to call as well as a few websites for me to check. Oh, and a phone number. That number didn’t pick up, but when I left a message on their machine, I left my phone number and email address with them, and they actually were kind enough to email me resources to assist me in my search.
In other news, I applied for an essay scholarship today. I’ll tell you about that next time. Until then, good luck on your scholarship search, and happy Thursday!
Financial Freedom 4 College 