SIUSLAW NEWS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2018 | 9A
SCHOLARSHIPS from page 1A something in the communi-
ty, maybe a fundraising effort
opportunities for economically to create lunches for homeless
challenged students.
people community, we were
The organization began planning to help kids like that
years ago in New Jersey, where along with their projects with a
Dunes City Councilor and AS- cash award,” he said.
PIRE volunteer Robert Orr was
Like most scholarship pro-
working as a math teacher.
grams, it was merit based. The
“Originally, we were going program was placed on the
to support and reward kids backburner due to the time it
anywhere we found them who took to find students who fit the
were doing good things for criteria. But when Orr began
the world. If a student started working at the ASPIRE program
at Siuslaw High School, which
helps students apply for local,
state and federal scholarships,
Orr began seeing a discrepancy
in what types of students quali-
fied for the scholarships.
“What I’ve seen here is that
kids have very difficult back-
grounds,” Orr said. “Difficult
home lives, financial difficulties
and personal issues.”
According to Orr, beyond the
typical national grants like Pell,
there are at least 40 local schol-
arships that provide finances for
college tuition. But the require-
ments for these can be difficult
to complete. The applications
can require multiple hours of
community service, participa-
tion in after-school programs
and grade point minimums.
Hundreds of hours can be spent
executing the requirements and
filling out the multiple applica-
tions.
“Let’s take a student who has
a single parent who works or,
in some cases, doesn’t work be-
cause of alcohol or drug issues,”
Orr said. “And maybe there are
brothers and sisters in the fam-
ily, perhaps even a baby. So, the
student is taking care of the
entire family by cooking meals
and working full time.”
Because of the cost of higher
education, these students have
to apply for multiple scholar-
ships. According to tuition da-
tabase College Data, the average
yearly cost of going to the Uni-
versity of Oregon is $27,502, in-
cluding $11,571 for tuition and
$12,450 for room and board.
Typical scholarships generally
give below $1,000.
“There are a variety of schol-
arships, but if you look at the
ones that are based on commu-
nity service and grade point av-
erage, a student who has to take
care of a family may not be able
to get out into the community
for service and focus enough on
school work enough to get high
grades,” Orr said. “So their eli-
gibility for scholarships is going
to be far less. To take a student
like that who is very serious and
very hard working, and very
anxious to move on and go to
college, the scholarships may
not be going to a student like
that. They may be going to oth-
er kids who have more time or
higher grades.”
There can also be heavy com-
petition.
Orr said that the majority
of these programs only give
out one scholarship at a time,
though multiple students apply.
Then, what ends up happen-
ing is a disparity of who gets
to go to college. Wealthier stu-
dents who have more resources
and a stable home life can ap-
ply for these scholarship pro-
grams, but more economically
depressed students simply don’t
have the time to go through the
prerequisite hoops. The wealthy
get to afford college, while the
poor do not. This creates a de
facto class system where those
with means have the chance for
upward mobility to higher pay-
ing jobs, and those who don’t
often remain in the same situ-
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ation as their parents.
Orr stressed that the Siuslaw
community is enormously sup-
portive and generous toward its
student population, but some-
times youth are struggling to
find ways to get a higher edu-
cation, even with the communi-
ty’s generosity.
In addition, the population
of students who are in these
depressed economic situations
in the region is larger than Orr
had initially thought.
“What we see here in AS-
PIRE, where we work with ju-
niors and seniors, is that some
students are doing quite well.
But what has surprised me is
the number of students who do
have difficult circumstances. I
can’t give you a percentage, but
it considerably more common
that I had imagined or antici-
pated,” he said.
As for the reasons?
“I have thought and thought
about that,” Orr said. “I haven’t
been able to identify anything
that I can specifically point to.
I don’t think it’s unique to Flor-
ence. I have wondered if this is
a situation that is much more
prevalent across the country
than most of us realize. In our
lives, we only tend to see the
surface of other people's lives.
I think it’s part of our culture
in our time in history, and it
troubles me greatly. In a much
broader sense, what we see here
speaks to much bigger issues
in the country that are perhaps
not being addressed.”
To offset this problem, Stu-
dents for a Better World for-
goes merit-based scholarships,
instead focusing on individual
situations.
“We are trying internally at
the schools to identify students
who would fit the category
we are looking for,” Orr said.
“Many of the scholarships have
application forms, but we’re not
asking them to fill out anything
right now.”
While in the future the pro-
gram may look to require ap-
plications, the process will be
minimal.
What the scholarship funds
are used for also differs from
most scholarship programs.
“The grants that are out there
tend to focus more on tuition
and fees. Also, there are so
many students here that need
financial help,” Orr said.
The money given out to the
program will be specifically
earmarked for cost of living.
“Let’s take one student who is
eligible for a Pell Grant which
is almost $6,000 right now, and
an Oregon Opportunity grant
which is $2,200. But room and
board is going to be another
$6,000 to $8,000 a year,” Orr
said. “They have to have a cer-
tain number of units to sustain
their eligibility for the federal
and state grants. So, it’s not easy
to just take a few classes because
they might lose their eligibility
for the big grants.”
Another difference with Stu-
dents for a Better World is that
students may reapply for the
grants throughout their college
career.
“There are some ongoing
scholarships, but not too many
of them. So many scholarships
are in place to help the students
get started, but then they come
to the second year. We want to
make sure they have some sup-
port moving forward. What we
don’t want is for them to run
into a financial well after their
first year,” Orr said.
As of now, the organization
offers scholarships of $500,
though Orr hopes to be able to
raise enough funds to lift the
amount to $1,000. The funds
have primarily come from the
pockets of board members.
And the number of schol-
arships that are available are
limited. As of right now, the or-
ganization is handing out seven
scholarships, but it hopes to
raise enough funds to give out
at least 15.
For more information on the
program, or to donate funds,
visit
sites.google.com/view/
studentsforabetterworld.
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