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TS-SM has great college and career preparation workshops planned, and you can have the opportunity to earn prizes! For each webinar, we will have a live zoom meeting the day of and an activity for students to complete if they weren't able to attend the live event.

Your name will be entered into a prize drawing for each webinar you participate in/activity you complete. We will give out a prize two weeks after each webinar, and a grand prize to the student who has participated in the most webinars/completed the most activities!

For the Scholarship Essay Tips webinar, we announced the winner on Monday, November 30th.

The Fall 2020 Grand Prize for the VIP, Very Involved Participant, winner was announced on Monday, November 30th.

What is your FIRST and LAST name?

Please select the option that best describes you:

I am a TS-SM STUDENT.
I am a PARENT/GUARDIAN of a TS-SM student.

What campus are you (the student) enrolled in?

San Marcos High School
Goodnight Middle School
Miller Middle School

The webinar and this activity is brought to you by two of our interns for the Fall 2020 semester, Ms. Karina Madera and Ms. Kelsey Newman.

To watch the recording of this webinar, we recommend that you open the following link in a new tab or in a new window that way you still have access to the quiz questions and to the links at the end of the activity:
https://mediaflo.txstate.edu/Watch/r5A7Htn8

Before writing the scholarships essay think about the qualities, experiences, interests, and motivations that make you you! Scholarship essays are an opportunity for you to talk about yourself and reflect as a person.

The committee is looking for how your experiences and motivations made you the person that you are now. And they are looking for how these developed strengths and goals fit with the scholarships. And lastly, they want to know how you will use this scholarship This is a critical part of the essay because this is where the committee ultimately make their decision.

These are some tips for when you are writing your essay. Make sure that you pick a topic that you are going to enjoy writing about or pick the closest one! It is much easier to write about something you care about than to pick a random topic.

Preparing an outline is a great way to reduce stress and feelings if overwhelmness when it comes to writing an essay. It can help you organize your thoughts and ideas. And it speeds the process of writing your essay.

When writing your essay, we recommend that you use the font times new roman, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, and keep your paper double spaced. This is a good way to keep your paper looking clean and professional and is also good practice for when you are writing your papers in college. Make sure that you are paying attention to any instructions that they provide such as a word count, heading, or things to include at the top of your essay. Some scholarships may allow you to attach a word document and others will request that you put it in a text box (example below), if they request you to put it in the text box you may not be able to control the font size and things like that, but at least make sure to space out your paragraphs.

Here is have provided an example of an outline.

At the top we have the title of the essay. Be mindful that some essays don't require titles. However, titles give the committee an overview of what you essay will be.

For the introduction, provide a sentence that will summarize what you will be talking about in your paper. This is also called your thesis statement. This will give the committee a clear understanding of what you will talk about in your body paragraphs.

Your next couple of paragraph(s) will be your body paragarph(s), where you will add your content. Similar to the introduction, provide a sentence that will summerize what you will talk about for that body paragraph. For example, in paragraph 1 you may talk about how you overcame an obstacle. Next, provide bullet points of ideas that you want to add in the paragraphs. Choose 3-5 ideas that will strengthen the prompt. This goes for all body paragraphs if you write more than one, depending on the length of the essay.

Lastly, your conclusion will be similar to the intro: add a sentence summerizing what you had talked about. This closure and a chance to tie up everything that was said in the essay.

Sometimes scholarships don't require you to write a document. There are times when a text box entry is where you will trun in your essay. Here you could type your essay in the text entry or copy and paste if your essay was previously made. Keep your paragraphs seperated. This will give your essay flow and easier for the committee to read. You may not have the option to use Times New Roman at a 12-point font and doubled spaced.

Make sure when you are writing your essay that you are specific and get to the point of your essay. You do not want to use to many extra words, because it can become confusing and the point of your essay may misunderstood.

Depending on whether you have a word count or not, you may have 1-3 body paragraphs. This is where you talk about yourself and expand on the ideas you presented in you introduction.

Scholarships really want to know your goals and what the money they will be awarding is going to, so it is important that you find a way to mention this in your essay!

Instead of just telling them about your experiences, try to show them with examples from your past that have influenced you and your career path today!

The committee wants to know how capable are you as a person and whether you are capable to continue to grow in the future. Believe in yourself!! Show them what you got!

Make sure that you are writing about a difficult time in your life, you highlight how you overcame this experience and grew from it. The committee want to see how you overcome obstacles and your strengths when you were dealing with those obstacles.

In your conclusion, make sure you tie in all that you said in your body paragraph(s). Don't introduce new information. This a summary.

Begin writing you conclusion by tieing in the specific topics you talked about in the body. Then you follow it by a general statement about you and your goals and how you will use the scholarship to fulfill your endeavours.

It is very important to get teachers, family, and trusted adults to proofread your essay. This is so important because when you are writing your essay you may have meant to say something one way, but other people reading may interpret it another way! You want to make sure you are getting the intended message across. You also want to make sure that your essay is professional, even if you are added in personal experiences, you still want to make sure you are using correct grammar and not texting language! Lastly, we just wanted to say good luck and you guys got this!

These are some of the resources that we used, and they had great information if you guys would want to use any when you are writing your essays!

Quiz Time Questions!

Question 1: Which sentence is straight to the point and uses Direct Word Choice?

"All of the students who are new to this school are required to attend a meeting that has been scheduled for Friday the 22nd of September."
"New students are required to attend a meeting on Friday, September 22."

Question 2: Which sentence sounds more enticing and can be used for a hook sentence?

"My first time traveling abroad was during a family vacation to Mexico in 2010."
"It was 2010: I had just crossed the border into Mexico and my life was about to change."

Question 3: Which sentence has a more humble tone?

"The discipline I bring to my academics and volunteer work reflects how hard I intend to work in college, and I would be grateful for the financial assistance to attend."
"As a straight-A student who is always the first to get the answers in my classes, is the captain of the debate team, and is a proud volunteer at the homeless shelter who knows she is doing her part to help the world, I truly believe I deserve this scholarship."

Question 4: Which sentence is more engaging?

"I have always been interested in science, even from a young age. Since my family supported my interest enthusiastically, I continued to pursue it throughout school. As I’ve gotten older, though, my scientific endeavors have become increasingly complex."
"Too young to enter the school science fairs, I took to my family. Force-feeding different animal food to my siblings and parents, I graphed their favorite types. While I was only six, my family has never forgiven me; my “experiments” remain the family joke. Nevertheless, I have progressed from my dog food days, leaving taste tests for DNA gel electrophoresis experiments."

Question 5: Which is a better conclusion?

"Well, I can’t promise that I’m going to find a cure for cancer or the AIDS virus, but, I know one thing is true. The way my eyes would brighten up when we sang that song is the same way they brighten up when I think about my future. While I may not find the cure for fatal illnesses, I know that my passion for the field will defeat any hurdle that stands in my way and that I am going to do everything to be the best doctor that I can be."
"Through my school career in high school, I have learned a lot about biology and human anatomy that I feel capable of becoming a doctor. I can take on challenges. I am assertive that I can find a cure for cancer or AIDS."