Scholarships with STAR completion coach – Laura Doss
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Matt: Welcome to Bellingham Technical College’s Money$marts Podcast! I’m your host Matt Benoit. Each episode we will talk to BTC students, staff, community professionals and financial experts about financial literacy and wellness in order to help listeners navigate resources in the community and empower themselves financially. I am here today with Laura, Laura Doss. How are you doing Laura?

Laura: I’m doing great! Thanks for having me today!

Matt: Excellent! So you are here at BTC as a STAR Completion Coach, part of the STAR program. What can you tell me about your position and the STAR program at BTC? 

Laura: So, the STAR program is a student support program. STAR is an acronym. It’s talking about Student coaching. So, what that means is that we work with a student kind of from beginning to end. Some students only need to see us maybe a couple of times and some just need that extra support all the way through graduation. The T is for tutoring. And we have a great tutoring program. Our tutors focus mainly on kind of, pre-college courses. So, those courses that help students prepare for their program, their higher level general education classes. So it’s very targeted. And then we support student achievement and academics by doing things like workshops related to things like scholarships, how to do the FAFSA, stress management, and then the R for star is resources. So, we’re a resource there for our students but we’re also a referral source. So, we’re very familiar with on and off campus resources. We help our students connect with those as needed.

Matt: Now, STAR stands for Success coaching, Tutoring, Academic support, and Resources. And overall, what is the goal of the STAR program?

Laura: So, completion coach is sort of our role here at BTC. It’s to support students who might just need that little bit of extra support. It’s students who are, perhaps they’re first generation, students with a disability, students of color, students who show financial or academic need. So we’re able to support a really broad number of BTC students who fall into those different areas. So what our job is, is to keep people at school. So they get started, we try to connect with those students right away and we want to help them become kind of self-sufficient, learn the ropes – what it’s like to be a college student, and then support them through to graduation.

Matt: In general, before we can get into how the STAR program can help students with scholarships, what do you think are some of the biggest challenges for students who are trying to apply for scholarships?

Laura: …for scholarships. So, when I think about students applying for scholarships or they’re thinking about applying for scholarships, a lot of times students feel overwhelmed and kind of scared about writing an essay. So, that seems to be overwhelming. And then there are a lot of students who think, you know, why would I be chosen for a scholarship? What do I have to offer? Why do I deserve a scholarship? So, a lot of times those are questions that I see students asking themselves when they are looking for free funding sources. One of the biggest barriers that we see for students is funding. And what that boils down to is if students don’t know how they’re going to pay for college, they can’t focus on being a successful student. So, part of what we do in STAR is help those students become aware of and apply for different funding sources. My favorite things to do to are help students find free money and then help them actually graduate and find a job. Those are my favorite things. So, a lot of the time students are familiar with loans, getting student loans and that feels really easy to them but there are a lot of other ways to find that free money through scholarships and grants.

Matt: Now, when students come to you and they have questions about scholarships what are probably the most common questions you get?

Laura: So, it’s interesting because a lot of times when the students come to see us, looking for scholarships, it’s not even something that they’re thinking about. A lot of times it’s the completion coach that brings that up like “have you thought about different ways of paying for college?” So, a lot of times it comes from that relationship and exploring how the student’s going to pay for college. So, once we get that conversation going, the questions that I hear from students are “Where do I find scholarships?”, “How do I know what’s out there?”, they’ll ask questions like “What will I qualify for?” and “How much work do I need to put into that application process?”

Matt: So, a lot of students will probably be eligible for more scholarships than they’re aware of. So, what would you say to any student who goes “Well, I don’t know if I can apply for that.”? What’s, what’s your advice?

Laura: So, first we look over the scholarship and the application requirements. And we do figure that out. Do you qualify? A lot of times, students kind of look at things from one perspective where a completion coach can help them, kind of, open up that perspective and find ways that they do qualify for the scholarship. Again, it’s just not something that the student was thinking about. Another thing that we work with is there are a lot of tools out there. So, things that we find on the internet where it helps the students, kind of, narrow down the scholarships that they qualify for. So, it would look like a student filling it out, talking about who they are, their program, their financial need, where they see themselves going in their career. And the program actually helps them narrow down the scholarships that they may qualify for. So, that’s a tool that we work with when students are asking “How do I know if I’m going to qualify.”

Matt: Right, are there any other resources that STAR provides that you can think of besides that. Or at least, I guess, anything we haven’t talked about yet?

Laura: Sure, well I think the scholarship and the grant applications come up when we ask students “have you completed your FAFSA?” So, we talk about getting that FAFSA completed. I often ask the students, “have you ever looked into your BTC financial portal?” and a lot of times students aren’t familiar with that. So, as a completion coach, I would walk them through the BTC website, show them how to find their financial aid portal, and explain like this is a really great way for you to kind of monitor what’s happening with your funding. So, frequently, students don’t know that when they do qualify for grants through the government until they look at something like their financial aid portal and have somebody kind of explain what that looks like. The other thing that we do is that we work with another program on campus. We work closely with the Money$marts program. So, I mentioned completion coaches, we also have peer-coaches. Students who have been on campus for several quarters and they’ve kind of hit that place where they’re ready to give back. So, they also work with students onlooking for scholarships and grants because they’ve been through that process. So they have a student perspective. 
Matt: And if you’re not familiar with how to access your financial aid portal you can access it by clicking ‘Student Links’ on the BTC home page, then click ‘financial aid portal’ and it will ask for your Social Security Number and Password, which by default is your 6 digit birthdate. And as Luara mentioned, a STAR peer coach or Money$marts mentor can help you.
Matt: Now, of course, some people are incredibly busy, ridiculously busy, some college students, and so, what advice or what would you say to any student who says like “well, I want to apply for them, for scholarships and grants but like I don’t even feel like I have the time.” I mean, obviously at some point though, applying for those grants and scholarships, I guess the easy answer may be it’s a necessity so you have to find the time to do it if you want to pay for school, right? I guess, what advice do you have for someone who’s very very busy?

Laura: So, I do hear that often. And what I talk with the student about is how much time is it going to take you to complete the application process, thinking about the essay. So, what we look at is, let’s say it’s going to take three hours. Just throwing that number out there. I ask them to break that down by kind of, what does that look like hourly? If you’re applying for a $200 scholarship, you divide that by the three hours, is that worth your time? So, yes. Students suddenly are like “Hey, that is worth my time if I look at it as an hourly rate.” And so, one of the things we help students do regarding their time management is we break down a calendar. How much time do you spend doing homework? How much time are you in the classroom? How much time do you dedicate to travel? And so we find time to do those scholarship applications and the other thing is if they are working with someone else, students often feel that responsibility to the other person who’s helping them. So if we’re saying we’re meeting Monday at three o’clock, students look at that appointment time as a commitment to another person and they have that willingness to show up because it’s the right thing to do and work on that scholarship application. Applying for the scholarship though should be enough motivation. But break it down , hourly. How much is that scholarship – how much is your time worth, regarding the scholarship amount.

Matt: So, let’s talk about some of the scholarships themselves. First of all, there’s the BTC Foundations Scholarship, so what can you tell me about that?

Laura: So, the Foundations Scholarship, what I like about the Foundations Scholarship is all that money that’s put out for our students, it’s from our local employers. So to me, what that shows is that, our employers think so much about our graduates, they’re willing to put out all of this money to support them through school and then through graduation. So, this year we brought in about 300 thousand dollars in scholarship from our employers and about half of the applicants got some kind of an award. So, some of the things that we think about when we’re awarding students is we do try to come up with an amount that will be most impactful for the student. So, getting a 50 dollar scholarship, that’s nice, but not quite so helpful. So we try to think about what’s going to be most impactful for that student. Another nice thing is that we have different industries that put out scholarship money that is specific to their field. So, an example would be a student going to advanced manufacturing, there’s money specifically set aside for that program. So, it could be engineering, again we have engineering employers who put that money aside. It goes on and on. Healthcare, right? And then we have general funds that can be awarded as well. So usually we look at those scholarships that kind of apply by program or industry and then once those are awarded, we look at those general scholarships and use that to kind of fill in the gaps. So, we try to keep the, I would say, this last year we kept the scholarships between about 950 dollars and even up to 22 hundred, I would say is the range because, right, that’s really going to make an impact on a student’s tuition costs. 
Matt: Now, what percentage of overall students who apply for the BTC Foundations Scholarship are going to get awarded a scholar

Laura: So about half of the applicants. 50% I would say, is the number we generally look at. So, this is another thing I like about the BTC Foundations Scholarship application is that I always tell students this is the easiest application that you will ever fill out for a scholarship. And, I’ll tell you why, it’s literally, you’re filling out the application demographics, you put your GPA, we need to know that you did fill out your FAFSA. One thing that is interesting about the BTC Foundations Scholarship, it’s not necessarily needs based. So you know, I tell students although you might not qualify for funding through FAFSA, that does not necessarily mean that you’re not going to get money from the BTC Foundations Scholarship. So, it’s not needs based. We look at the GPA because some scholarships do require a minimum GPA, some people might want to see a 3.0, other people are okay with a 2.0. Again, that’s not every scholarship. The next thing we ask is what program, you list your program. We ask well. “why is that program a good fit?” Or, why are you a good fit for that program? And so it’s basically just talking about here’s why I chose the program, here’s my interest level and this is kind of what I expect once I graduate. How am I going to be using my degree. The other piece that we look at is, we look at volunteer experience, community service, we look at leadership positions that people have held currently or in the past and so we’re looking just kind of for well-rounded individuals. One thing I like to tell students who are thinking, I don’t have any volunteer experience or I haven’t done any community service since high school. I encourage them to put something because you do, you are awarded points based on your application. It’s better to get some points than no points. So, it would be something like, “once I graduate from BTC, here’s how I’m planning to give back to the community because you’ll get some points for that. So, never leave anything blank! Fill out every section on the application. 

Matt: So, what does the application process look like? What will happen if a student receives a BTC Foundations Scholarship?

Laura: So, once a student applies for the BTC Foundations scholarship, and there’s a lot of support. There are tutors on campus, Money$marts mentors, peer coaches, completion coaches, lots of folks to help with that essay portion. Our department actually offers a whole workshop on how to fill that out. But once those are submitted, typically the due date is June 30th, the committee is going to meet in July and students are notified of their award in early August. So, what happens then is they get an email notification. The student has to fill out a handwritten thank you note that’s going to go to the donor. And then in September, the student is invited to a scholarship breakfast. Actually, not just invited, it is mandatory. So, at the breakfast, the student will sit with the donor, the person who provided that scholarship, and it’s an opportunity for networking. So, I always encourage students when they’re attending that scholarship breakfast, come with questions prepared. So, if it’s a business, look up that business, check out their website, jot down questions so that you have intelligent questions to ask. You want to sound articulate. If you can get a business card, get a business card. You can always follow up with another “It was really nice to meet you.” Because again it’s one more opportunity to network and meet somebody in your field. Someone who cares enough about our graduates to provide a scholarship.

Matt: So, you mentioned that in this case, for Fall quarter it would be in September. Is this something that takes place once per academic year? Or is it every quarter?

Laura: So, spring quarter is where students will start hearing about the scholarship and then it needs to be turned in and the deadline is June 30th. So, once a year.

Matt: So, is there anything else you think we haven’t covered that you think is worth –needs to be mentioned about the STAR program and scholarship opportunities?

Laura: So, I’d like students to know, I’d like currently enrolled students to know there are a couple of ways to get involved on campus that show leadership skills and that’s something that can be included on the last portion of the essay. So, a couple different ways. There’s the ASBTC which is the student government, the student body at BTC. So, there’s an executive board, right? President, vice president, and whatnot. But there’s also a senate. So I encourage students once they are in their program – they can be a student representative for their program and so they go to meetings, they listen to what happens at those executive board meetings, they might have some things to say on behalf of their program and they bring that information back and speak with the other students, so if it feels overwhelming maybe to be part of a board, students can be representatives. Which is showing that leadership and community on campus. A couple of other things I like students to know, for the different programs we have something called Advisory Committees. Advisory Committees are three times a year. We’ve got our employers, faculty and then there are two student representatives that sit on an Advisory Committee. So, a couple of benefits here. The first is it’s one more time to network, people get together before or after, have a little chit-chat and snacks, so it’s a good time to talk with employers and again networking. Have some questions to ask, be articulate. You get to hear first hand what’s happening in your local industry and you can take that information back. But its beneficial for multiple reasons to be part of an Advisory Committee. But in terms of the BTC Foundations Scholarship, again, you’re involved on campus, you’re taking a leadership role, so the way that would work out is that you would approach your faculty and ask them if you can be part of the Advisory Committee for your program. The other I would encourage students to do is look into being a peer-coach with the STAR program, Money$marts mentor because again that’s a way to be a part of the community on campus and it’s one more thing that you can include on you essay. So if you haven’t done volunteer work or community service in the past, It’s not too late, you can meet those roles right here on campus.

Matt: Yeah, that sounds wonderful. Well thank you so much, Laura, for you being on the program. And, now you guys have a – does STAR have its own website? I imagine…

Laura: So, if students just go to the BTC website. I usually recommend that students just use the search bar. That’s easier for me to find things on the website. You just put in STAR and it’ll take you to the webpage.
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Matt: Ok, well there you go. My thanks to Laura for being here on this episode of the BTC Money$marts podcast. Be sure to check out all of our episodes online, also on the BTC website. They’re loaded with stories, tips, tricks and strategies for financial literacy. This podcast is produced by Cheryl Kennedy with music courtesy of Bensound.com. I’m Matt Benoit. We’ll see you next time.