Scholarships
52%
of community scholarship applicants* were determined to have significant financial need
57%
of TTCF recipients are the first members of their family to attend higher education
95%
of TTCF scholarship recipients were students determined to have significant financial need
*TTCF partners with local scholarship committees to make 100+ community scholarships available via a single common application.
Addressing students’ financial need through scholarships
Can you imagine how difficult it is to select scholarship recipients from hundreds of applications in a small community? It isn’t easy! Our young people have so much talent, passion, and ambition. Reading all that they’ve accomplished and dream of at such a young age bolsters our faith in the next generation of leaders. We engage numerous volunteers each year, across many different funding organizations, to help us review and award these scholarships. To even the playing field, TTCF provides processes and tools to ensure coordination and transparency, and do our best to help the decision makers decide the highest and best use of charitable dollars.
There can be some misunderstanding in the community about why some students receive multiple awards while other fantastic students don’t receive any. For this reason, TTCF is pulling back the curtain on how we strive for equity. Dana Crary, TTCF Program Coordinator who helps lead the community scholarship process, shares how TTCF brings our commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) into our scholarship process with a detailed and strategic approach every step along the way. Read more in this article. Some things we cover include:
- Designing the application questions to uncover more than what is at the surface
- Offering a common application that provides equitable access to apply for available funding
- Providing unconscious bias training to committee members
Student Highlight: Roger Flores Carrasco
Roger is an inspiring young man who has encountered a lot of adversity. Two years ago, Roger was forced to flee his home in Honduras to escape violence, hunger, and economic strife. Roger crossed three borders to fulfill the American dream and was detained for over a month upon arrival in the US. While being a full-time high school student and maintaining a strong GPA, Roger works as a cook at Fifty-Fifty Brewing to pay for his living expenses and legal fees for his asylum seeking process as well as helping to support his parents at Honduras.
An enthusiastic learner, Roger is passionate about becoming a teacher and will be attending Sierra College with the intent to transfer to a 4-year school to study Education and become a Spanish teacher. Due to the circumstances in which Roger arrived in the states, he is ineligible for government grants like Pell and Cal as well as the CA DREAM Act. To meet his financial need and help pursue his dream of becoming a teacher, Roger has been awarded $38,625 in awards from five different scholarships.
I will always get up, I will believe in myself, and work hard and value the things I do. I hope and have faith that in the future I will be a great Spanish teacher. Even though obstacles and barriers await me, my enthusiasm and my head will be held high. I am excited to become a young man who does find the true American dream.
Roger Flores Carrasco
TTCF scholarships address student needs through a DEI lens that starts with thoughtful application design. Learn how we make our scholarship decisions in our most recent blog.
To learn more about our community impact and how you can partner with us to make a difference, contact Stacy Caldwell at stacy@ttcf.net.