Thesis Statement: “I think it’s important to have a scholarship education program at UPREP because most African American students in Michigan do not have many scholarship opportunities.”
Research Question: How are scholarships a matter of social justice?
Hypothesis: I believe I can give students a better knowledge of scholarships, get at least 75% of the graduating senior students to apply for scholarships, and at least 50% to win at least one scholarship.
Summary
For my Senior Thesis Project, I will create a scholarship program for the school. In this project, I hope to relieve some of the stress of finding scholarships with the money needed for college, or any other post-secondary learning institute. This project is designed to be sustainable so that it can be taken over by future students. The products that I will create as part of this project are a website strictly for UPREP students, a binder that will track all of the current and past due scholarships, a brochure explaining the program, an endowment fund and I will schedule an annual meeting for the students, on scholarships and college information.
Project Overview
For my Senior Thesis Project, I will be creating a scholarship education program for the school. In this project, I hope to relieve some of the stress of finding and applying for scholarships with the money you need for college, or any other post-secondary learning institute. In my project, the students who are interested in the program and academically qualified will become members that are qualified for the various available scholarships once they are completely signed up. Signing up for this program includes creating a New Members Profile, Contact Profile and complete Scholarship Survey with parental consent. Once completely, signed up, when student start signing p for scholarships, they will have to complete the attached Scholarship Submission Application form. The products that I will be creating as part of this project are a website strictly for UPREP students, a binder that will track all of the past due scholarships, a brochure explaining the program, and scheduling an annual meeting for the students on scholarships and college.
In addition to my Senior Thesis Project, I will be taking over Richard Smith’s Senior Thesis Project from last year. The main idea of his project is to better the communication in our school through technology. It will eliminate unnecessary printing and advertisements. So, instead of printing up the events as they come up, events and activities could be emailed to me and I would put together a PowerPoint presentation and send it to Ms. A. Neal to be posted on the school website and displayed in the commons area in every building for about an hour to expand on the school’s overall communication. This project only requires PMUs, several emails, PowerPoints and meetings, so in a way, it will be eliminating work on my side because it limits the advertisement parts of my project.
Why I’m Interested
I am interested in this project because I know that as an African-American student in Detroit, it may be difficult for students to receive the necessary funds needed for college. I believe this project will provide them the other opportunities to earn the money needed for college. The opportunity to help my fellow peers is something which I love to do, by enlightening them on scholarships. Many people do not know about scholarships, what they can do, and how beneficial they are. I hope to open up a whole new window for those who may need my help. My project will have a positive impact on the community because I will be teaching or directing them towards a more stress-free plan as it relates to college money. The school, as well as the community will benefit from this project, because I could possibly alter the statistics on the number of African-American students receiving scholarships for college.
Project Sustainability
This project is designed to be sustainable so that it can be taken over by future students. In this project, I want to establish a committee or board to run this program, so that after I leave, I can be assured that this project will be in good hands and can be ran swiftly throughout the years of UPHS. The chosen committee would have to be academically stable, and goal oriented amongst other requirements. I plan to also have some other adults to contribute to this committee by being the ones who maybe add on to the committee criteria and keep this project in tact. This committee would recruit members three times a year and control this project so that it can easily be passed on.
What I’ll Learn
In this project, I believe that I will be learning as much as the students. Because there is no way to determine what I am destined to learn, as I learn I will share that information.
This project will strengthen my skills such as oral speaking, presentation, time management, patience, independence, and responsibility.
Through this project, I intend to answer the following questions:
- How will I make an impact on the community outside of school?
- Why is it important for me to help African-American students get into college?
- Why is it important for minority groups to apply for scholarships?
- How are scholarships a matter of social justice?
The learning goals I will address through this project are communication, empirical reasoning, quantitative reasoning, social reasoning, and personal qualities.
- Communication – Used when I am set up the annual meeting, creating my binder, communicating w/ founders for submitted scholarships, creating the brochures, organizing the committee, organizing the website surveying the student body, holding in-depth meetings, organizing and creating the endowment fund and researching other scholarships. I will also read material on scholarships before I decide to actually organize this information for meetings, brochures, and the website. In addition, I will also have to put together a weekly PowerPoint presentation with all activities and events for the year to be shown in every building for about an hour on the screen in the commons area.
- Empirical Reasoning – Used when testing my hypothesis.
- Hypothesis: I think I can give students a better knowledge of scholarships and get at least 75% of the senior student scholarships.
- Experiment/Test: Survey the student body before the process to see how much they know about scholarships, and then survey the student body after a certain level in the project to see if I have increased their knowledge.
- Quantitative Reasoning – Used when I am keeping track of all due dates, G.P.A., and scholarship requirements. Examine the problems of college applications and scholarships, and while examining the problems, we will also be researching the different solutions that could possibly solve the problems. I will also study the costs of different colleges and universities so that I can effectively advise students on how much money they need for college and when comparing and contrasting the following:
- Low-Income to High-Income students receiving scholarships.
- Black students to White students receiving scholarships.
- Students with Free Lunch to students with Reduced or Full Pay Lunch receiving scholarships.
- Female to Male students receiving scholarships.
- First-generation students to students that are not.
- Social Reasoning – Used when I am learning more about the websites and when I am thinking about how this project will be continued in the upcoming years. I will share knowledge on scholarships and why they are important so that I can get a feel for what they know about them, and the students will learn what I know about scholarships. Through sharing this knowledge, we will be able to learn from each other and further excel in our knowledge of scholarships.
- Personal Qualities – I will be the head person running the entire project. I will serve as a role model for those who have the same interest and would like to join the Uprep Scholars. I will be responsible for organizing the meetings. I will also be responsible for anything that goes wrong on the network due to any errors, which is a big responsibility.
What I’ve Done
So far, for this project I have observed several of the other scholarships sites and in the process of completing a survey, such as the one attached, to help in the development of my website.
Although I have not spoken with a professional, which will be done in the future development of this project, I have spoken with Allison Neal, Amir Short, and Lottie Spady, and was given several tips on the development of my website. Allison Neal, the designer of the school website, can help me by giving me several tips on effective websites and content options. Amir Short, the computer director at YouthVille Detroit Youth Center, will serve as the expert in my project; he will assist me by directing me through the website and page design and graphics and animation classes to also create an engaging and effective website. Lottie Spady, the Urban Artists Collective worker, will assist me by providing me with the necessary information and resources to start my website. I plan to get as much as I possibly can out of the observation and research part of this project, because I believe it could really help towards the betterment of my project.
Mentorship & Guidance
In this project, so far, I have three acting mentors; Coach Carolyn Edwards, Mia Waugh and Coach LaShand McIlwain. They will assist me in this project in any way possible.
Coach LaShand McIlwain (Coach Mac) has a mentoring program for girls only, but can coach me along the way, especially in providing main tips in mentoring youth, because during this project I will be mentoring youth on the scholarship process.
Mia Waugh can assist me in organization and many other areas, she can get in where she fit in basically, because she has been my mentor for the past seven months, she can contribute in any way possible.
As for Coach Edwards, although I have known her for only a brief period, over the summer, while I was still doing background research on my project, she was a great attribute to especially my website development and research.
The other active adults in this project will be Angelesia Thorington, Henry Slaughter Jr., Sarah Pazur, the current College Coordinator, Michelle White, teachers/advisors, parents, and any others that I may come on contact with.
Resources & Documenting My Work
For this project, I will be using resources such as the library, YouthVille, school, Internet, and maybe some others.
I will document all my work by keeping a running record on memberships and scholarships. Most of my work will be evaluated by my advisor, my parents, my mentors, and the other people from Uprep, though I’m not sure how often I will be critiqued. At my final exhibition I hope to be able to show my panel the developed program, how it runs, and if the students actually obtain scholarships.
Project Plans
Here is a list of the vast majority of the things that I wish to accomplish in this project:
- Workshops that cover the all-around scholarship education (i.e. scams, application, protection, essays, applying, etc.)
- Fundraisers to raise money for the endowment fund.
- A scholarship committee.
- A survey of the entire school body on their knowledge of scholarships.
- Creating a tracking system.
- Informational website.
- Comparison Chart for the contrasting of the 5 categories for comparison.
- Low-Income to High-Income students receiving scholarships.African-American students, Hispanic students, to Caucasian students receiving scholarships.Students with Free Lunch to students with Reduced or Full Pay Lunch receiving scholarships.Female to Male students receiving scholarships.
- First-generation students to students that are not.
- Scholarship Fun Days
- Scholarship Recognition Dinner
- 10-15 page Research paper.
Framing Questions
Personal Interest Questions
- How will I make an impact on the community outside of school?
- Why is it important for me to help African American students?
- Why is it important for minority groups to apply for scholarships?
Project Questions
- How will I be able to monitor the progress of this project after it is passed on?
- What other organizations could I reach out to for support and sponsoring?
- How much do the students know about scholarships, and how can I build upon or introduce scholarships to them?
- How do I start an endowment fund?
- How will I be assured the endowment fund will be sustained?
Sub Questions
- Which is more fair or accurate, an interview or a scholarship application with numbers and statistics?
- Are there any laws pertaining to scholarships?
- How is the lack of affirmative action going to affect the amount of students
- receiving scholarships (mainly blacks)?
- Why do low income students receive fewer scholarships than students of higher
- income?
- What are the statistics on record of black students to white students who receive scholarships?
Answered Questions
- How much do the students know about scholarships, and how can I build upon or introduce scholarships to them?
- How will this course be useful to the students?
- How will I distribute or share the information obtained on scholarships and their importance to the school community?
- What tactics will I use to keep participation high in the program?
- How will I be able to monitor the progress of this project after it is passed on?
- How can I make this program and website helpful for the students as well as the staff?
- What information is going to be on the website?
- How do I want the website to look?
- How much will be taught in this program?
- What are the different types of scholarships or “free money”?
- What are some scholarship scams do I have to look out for?
- Where could I go for help with scholarship scams?
- How much will it cost to hold a website?
- What will be the different categories on the website?
- What information from creating brochures will go on the website?
- What information will be put into the brochure?
- How will I use creativity in creating the brochure to catch the school’s eye or keep them interested?
- What are the major steps in starting this program?
- How will I make an impact on the community outside of school?
- Where could students go to obtain scholarships?
- How will I know which scholarship search engines are the best?
- What make a good scholarship search engine?
- Are there any laws pertaining to scholarships?
- How have the costs of colleges and universities changed over the years?
- What is Student Aid?
- What is the difference between loans and grants?
- What is work-study?
- Why is it important for minority groups to apply for scholarships?
- Which is more fair or accurate, an interview or a scholarship application with numbers and statistics?
- Where can I teach my workshops and activities?
- When is the best time to hold the workshops and other activities?
- Can extracurricular activities help students win scholarships?
- When is the best time for students to start applying for scholarships? Is it ever too late?
- What are some things that students at each grade level can do to make themselves more eligible for scholarships?
Timing
So far, I have done 90% of all of my main research, and because this project is supposed to last throughout my senior year, this will be the year that I actually act out the desired tasks for the project.
Cost
I have not completed an overall project budget plan, but as the fundraisers and activities come up, I will.
