American Legion Offers Scholarships, Encourages All To Apply

From Min­nie Knych, Amer­i­can Legion Post 163 Auxiliary 

The Amer­i­can Legion offers schol­ar­ships, and stu­dents should apply even if they think they aren’t eligible. 

Amer­i­can Legion Scholarships

Over $203,500 in schol­ar­ships is award­ed each year to the top win­ners in the Amer­i­can Legion Nation­al Ora­tor­i­cal Con­test. The state win­ners of the con­test receive $5,000 for the first prize. Local San Juan Coun­ty win­ners can win also. To pre­pare for the 2022 con­test, week­ly after-school will be offered start­ing in Sep­tem­ber 2021. For more infor­ma­tion or to sign up for the class­es, con­tact ConstitutionFH@gmail.com.

 If you are a high school junior you can apply to attend Girls or Boys State spon­sored by Amer­i­can Legion and Amer­i­can Legion Aux­il­iary. Boys State is now enrolling for the 2021 ses­sion  June 20–26 at the Warm Beach Con­fer­ence Cen­ter in Stan­wood, Wash­ing­ton. More infor­ma­tion is avail­able at office@EvergreenBoysState.org.

Or, con­tact the Fri­day Har­bor Amer­i­can Legion mem­ber Shan­non Plum­mer at plumdog01@gmail.com or 360–375-5508, or Amer­i­can Legion Aux­il­iary Girls State con­tact Min­nie Knych at Knych@rockisland.com.

Con­tact Fri­day Har­bor high school coun­selors about the fol­low­ing scholarships.

• Mar­guerite Mc“Alpin Memo­r­i­al Schol­ar­ship: Nurs­es’ schol­ar­ship or $1,000 award­ed for a direct descen­dent of a veteran. 
• Flo­rence Lem­cke Memo­r­i­al Schol­ar­ship in Fine Arts: A schol­ar­ship of $1,000 will be award­ed in the field of Fine Arts includ­ing paint­ing, draw­ing, pho­tog­ra­phy, lit­er­a­ture, archi­tec­ture, sculp­ture poet­ry, music, dance and drama.
• Sam­sung Amer­i­can Legion Schol­ar­ship: If you are a grad­u­at­ing high school senior who has pre­vi­ous­ly attend­ed Girls or Boys State and is a direct descen­dant of a U.S. mil­i­tary vet­er­an, you are eli­gi­ble to apply for the Sam­sung Scholarship.
• Susan Bur­dett Schol­ar­ship: This schol­ar­ship is avail­able to a for­mer cit­i­zen of Girls State and is award­ed by the Wash­ing­ton State Amer­i­can Legion Auxiliary.

Why Stu­dents Do Not Apply For Schol­ar­ships, And Why They Should

I Don’t Have a High Enough GPA: Most schol­ar­ships do not require a 4.0 GPA. Schol­ar­ships that do not have a min­i­mum grade point aver­age eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ri­on usu­al­ly require a 3.0 or 3.5. Some do not include the GPA as an eli­gi­bil­i­ty at all. Schol­ar­ships can be based on your career inter­est, your activ­i­ties, or the com­mu­ni­ty you live in. 

My Par­ents Make Too Much Mon­ey: Some schol­ar­ships are based on need or finan­cial aid eli­gi­bil­i­ty. But there are many mer­it-based schol­ar­ships that are not based on your fam­i­ly income but on aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment or promise for future success.

I Don’t Have Time To Look: Time is mon­ey and in this case mon­ey well-spent. If it takes you a total of 10 hours to look for a schol­ar­ship oppor­tu­ni­ty, com­plete and mail the appli­ca­tion, but you receive a $1,000 schol­ar­ship, you have made more mon­ey per hour than most of us make on our job. 

I Don’t Know Where To Look: You can find infor­ma­tion about schol­ar­ships by look­ing online, or check with your school coun­selor, or ser­vice clubs such as the Amer­i­can Legon, Sons of the Amer­i­can Legion or Amer­i­can Legion Auxiliary. 

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