Reporting scholarships in the local news or at graduations.

[Halftime Hope]

I was wondering what the norm is in your area, just for curiosity's sake.

 

In my nieces' school district, the graduating class had about 200-250 students. As the students' names were called to receive their diploma, the amounts of scholarship awards granted to the student and who granted it were read out. Scholarships from $250 from the local rotary club were listed alongside the full-ride-worth-$70 K announcements.

 

I had never heard of such a thing, and frankly, I thought it was "a bit tacky", to quote my Okie grandma.

 

Then the other day I was googling a particular scholarship. One of the hits was for a local newspaper in which names and every scholarship offered to students seemed to be listed. There were even multiple schools and $ amounts listed for each student!

 

What is the norm in your area?

 

I just find it a bit uncouth to make such things public record to all your friends and neighbors. Personally, I won't make announcements of such info to my church family, nor to my neighborhood, nor to my IRL friends who are not celebrating our homeschooling accomplishments with me. Here it's different--we are cheering each other on and celebrating, understanding full well the cost of the achievements and the diligence represented.

 

What do you think?

Edited February 17, 2010 by Valerie(TX)

[In The Great White North]

Our local high school has an Awards Night, the day before Graduation, where they present all awards, including scholarships. It encourages younger students to aspire to and apply for these scholarships, that they would otherwise never have heard of.

[In The Great White North]

I got to present an appointment to USMA at Awards Night about 10 years ago (around $500,000 then). Mouths dropped open. This is a school that doesn't promote either the military or the academies. 99% of the audience had no idea it even existed, let alone that they paid you. There were several $500 scholarships, a few $1000 scholarships, a $5000 scholarship, then my turn. It was fun. :001_smile:

 

I've noticed a few more applicants to all the academies in the intervening years.

[Hillary in KS]

I haven't attended one here, but when I graduated from high school (late 1980's) the scholarships you'd earned were listed in the program under your name.

 

But then, there were 460 students in our class, and they couldn't have read aloud everyone's scholarships. It would have taken forever.

 

I thought it was a nice way to acknowledge the students. :)

[creekland]

Here they are posted on a board in our high school, then announced in a separate ceremony as described before. I haven't seen them in our paper. I did take a peek at the board... my oldest would be tops of his class at this point. That was a nice proud mama moment even if no one else will know. OK, a few of my friends who teach at school also know, but...

 

If they announced them at graduation it would take forever. They are announced in our morning and afternoon announcements when they are added to the board as are college acceptances (one day on announcements). This goes for technical schools as well as colleges.

[TravelingChris]

I think this happens in very small districts. We had it in a base newspaper when we were stationed in Belgium. My son wasn't listed since he was homeschooled. Some people who we were friendly with knew that he had won a half-tuition scholarship. I think in his graduation party at the base chapel some people asked. I also want to tell people since so many don't know that opportunities exist.

[Carmen_and_Company]

Pretty much like everyone's local public schools, ours announces during the gratuation ceremony & posts within the school, the school newspaper in the fall, and on the district website.

[Mergath]

When I graduated in 2001, there was a special insert in the paper that listed the name of the scholarships each student received, but not the amount. I agree that reading off the amounts at the graduation ceremony is tacky in the extreme.

[MomtoCandJ]

When I graduated in 2002 the scholarships and amounts were announced on Awards night and at the graduation ceremony but I graduated from a really small school (maybe 250 students district wide which is 2 elementary schools, middle school and high school)