8:00 a.m. CDT Monday, October 9, 2023 Eligibility Application Opens
You fill out the Eligibility Application. Changes cannot be made after final submission!
5:00 p.m. CDT Tuesday, October 31, 2023 Eligibility Application Closes
The portal cannot accept Eligibility Applications after 5:00 PM CDT.
November 6 – 21, 2023 Data Import and Matching
After importing data including grades and attendance, the system matches you to scholarships based on your Eligibility Application. This takes about two weeks and you will have no access other than viewing your Profile and Eligibility Application.
8:00 a.m. CST November 22, 2023 Student Scholarship Application Opens
You’ll receive an email telling you your matches are ready and you may now apply for scholarships. You select each scholarship from your menu and either apply or decline. If you do nothing, it is considered a decline to apply for the scholarship. This is the fast part of scholarship season!
5:00 p.m. CST December 15, 2023 Student Scholarship Application Closes
The portal cannot accept Scholarship Applications after 5:00 p.m. CST. All issues must be submitted and resolved by all parties before this deadline. Submit early!
December 2023 – March 2024
Counselor review and confirmation, blind reviews, donor and sponsor reviews and selections, and ISF confirmations.
March 2024 – Award Email Announcements
Scholarship recipients are notified via email after Spring Break and begin process of claiming or declining awards.
Monday, April 15, 2024 MANDATORY Scholar Training at Irving High School Auditorium
All scholars will meet for Scholar Training. Along with a group photo and a quick video, this involves everything you need to know about your receiving your award, your scholarship funds, your donor contacts, and the Breakfast with the Stars award event. You must have your scholarship agreement completed in the portal to accept and be confirmed for the scholarship(s) offered. You will also learn about your donors and find out where/how to send thank you notes and updates, see details of how the scholarships work with your college, and submit a short bio for the printed awards program, our website, and your donors.
Finalized 2024 Scholarship Recipients Announced to District and Public
The official roster of 2024 ISF Scholarship recipients is released after all scholarships are claimed and confirmed.
The IISD Teacher, Staff, and Librarian Scholarship cycle is January 1 – 31, 2024.
Requirements and application are here. Recipients will be announced at Breakfast with the Stars May 1, 2024.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Dear Irving ISD Seniors,
Congratulations on your final year of high school! We hope 12th grade is rewarding, fun, and unforgettable for you, and we hope you are starting to think about college… because we are!
Irving Schools Foundation is gearing up for the next scholarship season with our donors creating or endowing dozens of scholarships being added to the more than 250 to be awarded at Breakfast with the Stars 2024. And, it will all happen within a new scholarship platform we’re launching this year. This portal will be your means of application and communication for all things scholarships.
EVERY graduating senior in Irving ISD is eligible, qualified, and encouraged to apply for these scholarships.
We want seniors and their families to know what to expect, so we’ve prepared the 2023-2024 Irving Schools Foundation Scholarship Preparation Guide to give you a head start.
WHAT IT IS
The 2023-2024 Irving Schools Foundation Scholarship Preparation Guide is an informational packet containing all requirements for the Eligibility Application. When the scholarship portal opens, you fill out the Eligibility Applications one time, and the system compares your qualifications with the 250+ scholarships ISF manages for our donors who wish to award in 2024.
The Eligibility Application is the first of a two-part application process. It is, by far, the largest component, and we are giving you all the questions ahead of time.
WHAT IT IS NOT
The guide is in no way a scholarship application and cannot under any circumstances be submitted as such. It is simply an optional tool for your personal use and reference only. Completed Eligibility Applications and Scholarship Applications are accepted in two separate stages and only via the online application process within the portal.
WHAT THE PREP GUIDE DOES
The packet tells you exactly what will be asked of you in the Eligibility Application phase – everything from where you went to school in third grade to what is your dream job after college.
It can be used either as a checklist or as a fillable form, where you can organize your answers now, giving you ample opportunity to confirm names, timelines, organizations, courses, application status, awards, etc. that will boost your history and help tell your story. We tell you what information to gather and how to organize it efficiently.
The guide can help you know ahead of time what questions you want to ask before the portal opens and where you may need guidance, giving you a chance to ask and get answers before you fill out the Eligibility Application.
It tells you word for word what are the six General Essay questions you will be asked in the Eligibility Application, giving you time to consider your thoughts, draft your answers, and work on how you want to write about yourself.
HOW TO USE IT
Work on the form now, building a robust Eligibility Application by filling in the facts and working on your essay answers. When the online application opens, you have already done the heavy lifting. You can enter answers live or you can copy & paste from the packet; then, carefully proofread, submit your Eligibility Application, and relax while you wait for the email telling which scholarships are matches for you (this takes a week or two) because the biggest part is done.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THIS?
During the Matching process, the portal does the work assigning you to scholarships for which you qualify. Once you’re notified of matches and are back in the portal, you will see a menu showing your matching scholarships.
You must choose in your menu list the scholarships for which you want to apply.
There is no limit to how many of your matched scholarships you can apply for, and you have the option for each to decline (PRO TIP: We can’t think of any reason to decline!), but you must select each one and submit yourself as a candidate, confirming you would like to apply.
NOTE: If you do not select and acknowledge yourself as a candidate for a scholarship, it is considered a decline to apply and you will not be considered for that scholarship.
Some scholarships require nothing beyond selecting from the menu listing and submitting yourself as a candidate. Other scholarships may have a short essay question you will need to answer before submitting. EX: If you are matched with a scholarship named for the elementary school you attended, you may be asked to talk about your time there. If you listed a particular area of study for college, you may be asked why you want to pursue that career path. As with the General Essays, additional essays have a maximum count of 500 words.
WHAT TO KNOW
READ.
There is not a lot of text on the portal screens when you are working on the Eligibility and Scholarship applications, but what is there will help you navigate.
You can work on the applications in intervals, saving and returning later to continue, but you will not have Eligibility Application access after that portal closes nor will you have Scholarship Application access after that portal closes. There are plenty of alerts to make sure you are aware.
EMAIL.
Pay attention to your personal email; that is how all communication takes place.
If you do not have a confirmation email after submitting your Eligibility Application or your Scholarship Application, you did not submit. Always watch for these emails.
If you have no emails, you did not correctly input your email address — carefully proof your Profile to be sure all info is correct.
There may be scholarships for which you are a finalist, and your eligibility status depends on confirming/answering a question. EX: Confirming where you will attend college, or what will be your major, etc. If you do not answer the email and confirm within a reasonable time (typically 24 hours), opportunity goes to someone else.
DEADLINES.
Pay attention to all deadlines, most especially Eligibility Application submission and Scholarship Application Final Submission. The portal cannot accept submissions attempted after the deadline time stamp. Submit early and watch your email for the Final Submission confirmation.
If you do not submit a completed Eligibility Application before the deadline, you will not be an applicant in the Scholarship Application.
WHAT NOT TO THINK
Do NOT think you are not the scholarship type. ISF donors are offering more than 250 scholarships for 2024, and there is not a single graduating senior in Irving ISD who does not qualify for several dozen, at the very least.
Do not think there is any accomplishment not worth mentioning. Our donors are as unique as the scholarships they have created, and the criteria are diverse. There are no small details. If you can’t find a place to mention something that helps tell your story, make it part of the last essay question – that’s why we ask it.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Do not be lazy. This is not a text message telling someone what to pick up for you at the grocery store. Your application is a professional document, and it is your one shot at showing donors who you are and how much you care about their offer to help pay for your college education. The way you type in your information is exactly how it shows up on the front end, and it is a direct and memorable reflection of your work ethic.
Do not hurt your chances by filling out your name or other proper nouns in lower-case, using poor grammar, not proofreading, lacking punctuation, etc. It always looks bad for you, but there are also times it kicks back in our systems and doesn’t allow scholarship funds to be awarded (and there is always someone in line behind you who will accept it). You are given plenty of time to proofread — don’t risk it!
WHEN DOES ALL THIS HAPPEN?
ISF Scholarship season starts in early fall and lasts several months. Your part will be done before Winter Break, but there is a lot that happens after you submit.
8:00 a.m. CDT Monday, October 9, 2023 Eligibility Application Opens
You fill out the Eligibility Application. Changes cannot be made after final submission!
5:00 p.m. CDT Tuesday, October 31, 2023 Eligibility Application Closes
The portal cannot accept Eligibility Applications after 5:00 PM CDT.
November 6 – 21, 2023 Data Import and Matching
After importing data including grades and attendance, the system matches you to scholarships based on your Eligibility Application. This takes about two weeks and you will have no access other than viewing your Profile and Eligibility Application.
8:00 a.m. CST November 22, 2023 Scholarship Application Opens
You’ll receive an email telling you your matches are ready and you may now apply for scholarships. You select each scholarship from your menu and either apply or decline. If you do nothing, it is considered a decline to apply for the scholarship. This is the fast part of scholarship season!
5:00 p.m. CST December 15, 2023 Scholarship Application Closes
The portal cannot accept Scholarship Applications after 5:00 p.m. CST.
December 2023 – March 2024
Counselor review and confirmation, blind reviews, donor and sponsor reviews and selections, and ISF confirmations.
March 2024 – Award Email Announcements
Scholarship recipients are notified via email after Spring Break and begin process of claiming or declining awards.
Monday, April 15, 2024 MANDATORY Scholar Training at Irving High School Auditorium
All scholars will meet for Scholar Training. Along with a group photo and a quick video, this involves everything you need to know about your receiving your award, your scholarship funds, your donor contacts, and the Breakfast with the Stars award event. You must have your scholarship agreement completed in the portal to accept and be confirmed for the scholarship(s) offered. You will also learn about your donors and find out where/how to send thank you notes and updates, see details of how the scholarships work with your college, and submit a short bio for the printed awards program, our website, and your donors.
Finalized 2024 Scholarship Recipients Announced to District and Public
The official roster of 2024 ISF Scholarship recipients is released after all scholarships are claimed and confirmed.
DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON!
Breakfast with the Stars
ISF donors are paying for you to attend Breakfast with the Stars for free, and they are paying for one parent/guardian to attend at half price. All other guests will be full price. In addition to you and your family & friends, you will see your donors, IISD educators and administrators who have watched you grow up and also played a big part of your selection as a scholarship recipient, the volunteers who gave their time to reviewing your applications, reading your essays, and recommending you for awards, and city officials and other community members. Location, time and date will be published here after final confirmation.
WHERE TO FIND OUT MORE
Counselors, Teachers, Administrators
The staff at your schools are an integral part of most every single thing ISF does, and that includes scholarships. If you have a question they cannot answer, they know who can and they will direct you.
