1. Get yourself organized. Do you know where you can go to find your most recent high school GPA? If you are a current student at CCC, do you know where to find your college grades?
   1. High school transcripts are readily available from the high school that you graduated from. Feel free to use your final report card after graduation to verify information like your GPA. You do not need to submit your high school transcripts to the Foundation, but having those transcripts can be helpful for some of the questions on the application, including the short responses/essay questions.
   2. Self-Service, the system that you use to register for classes at CCC, has the most up-to-date grades from your courses.
   3. If you obtained your GED, check your score report on GED.com for your scores. If you need assistance translating your GED score to a GPA, check out the Foundation's Scholarships website or email scholarships@clackamas.edu for guidance.
   4. If you went to high school in another country, you are eligible for scholarships as well. Use your most recent grade report/transcript for your GPA.
2. Brainstorm your short-answer responses. Write these notes down in a place you can easily access. Keep in mind that your responses can be used for non-CCC Foundation scholarship applications. These notes can take on any form, but make sure that they are useful for you!
   1. Think about your own experiences that have led you to this point. Did you have an event that inspired you to seek out a certain goal?
   2. What are your short-term and long-term goals? Do you have a resource at Clackamas Community College that has helped you realize these goals? If you are unsure about your long-term goals, think about resources that can assist you figure out those goals. It could be an instructor, a friend, a tutor, or a contact from a department at the college.
   3. Think about different moments in your life where you were challenged. How did you overcome those challenges? Did someone help you? Did you utilize a resource to overcome those challenges? How do these challenges connect with your long-term goals?
   4. Think about your community. How have you helped your community? What are some of the characteristics of your community? How have you served it?
3. After brainstorming, check out the short-answer questions. Here they are:
   1. Describe the education and career goals that you have established for yourself. What efforts have you taken to accomplish these goals? What motivates you to achieve these goals? How can Clackamas Community College help you achieve these goals? (100-500 words)
   2. Describe a significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to address this challenge. Include whether you turned to anyone in facing that challenge, the role that person played, and what you learned about yourself. This challenge can come from a variety of experiences. Possibilities include financial, social, ethical, familial, circumstantial life challenges and/or the like. (100-300 words)
   3. Explain what you have done to make your community a better place to live. Give examples of specific projects in which you have been involved over time. You define your “community”. It could include your city, school, family, religious organization, or any other group that you are connected to. (100-300 words)
4. While planning your responses, check out the rubric at the bottom of this page to see how our readers will evaluate your response.
5. After drafting your responses, share them with someone!
   1. The CCC Writing Center. Here's the link to make an appointment for a session with them
   2. Ask a friend or colleague that you know and trust to review your work.
   3. Come to a scholarship workshop hosted by Adam Wickert, CCC's Scholarship and Student Success Analyst.
6. Once you have drafted your response and shared it with someone, take a break from it!
   1. This will allow you time to think about your answers. Take a day or two to revise your responses.
7. Before submission, check the following areas:
   1. Do you have a minimum of 100 words for each response? Have you answered all of the questions within each response?
   2. Do you give lots of personal examples for each response? Do these personal examples tie into the different questions? You want to have responses that showcase the uniqueness that is you.
   3. Have you done your best to make sure that your responses are as polished as possible? The scholarship reviewers won’t score you on grammar, but your case will be easier if the meaning comes through loud and clear.
   4. Check your short answers against the rubric.
8. Take your time for the entire application. Our system allows you to save your responses, so don't rush as you put in your information. Plan to take a minimum of 3 hours to work on your short answers. (That's between brainstorming/planning, drafting, revising, and polishing those responses.) The rest of the application should only take 30 minutes maximum as long as you are organized.
9. Work on your application in phases.

1. Education and Career Goals
   1. 3 points: Goals and milestones are stated in clear and extensive detail. The applicant has an academic plan that lines up with their long-term goal. If undecided, the applicant has taken steps to finalize an academic plan and is actively working with college resources such as advisors and counselors. The student clearly understands how Clackamas Community College can aid them as they strive toward their goals. The applicant is strongly motivated to achieve this goal and has laid out their motivation.
   2. 2 points: A goal has been identified. The applicant has some idea about the milestones needed to reach that goal. If the student is undecided, they have identified a resource at Clackamas Community College that can aid them as they try to identify their long term plans. The motivation and inspiration to achieve this goal is mentioned but lacks extensive detail.
   3. 1 point: The applicant has a vague idea about a goal but no idea about the steps that they need to take to achieve that goal. Their motivation for achieving that goal is not clear to the reader.
2. Dealing with Adversity
   1. 3 points: Strong determination, flexibility, and perseverance in response to challenges, obvious self-confidence, knowledge of strengths and limits, presence of a strong support person, and strong self-development efforts.
   2. 2 points: Some determination and perseverance in facing challenges, some self confidence but hesitant, some knowledge of strengths and limits but little evidence of self-development or turning to a support person.
   3. 1 point: Minor or non-existent flexibility, perseverance or determination dealing with challenges, defensive attitude, no evidence of self-development.
3. Community Service
   1. 3 points: Strong evidence of activity/identification with a community, significant contributions over time. The service is personal and meaningful to the student and they articulate it in their response. The student demonstrates enthusiasm for service to others.
   2. 2 points: Some contacts, recent or short-term evidence of involvement with a community. The student states why it’s important to them but lacks detail. Their answer expresses some enthusiasm and provides a glimpse of another side of the personally important applicant.
   3. 1 point: Little or no evidence, no concept of the importance of community service
* A score of 0 should only be assigned if a student does not address the question anywhere in the application (such as entering “N/A” as a response).

There are several myths about scholarships. Let’s take a look at them:

1. Only certain students qualify for scholarships.
   1. The CCC Foundation offers over 250 scholarships with various qualifications and categories. We offer scholarships to students across all majors as well as different enrollment categories (Full-time, part-time, first-in-family to attend college, returning student, adult students, students in all income levels, etc.).
2. My grades are not good enough!
   1. The majority of our scholarships only require students to maintain a 2.0 GPA, with a few requiring a 2.5 or 3.0 GPA. Foundation donors recognize that grades do not represent the entire story of our CCC students and want to support all students, regardless of their grades.
3. Scholarships take too long to apply for. I don’t have that time!
   1. Our CCC Foundation scholarship allows applicants to apply for all of our scholarships with one single application. Our scholarship system will match your application with all opportunities that you qualify for, thus saving you time and energy.
4. I have Oregon Promise and student loans. I don’t need a scholarship.
   1. Scholarships are tax-free money that can be applied to your educational expenses. Unlike loans, your scholarship dollars do not need to be repaid. Think of this as an investment in you! The CCC Foundation is investing in your success. The only expectation of a CCC Scholarship recipient is that they meet the enrollment requirements for their scholarship. In most cases, that is maintaining 6 credit hours per term and a 2.0 GPA.