October and November Scholarship Reminders

October and November are busy months that include many deadlines for scholarship applicants. Not to mention, November is National Scholarship Month. Make sure you do not miss out on prime Fall scholarship opportunities!

When you are drafting essays or completing scholarship forms, ask a trusted friend, career counselor, advisor, teacher or advanced student to review your work. Chances are high after looking at it for so long, you may naturally miss typos or sentences in need of clarification.

Your school’s councilors and career center is a great resource to guide you in the right direction for scholarships. Resume formatting is an important detail and required for most scholarships.

3 Student Resume Tips

Not sure where to start? Here are ways to help build your resume formatting skills:

1. Brainstorm your accomplishments. Throughout high school or college, you have taken several classes and maybe even competed in sports, participated in clubs, extracurriculars or held a position in student government. Have you won any contests? Have you been student of the month or year? Are you in the top of your class?Are you a leader in a club?
2. Don’t forget additional accomplishments outside of school. Do you participate in community service? Do you have a special hobby? Are you a stand-out at your job? Have you lead any big projects? Do you volunteer?
3. Each experience counts. You will want to add them under the experience section with the dates listed in a resume template. Research sample resumes online or go to your career center at school to see if they have a template for helping you create a resume.

Here’s a great creative template you can find on our favorite online design software program Canva.com. You’ll love this tool for creating PowerPoint presentations, flyers, social media, and professional documents. Here’s our channel.

A resume is not something to just throw together. It takes a lot of time and attention to detail. Being concise is key because you are forced to summarize your accomplishments in 1-2 pages.

6 Tips for Putting Together a Stellar Resume.

1. Organize the resume. You want it to be visually appealing, concise, and easy to follow. No one wants to look at something that is hard to read, or overly wordy.
2. Don’t include anything prior to high school (unless you were doing a high school activity like starting on a varsity team early or a hobby you have done throughout junior high and high school).
3. Schools and scholarship judges love leadership roles and initiatives taken in making your high school career a success. These traits give insight into what drives you.
4. Make your resume in reverse chronological order. This means that you start with the most recent entry first. It makes it easier for the reader to know what you are currently doing.
5. Don’t make your resume more than a page if you can. It is typically best to keep your resume to a page, especially because you have not been in a career for over 10 years. Bullet point important things to prevent from being lengthy and wordy.
6. Make sure your full name, address, phone number, and email address are clear and centered at the top.