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Assume you are up against 30-50+ other applicants. It’s worth putting in your best effort. When most applicants follow directions exactly or give thorough answers to questions, the ones who didn’t will probably be passed over.
A scholarship application is about showing your best, but it’s also about showing financial need. It’s ok, to be honest about the reason you could use financial support and how you would benefit from it.
For students, judges are looking for signs that your career will go beyond your education. This can be shown through your extracurricular activities, experience, etc. Share your plans, not just dreams.
If a scholarship has 50 applicants and two pages of essays, that’s 100 pages of reading for judges (sometimes it can be more). The first couple of paragraphs are crucial, so if you have something important to get across, put it very early on.
Make sure you directly answer the questions being asked. Personal stories are ok as long as they are completely relevant to the question.
Certain things are going to be a given, like that you love audio, you’re passionate about it, that you’re trying to create a career out of it. Don’t start your application with these statements (a lot of people do). If it must be said, include an example. Like, “I realized I was passionate when I was working a show that taught me…”
Don’t start an essay with “(topic) has been in my life forever.”
It’s better to be real and authentic than to be artistic.
Poetic writing works in a song, but it doesn’t work when your audience doesn’t know you and is trying to get a sense of why you deserve to be given money.
Share any involvement you have had with the sponsoring organization and the benefit you have gained from them.
If a scholarship is sponsored by a person or is in memory/someone’s honor, learn who that person is. Include how you connect to their story, career, or who they are/were. When this is done authentically, it really stands out.
If you make a good impression on judges, it can help your career even if you aren’t the reward recipient. Judges learn some about who you are by reading your application, and you may encounter them again professionally (whether in-person or a social media group).
(these tips are based on reviewing hundreds of submissions for a variety of scholarship and award programs in the audio industry)
The mission of SoundGirls.org is to inspire and empower the next generation of women in audio. Our mission is to create a supportive community for women in audio and music production, providing the tools, knowledge, and support to further their careers. SoundGirls.Org was formed in 2013 by veteran live sound engineers Karrie Keyes and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato and operates under the Fiscal Sponsorship of The California Women’s Music Festival, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. In 2012, Karrie and Michelle participated in the “Women of Professional Concert Sound” panel at the AES Conference in San Francisco. The panel was hosted by the Women’s Audio Mission (WAM) and moderated by WAM founder Terri Winston. Terri brought together five women working in live and broadcast audio. The groundbreaking panel (which also included Jeri Palumbo, Claudia Engelhart and Deanne Franklin), provided young women and men a glimpse into life on the road, tips and advice, and a Q & A with the panelists. More importantly though, was how incredibly powerful the experience was for the panelists. We had all been in the business for 20 years or more, yet most of us had never met before that day and within minutes we bonded like long-lost sisters. We were struck by how similar our experiences, work ethics, and passions were and wondered why our paths had never crossed and how our careers would have been different had we been there to support each other through the years. Each of us are strong on our own, but together we were even stronger and a powerful force. We were empowered. Each of us had been asked hundreds of times in our careers: Are there other women doing sound? How did you get into sound? How would a young woman go about getting into sound? Through creating SoundGirls.Org, we hope to establish a place for women working in professional audio to come for support and advice, to share our success and failures, our joys and frustrations, and for empowerment and inspiration.
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