The Background
As Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications, it was one of my responsibilities to coordinate Brebeuf Jesuit’s spring scholarship program under the guidance of the Vice President for Advancement and Enrollment in 2021, 2022, and in a supportive role to the Business Office in 2023. For many years, the Office of Institutional Advancement has supported Brebeuf families and departments in establishing these awards to honor beloved members of our school community. A number of deserving students receive these awards each year following an application-based, nomination-based, and/or departmental selection, and there is a lot of behind-the-scenes coordination that make these awards possible.
My Responsibilities
Overseeing the spring scholarship program was a really great exercise in organization, communication, and project management given the number of different people, schedules, and processes involved. The dropdown menu below includes a detailed description of those responsibilities:
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Worked with the Director of Database Operations to update the online application each year as needed
Estimated an appropriate timeline to ensure all application-based scholarship selections were made prior to the end of the school year; prepared and sent the application link to freshman, sophomore, and junior students and families via email in accordance with that timeline
Sent reminder emails to students and families during the two-week application cycle, and fielded any applicant questions.
Following the application deadline, worked with Director of Database Operations and Associate Director of Financial Aid to build a detailed database of student applicant information, and organized candidates into “buckets” based on all of the awards they qualified for
Coordinated with various scholarship committees—which included faculty, staff, and/or friends of Brebeuf Jesuit—to narrow the lists of qualified candidates; organized meetings and led thoughtful conversations to support committees in making ultimate selection based on information such as students’ grade levels, GPAs, participation in co-curriculars, financial need, character traits, and/or engagement in community service
Ensured committees’ finalized scholarship recipient selections in accordance with goal timeline
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Estimated an appropriate timeline to ensure all nomination-based scholarship selections were made prior to the end of the school year; prepared and shared the nomination invitation and details with Brebeuf Jesuit faculty, staff, coaches etc. via email
Spoke directly with Department Heads and Counseling Office to encourage engaged participation and increase the quantity and quality of nominations
Sent reminder messages throughout nomination cycle as needed
Communicated with donor families throughout the nomination cycle via email and phone to keep them updated on the process, abreast of next steps, and aware of upcoming deadlines
Following the nomination deadline, built detailed database of nominations, narrowing the list of candidates to those who met the “hard” qualifications such as grade level, GPA, extracurricular participation, etc.
Shared this narrowed list of top candidates with donor families in charge of making final scholarship recipient selections; sent reminder emails as needed to ensure deadline was met
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Estimated an appropriate timeline to ensure all departmental scholarship selections were made prior to the end of the school year; shared deadline and any necessary details with Brebeuf Jesuit departments/offices in charge of making selections
Sent reminder emails as needed to ensure all departments made scholarship recipient selections in accordance with goal timeline
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Organized data and coordinated communications, timelines, and scheduling for any additional applications, essays, and/or interviews with Brebeuf Jesuit students and scholarship committees
Assisted in organizing award ceremony for senior student scholarships
Coordinated with Associate Director of Financial Aid to confirm correct scholarship amount annually
Communicated scholarship background, amount, and details to student recipient and family via email
Requested thank you notes from student recipients for any donor families involved in the scholarship process; ensured completion of thank you notes by appropriate date and sent notes to donor families on students’ behalf
Wrote and shared public announcement with school community congratulating all student scholarship recipients and thanking all those who make this process possible
Share completed list of scholarship recipients with Business Office, Office of Institutional Advancement, Principal’s Office, and President’s Office to maintain scholarship database
Making Improvements: The Lessons Learned, and the Way Forward
I first oversaw the spring scholarship program during the 2020-2021 school year. Without any prior experience, I learned a great deal as I navigated the the system’s ins and outs and looked for ways to improve upon it for future school years. It was a challenging but rewarding process, and I attribute much of my survival to the lovely Jamie Elkins, Brebeuf’s Vice President for Advancement and Enrollment, and the equally lovely Lauren Trosky, who held the role of Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications at Brebeuf before I did; these two could not have been kinder and more patient with me in answering my never-ending questions. With their support and that of other Brebeuf faculty and staff, I noticed some key areas where we had room for improvement and began taking steps to enact solutions.
Need #1: Demystify Spring Scholarships
My biggest takeaway from the 2020-2021 scholarship cycle was that there was a lot of confusion, particularly among newer families, surrounding what spring scholarships were and how they differed from financial aid. After receiving the same questions from many different students and parents, I recognized the need to contextualize these scholarships and ensure families understood what they were applying for and why.
Solution #1: Build a Webpage and Communication Plan
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With permission from Jamie and my boss Mike, I responded to this need by building a detailed webpage solely dedicated to the spring scholarship program prior to the 2021-2022 school year. This webpage included a list of all application-based, nomination-based, and departmental awards; qualifications for each; FAQs; and other important details students may need to support them through the scholarship process. We updated this webpage to use again during the 2022-2023 school year as well, as you’ll see in the images below.
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I also made sure to include this contextualizing information and a link to additional details in my early email communications with freshmen, sophomores, and juniors to introduce new families to these spring scholarship opportunities, remind existing families of the processes, and give students all of the information they would need to succeed before the application cycle even began. These changes drastically decreased the number of questions we received throughout the spring scholarship cycle and increased the number of applications among our eligible students for both school years, which we were thrilled to see.
Need #2: Increase Scholarship Accessibility
Something else I noticed during the 2020-2021 school year—and even the 2021-2022 school year—was that the number of nominations we received from Brebeuf Jesuit faculty, staff, and coaches was low in comparison to what we wanted it to be. Lauren and Jamie had explained to me that collecting nominations was always a difficult process, and one that only got worse with the onset of COVID-19 (understandably so). Educators were and are already spread thin without the impact of a global pandemic, so although many expressed interest in nominating students for these awards, it was all too easy for requests like those to slip through the cracks at the end of the day.
Solution #2: Ease the Nomination Process
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Our first adjustment to the nomination process was to invite faculty and staff members to submit or adapt letters of recommendation they had already written for students’ college applications so they didn’t need to do double the work—so long as those letters addressed the necessary scholarship qualifications, of course. We received great feedback from teachers and counselors, alike, for this change because it allowed them to support their students both in the college admissions process and the in-school scholarship process.
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In previous school years, we collected nominations directly through email. All faculty and staff received an invitation to nominate via the email newsletter they received each weekday afternoon. Additionally, we followed up with personalized messages to Counselors and Department Heads for additional encouragement and accountability. That being said, we noticed that a small population of nominators actually misread the scholarship qualifications and therefore, nominated students for awards they didn’t actually qualify for; additionally, many faculty/staff members sent multiple emails nominating different students for awards, which made for a clunky organizational process both on their end and ours.
In response, I built an online nomination form for all nomination-based scholarships; this form provided clear structure for all of the information necessary to include in nominations, as well as a checks-and-balances system to prevent mistaken nominations (hooray for conditional formatting!). In addition to easing the process for nominators, this form also allowed our team to standardize the deadlines for all nomination-based scholarships, making organization simpler and more streamlined overall.
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Per Jamie’s suggestion and with permission from our donor families, one more step we took to encourage nominations was to invite them from members of our school community beyond just faculty, staff, and coaches. For instance, invite students to nominate their peers for awards; invite alumni and friends of Brebeuf to nominate students for awards. That way, the burden of nominating doesn’t fall just to faculty and staff, who are already pulled in so many different directions; additionally, our scholarship team is able to engage other valued voices within our community and spread additional awareness about these wonderful scholarship opportunities. What could be better than that?
Need #3: Find a Way Forward Post-COVID
Prior to COVID-19, there existed a longstanding tradition at Brebeuf Jesuit called the Spring Honors Convocation, where we presented all spring scholarships each school year. It was a wonderful event that allowed the entire school—students, faculty/staff, parents of awardees, donor families, etc.—to gather together, recognize the accomplishments of awardees, and remember members of our community who had passed. However, COVID-19 prevented us from hosting this event safely for multiple years in a row, granting us the opportunity to brainstorm ideas for a new format.
Solution #3: Rebrand the Spring Scholarship Program
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With the help of our Principal’s Office, the Senior Award Ceremony was born during the 2020-2021 school year! Each spring, the Dads Club hosts a cookout for the graduating class, and we wanted to preserve the opportunity to celebrate our seniors even if we couldn’t gather together in the traditional Spring Honors Convocation format. With this in mind, we combined the cookout with a smaller, senior-specific award ceremony and held it outdoors in accordance with COVID-19 safety protocols. The event included the cookout, a prayer service, and an award ceremony emceed by Brebeuf teachers, and it made an already fun event even more special for our seniors. It worked out so well that we continued the new tradition moving forward!
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During the pandemic, it was our top priority to ensure senior students felt special during a time where many graduation festivities didn’t look like they typically would. That being said, it was important to lift up our underclassmen during this difficult time too! During the 2019-2020 school year and the 2020-2021 school year, we hosted "virtual” Honors Convocations on YouTube and social media to celebrate all of our awardees, with a fun Hollywood award show theme and presentations by our faculty and staff. As COVID-19 protocols relaxed in 2022, however, our team began considering ways to reincorporate in-person presentations for underclassmen—not only to recognize them, but also to create an opportunity for donor families and student awardees to meet as they were able to during the Spring Honors Convocation of years past. Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, the goal of our scholarship team hope is to incorporate underclassmen award presentations into class Masses each school year as this program continues to grow.
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The final step in all of this involved changing the name of these awards. Although we had already dissolved the traditional Spring Honors Convocation event, the name stuck around for an extra couple years. During the 2022-2023 school year, we rebranded the “Spring Honors Convocation Awards” to “Spring Merit and Character” or “SMC Awards.” The goal of this rebrand was to help clarify the difference between these awards and financial aid, and to prevent confusion surrounding the since-dissolved Spring Honors Convocation event.
Moving Forward
During the 2022-2023 school year, our team took steps to transition many spring scholarship duties over to the wonderful leadership of Melissa Grabowski in the Business Office. Melissa was already a huge asset to our scholarship team in previous school years with her knowledge of financial aid, Brebeuf families, and annual award amounts, so it made a lot of sense to involve her more deeply in this process. As part of the transition, I met with Jamie and Melissa several times throughout the semester to assist with timelines; communications with students, faculty, staff, and donor families; nomination collection; coordination of supplemental student application materials and interviews; and general support.
Additionally, prior to the 2022-2023 school year, I prepared a 37-page Spring Scholarships Survival Guide to assist Melissa for the upcoming award cycle. The guide contained details including descriptions of all scholarships; qualifications for each; donor family contact information; sample timelines; protocols for collecting applications and nominations from students, faculty, and staff; tips, tricks, and lessons I learned from my own experience overseeing scholarships for two years; and more.
Between Jamie, Melissa, and all those who help make scholarships possible at Brebeuf, this program is in really great hands. They were a tremendous help to me, and I have no doubt they will continue to increase the positive impact these awards have on the lives of Brebeuf students and families.