Hey friends did you know that there is scholarship money in your own backyard literally if you go search within your community there’s money to be found and that’s why I am so excited that I got to connect with our guest for today because she really emphasizes the fact that it’s
Great to apply for these big National scholarships but often times we are missing and Le leaving money on the table because we’re not looking in our backyard so our guest today is Kelly pavish who is originally from Shelbyville Tennessee she attended the University of Memphis for her bachelor’s
Degree followed by a master’s degree in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit management and through her decade long career she has actually worked in college admissions on both the college side and the high school side so she knows what what’s going on with our college students and our high school students as
They’re trying to earn a debt-free degree but right now she currently serves as a scholarship coordinator for the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and even though she’s in Tennessee she’s going to let us know where there’s some more money and this is one of the largest nonprofits in
Middle Tennessee uh Kelly also serves as the Nashville college fair chair and she lives in Nashville Tennessee with her dog dorsy so make sure you grab your pen and your notepad because you’re going to want to take notes on today’s interview you’re listening to The Scholar budget
Podcast where we teach you how to earn a debt-free degree grow your money and claim every opportunity with your name on it I’m your host rockel Bari let’s Jump Right In hello Kelly how are you I’m great how are you you I am wonderful and just so
Excited that you made time for The Scholar budget podcast to share with us about this amazing organization and all that you do thank you for having me we love to talk about scholarships the more we talk about it the more students will know so I’m so thankful to be here right and
You’re in the right place so Kelly um can you start by telling us more about your role in the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee absolutely so I currently serve as our scholarship coordinator and I kind of get the best of both worlds I get to manage our application process and work
With students and parents in navigating that application and school counselors too to advertise it but then I also get to work with donors on setting up scholarships that benefit students and so I get the best of both worlds and getting to work with both of those communities those populations and it is
So neat when I have a donor come in with this dream of setting up a scholarship we go through the work of getting the criteria correct everything done for the fun and then to see it full circle and see them get their first recipient is just such an amazing
Feeling um I had a donor meet her recipient a couple of weeks ago and she told me it was like seeing her husband’s Legacy standing in front of her and I just that’s what I love about my job is getting to do that uh right and I think
You know a lot of times students just get a check but it’s really nice to know who it’s coming from what’s the story behind it and potentially to build a mentorship there too which I think is really cool right and this is like next level because you don’t typically hear
These moving pieces with most scholarship organizations right so you’re in the field sharing with counselors and as a a past counselor we always appreciate you know I remember getting that information and being eager to share it with students and then you actually work with the donors who um are
Are donating money to the organization is that right absolutely I get to work with them and it’s so neat because so many of them have really really emotional stories on why they’re setting up a fund maybe someone in their family has recently passed and this is the best
Way to honor them um maybe it’s someone who is just really dedicated to education or a specific community and they want to set up a fun to benefit those students so it’s really great to get to work with them but also that balancing of you know not all of our
Donors are older but some of them the majority of them are and so it’s nice being that balance too of okay it’s been 20 30 40 years since you’ve been in college things have changed a little bit this is what the financial aid landscape looks like now and so being that person
That can help them set up criteria that is going to benefit the most students possible why honoring their intention for setting up the fund is a really cool part of my job it’s like a win-win situation because you know what the needs are and so you can help them know
For sure that they’re really helping a student in need so that’s awesome absolutely I have an amazing boss and just team that really support me in making sure that I’m going to all the conferences I’m plugged into all of the things as a former high school college counselor myself and college admissions
Rep I feel like I know that landscape well but you constantly have to be learning too so we can best serve our donors and students absolutely and can you tell us why was um this organization created yeah so the Community Foundation Mill Tennessee has been around for about
30 years um but they’re Community foundations all across the nation and the idea is kind of for the community to have a charitable bank and so we have people that set up funds to benefit nonprofit all throughout Middle Tennessee these are people who say hey this cause in this organization is
Really important to me and even once I’m gone from this Earth I want to make sure they’re still getting part of my estate um so that’s something we do we help with disaster relief um we’re just really set up as the community’s bank to be there in times when different
Organizations need financial support and a huge part of that is financial support for students in our own backyard to be able to go and pursue their higher education dreams I love it and it’s it’s such a blessing to be in a position to say that you know when I leave this
Earth I want a part of my legacy to continue to pour into others and like you mentioned before um that mentorship that can come from it once that you know donor gets to meet the recipient so so that’s awesome and you did mention that this is an organization that can be
Found in other states is that correct yes yes so we most of our funds are going to be set up to benefit students in the Middle Tennessee area but what I tell students all the time is there are thousands of community foundations Nationwide um if they go to the Council
On Community foundation’s website they can literally pull up an interactive map see where they all are and that is a great resource that is overlooked a lot of the time for students in searching for scholarship ships is finding that information that can give them those local people who were invested in their
Education and also a lot of time those are scholarships you can get multiple years not just one time and so I think it’s always best for students no matter where you live in the country to look at your local Community Foundation to see what scholarships they offer and just to
Think um that there are people that like want to give like I have this money you know know maybe their children are adults or they didn’t have children or they have more than enough like they are blessed Beyond measures so there are people out there who really want to be
Able to give back and to serve but um our listeners and our Scholars have to do their due diligence to do the research so I’m going to make sure that I definitely leave a link in our description so students can find it and start doing that research so thank you
For sharing that Kelly that even though you’re in Tennessee and we’re talking about the Tennessee Foundation there are other foundations that students um and families can tap into so thank you for sharing that well and on top of that too I think another thing that’s really important to know is so many people
Think it’s it is all very well off families who establish These funds and it is a good bit of them that have collected this wealth over their lifetime but we’ve had some people who have come to us who’ve saved Penny by Penny throughout their whole life to set
Up a scholarship fund because it is that important to them them so I think that’s really powerful too to see that generosity and for students to know they’re people that care yeah very much so I love it and so um Kelly I know that you you’ve worked with students like
Handson not just with the scholarship but you you said in your past experience you were with in the college space right yes okay so um the scholarship process the application it can be daunting for students and I’m pretty sure you’ve exper ER this um so can you walk us
Through the steps in applying for a scholarship through your organization is it any different from a typical scholarship application what would you say that looks like ours is very typical to a lot of scholarship funds that are set up Across the Nation I think the biggest thing that I run
Into is students allowing thems the time to complete it and then following up on the back end I don’t see a lot of that and I think think for us students have to submit their application and input two recommenders emails for them to do the recommendations well if you don’t
Follow up with your recommenders or you just assume the recommender got the email a lot of the times I have students who say oh my gosh why didn’t my application make it to the review round well both of your recommendations were missing and they said well I put their
Email in well did you follow up with them to ensure they got it did you let me know hey they didn’t receive it can you resend it and so I think that follow through is a huge piece that’s missing for a lot of students because they are
So spread thin these days and so I think it’s not only planning the time to get an application done but it’s also planning the time to do the follow-up pieces of thanking people for doing your recommendations making sure everything was turned in inquiring about when you
Should hear an a result back um whether you got it or not because I think that then you never have an excuse for oh well I didn’t know that everything wasn’t turned in that kind of thing so it’s just taking on that responsibility as a young adult and I’m glad that you
You touched on this because when I’m I’m hosting my my workshop the scholarship boot camp at these various awesome amazing Trio and Gear Up Programs that’s one of the things that I emphasize to the students especially if you’re emailing your counselor your coach your pastor whoever it is right we know that
People can get busy so it’s our responsibility to do our due diligence and reply to that email and sometimes you got to reply two or three times because it’s it’s urgent if it’s urgent enough for me then I’m going to make sure I do the follow-up and the
Follow-up is eventually going to equal to money so so Kelly you’re absolutely right the money is in the followup so yes and and letting recommenders know an email is coming their way so then if they don’t receive it they can be like hey I never got that email like can you
Tell me what’s going on there I think that that’s a big piece because again like I said I know students are so spread thin these days they’re they’ve got Sports they’ve got obligations at home they’re working there’s so many things and they’re like let me turn out this scholarship application really
Quickly but you need to devote the time to truly do it and that’s one thing I pride ourselves Pride our program on is we tell students um in all of our mat material that we put out promotional for the scholarship we say this application takes you anywhere from 45 minutes to an
Hour to complete because we want students to know the time investment they’re putting in um and be aware of that so they’re not rushing through an application um so yeah it’s just really carving out the time to be intentional with all aspects of the application right and that can be as
Simple as a phone call as well you sometimes the inbox gets so bombarded just you know calling your counselor your coach whoever it is and just saying hey I sent that email did you get it you know and I’ve I’ve done applications for various things not necessarily
Scholarships but in the past few years and I always appreciate those applications that give me the heads up and say listen this is going to take you about 10 to 15 minutes because mostly It prepares me and I’m either like okay I have the 10 to 15 minutes now or I don’t
But then I’m writing it on my agenda you got to get this done and blocking out that time so that’s that’s really cool that you put that feature there and it mentally prepares that scholar like okay this is going to take some time so let
Me sit down and put in the time so that’s pretty cool Kelly thank you thank you we’re we want to do everything we can to assist students I think that’s one thing I’m really proud about where I work and what I get to do is we are constantly not thinking about what makes
The process easier for us we’re thinking about what makes it easier for students and um I I think the more scholarship providers and colleges that do that the better off will be at actually serving students I agree I agree so could you share some stories or examples of how
Scholarships from your organization have like positively impacted individuals um in your community like what are those special stories that just tap on your heart you know it’s so funny that you asked the timing is so appropriate we just sent out our annual report yesterday and got to do the absolute
Coolest story on two students who’ gotten our scholarship all four years they were in college they are actually twins they went to an HBCU in their backyard for anyone who doesn’t know what an HBCU is it’s a historically black college or university it was really important for them they went to
High school in Nashville it was important for them to continue their education in Nashville at a historical black college or university um and the funds that they got all four years one of them was set up by a country music artist here in Nashville um Teddy
Wilburn and he was a country artist way back in the day um and then they also got another scholarship from a country music artist who’ set up a fund here in Nashville specifically benefiting students going to an HBCU so I think it’s so cool to know the generational
Impact those scholarships are going to have on those two students they allow those students to be able to go to school to graduate within four years a lot of students are not able to do that at this time due to work other obligations they’re graduating in five or six years but these students
Were able to reapply for that funding every year and get it to go to their local school and graduate without debt and now think about what they’ll be able to do for their Community as a result of those gifts from those donors um and I just think that’s such a cool story um
To be able to help two people in a family not just one um and I think that’s an important thing too students need to really think about I talk all the time about the return on your investment um I don’t encourage students who are from other states to fill out
Our application because you’re not going to get any of our funds ours are mainly for Middle Tennessee people so you are and also when you think about those large National scholarships that are more raffle based the return on investment you’re going to get for using
Your time to apply for one of those is not what you would get in applying for a local scholarship and I just think of those two students in the time that they spent to fill out that application every year I mean their Awards ended up being between $7 and
$8,000 so um I mean they had a huge chunk of their college paid for thank to these generous doners and from an organization that is literally three miles from the college they go to so um it’s really really cool the money is in the backyard it’s in it is in the
Backyard we don’t want you to have to go digging for it but it is back there exactly it is it is that the money is in the backyard so I hope our listeners are taking that in parents listening students listening there’s money in your community you got to do a little
Research and find them but I I’ve seen here in Miami day County anywhere from credit unions to attorneys to nonprofits to foundations to fraternities and sororities and they are right here in our backyard so while it is great right to apply for those major scholarships right you want to shoot your shot as
Well um like you I would agree to spend a good chunk of that time with what’s in your backyard and get as much money as possible so kudos to those um twins those siblings that had a desire had a dream and they made it happen and and
Again your foundation was there to fully support that so that’s awesome and the cool thing about that too is that I want to add um they didn’t have to apply separately for those scholarships that they got so at the foundation we have a common application so we have over 160
Scholarship funds currently and when students apply for our funding we do all the hard work on the back end if you give us all the information about yourself if you paint a great picture of who you are why you need this financial help what your career goals are we do
The work on the back end to match you to every fund that you qualify for so those students all they had to do was fill out one application and they got multiple scholarships about 20% of our applicants each year get more than one fund um so I
Think that’s cool too when talking about the return on investment look for those types of organizations that will consider you for multiple funds through one application that makes a big difference too yeah and that saves a lot of time too so so much time I love it like I can save time I
Just got to spend that good healthy chunk of time putting in as much information so I can receive as much back so so that’s pretty cool so Kelly did you apply for scholarships when you were in high school yes I did um and I tell people all the time if I could go
Back and change one thing about my college experience it would be even applying for more scholarships and my freshman and sophomore year were completely covered due to scholarship so the the only way I was able to go to college both my parents are public school teachers um so the only way I was
Able to go was by getting scholarships um I got a scholarship from my church I got scholarship from different Community Partners um I got a scholarship from the University I went to that was specifically focused on leadership development and it was a four-year program um so I mean scholarships are
Why I am where I am in life today and I have to share this story I just it is why this work is so important to me um my dad was raised by a single mom had to work the whole time he was in college um
His last semester he just did not think he was going to be able to finish college um and went to the burer office to withdraw from all of his classes cuz he just didn’t have the funding to be able to do it um and he got to the
Bucer’s office and they said we’ve had a generous donor cover your balance and my dad was able to finish college thanks to a scholarship and to this day he still has no clue who that was but he just says that that has motivated him so much
And that was a story for my sister and I to know there are generous people out there that want to help student students get their college degree um and I think you know a lot of the times students right now we live in a world where we
Kind of feel like everybody’s against us we’re in a really high Mental Health crisis right now um understandably so they’re dealing with a world you and I did not have to deal with and so absolutely I think it is so reassuring to remember there are people out there
That care about you and there are people that want to support you in this journey but it’s not discovered by just fing one application you got to fill out a lot yes absolutely and as you mentioned like well I know that that story about your
Dad is it’s a big deal because you can just imagine being in that space of like listen I I’ve made it to the end but I’m just not going to be able to to make it and to know that like you have this um superhero just come and and and take
Care of it for you right so so that’s cool that that donors can do that and so many many listeners may not be aware of the various donors and organizations that contribute to scholarship funds like this right so how does the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee collaborate with donors to create these
Opportunities so any person right now who wants to be a donor um whether it’s in Tennessee or any of the other um um found foundations like how do you go about becoming a donor and contributing to a student’s success yeah I think you know one of the big positives about a
Community Foundation is we manage the whole process for you and I think what happens a lot of the time is managing a scholarship is a lot of work getting the the word out about it reviewing applicants all of that and so you have families that are like we want to start
A scholarship this is what we want to do they have the energy to do it for two or three years and then the energy kind of dies off and that’s then what happen happens is you’ve generated all this interest for a fund but then it’s no longer there for students and that’s not
Ideal either so I think the benefit of a Community Foundation is all of our scholarships that we set up are endowed so they are going to be here until the end of time whenever that may be and I think what is so great about that is we
Work with the donor to honor their intent and the criteria of setting up the fund whether that’s they want to benefit a specific College they want to benefit a specific group of students pursuing a very specific major they want to support we have one that is just so
General it is just for first generation students from Middle Tennessee um and so whatever that criteria may be and we learn their story I think that’s what’s so powerful about this work that I get to do too is we learn why was it important for you to set this up tell us
More about the person so we can pass that information on to the recipients um but that story is going to live for forever and I this is going to sound so cheesy but one of my favorite shows to watch is CBS Sunday Morning on Sunday mornings that’s how I start my day each
Sunday and there was a quote on there one time that talked about we die twice in life we die when we first physically leave this earth and for a second time when our name is spoken for the last time and I think what is so right like that’s what I think and I
Talk about that with donors always is we are keeping your legacy and your history Al by constantly talking about you and your generous um gift of scholarship money for students so I think that’s so important for students to see too because maybe one day when they’ve become rich when they graduate from
College um they’ll want to set up something too for to benefit their Community like a full circle moment and like you said you’re not if it’s something that you’re really passionate about you know it’s something that you can do no matter how big or small that scholarship is it’s going to help
Someone long after you’re gone um and Kelly there’s something that you touched on that I want to just go back to when I’m working with students and helping them to craft their their essay I I really try to hone in on the fact that your story has power and your story can
Equate to money we just got to understand how to incorporate that story as you’re responding to the scholarship question Etc and so um as we as we get ready to close out our time together can you just kind of touch on when you’re reading the responses for like essays
Etc are there any tips or suggestions that you can leave with our Scholars as their responding to the question what are some things that you think you can share with them to really help them position themselves to have that scholarship winning essay you know I
Love that you asked this I had one of our um scholarship committee members Reach Out out the other day they were reading a scholarship and they said look at this applicant when you get a chance for me I’m pretty positive they’ve used AI to generate their essay and I looked
At it and I read it and the reason I my gut now I have no proof whether that student used AI or not I don’t right but the reason my gut responded to the Committee Member and said yeah I’m pretty positive it’s AI is it gave me
Nothing about the student it used all these really big words about their really fancy career goals and what I want to remind students when they’re filling out scholarships especially if you’re 18 19 that kind of typical um student traditional student going from high school to college is we know you’re
18 or 19 we know that you are still growing into the adult that you’re going to be be yourself in your sa I think you can use AI as an assistance absolutely if you need idea generation what whatever that may be but your essay needs to tell us who you are it doesn’t
Need to tell us who you want to be through AI doesn’t need to tell us you know this fake persona of who you are we want to know who you are genuinely we don’t need some big fancy story I think a lot of students think too if I haven’t
Done this research opportunity if I haven’t achieved this they won’t care about my essay some of the most amazing essays I’ve ever read are students telling me their true dayto day and what they’ve you know had to navigate to get to where they are um so just be yourself
You know like that is the most important piece of advice for life just in general as being yourself but in your essay be authentic and that is literally a theme that I’m hearing as I’m doing these interviews with various scholarship programs and I’m like you know what tips
Can you give for the essay I am literally hearing that be authentic be true to your story don’t feel like you need to have like the end of the world kind of story you know like just be true to who you are and why you’re doing what
You want to do and just make sure you answer the question so I’m glad you’re continuing the theme like be authentic be who you are and and don’t AI your whole essay don’t don’t don’t do that we can tell we can tell I think students think we wouldn’t know and we will know
So you can use it to generate creativity but yeah that’s awesome so Kelly um our listeners are interested in getting involved with um learning more about your organization’s scholarship programs um where can they get more information for Middle Tennessee and also for uh to do the research again can you just
Emphasize where they can go to to find out more absolutely well I do want to plug the earlier you start the research the better don’t try start senior year get a handle on it earlier in the game so these dates don’t sneak up on you um
But for us for our scholarships you can find out more information we are the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee our website is www. cfmt.org for Community Foundation Middle Tennessee and there is a big nice scholarship button at the top of the page and you can click on that find all
Of our resources find all of our information about the funds we offer and then if you also just Google Council on foundations that’s going to pull up all of the community foundations Across the Nation they have an interactive map on their website that you can go and see which are in your
Backyard like we talked about um so that you can reach out to them and apply for scholarships too awesome and again I’ll include all these links in the podcast description Kelly you have um you’ve helped us once again to shed some light on all the money that exist and now we
Know there’s money in our backyard so our Scholars our listeners are going to do their due diligence they’re going to go Google all this amazing information and they’re going to search even harder for the money that’s in their backyard so thank you again Kelly so much and uh
We we appreciate you well thank you for doing this and getting the word out I think it is such an intimidating subject for families um I have moms all the time or dads tell me well I didn’t know and I’m like well how are you supposed to
Know you’re not an this and that’s why this this type of thing is so important to get the information out there so thank you for doing this hey there I hope you were taking notes and you’re ready to implement what you heard if this podcast inspired you or helped you
In any way I would love for you to subscribe follow and share this with a student parent or educator you care about because sharing is caring also your feedback means a lot so please leave a written review of this show on Apple podcast and if you ever want to
Connect outside of the podast podcast you can find us at The Scholar Budget on Insta or the book of faces so until next time shine bright and put in the work so we can make those dreams a reality bye
source
