Opportunities for scholarships!

How do you encourage students to not only go to college, but to enter science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) programs? This was the question high-tech employers, such as Boeing and Microsoft, were asking themselves when faced with the reality of a rapidly shrinking potential-employee market.

So, to address the issue, Boeing and Microsoft teamed up with the Legislature in 2011 to create the Opportunity Scholarship Board in the hopes of encouraging more high school graduates to prepare for careers in certain high-tech fields.

Fast forward to this coming fall - the Opportunity Scholarship Board will be awarding a whopping 3,000 STEM scholarships worth $1,000 each!

Photo credit: BArch Bot

You’re probably thinking, “Great, but I need to write a groundbreaking essay and jump through 20 other hoops to be eligible, right?” Wrong!

In order to qualify for an opportunity scholarship, all a person needs to do is meet the following criteria:

• Meet the income-level requirement – up to $102,000/year for a family of 4
• Have at least a 2.75 GPA
• Fill out the federal student aid paperwork and the scholarship application

That’s it! And better yet – since the scholarships are renewable for up to 5 years, they could potentially be worth $5,000 toward a STEM education.


The scholarship application is available here, and the deadline is April 16th.

Click here for more information, or check out this Seattle Times article.
To read this story in Spanish, please click here.