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By Ward Allebach, CookingSchools.com
Winning a Culinary Scholarship may not be as hard as it seems. Finding one is an entirely different matter. Even though there are many available, you probably haven't heard much about them... Or, at least, not too many. That's because, more often than not, they aren't advertised too loudly. So, where are they? More importantly, how can you win them? As you might expect, with regard to culinary scholarships, there's some good news and some bad news: THE GOOD NEWS: There are hundreds of scholarship opportunities available to students studying the culinary arts, and you're probably eligible for at least a few of them. THE BAD NEWS: None of them are going to jump up and grab you. This article offers a practical game plan for those of you who are trying to track down and win scholarships to help you on the path to a culinary career. Get ready, though, because you'll find that there's a lot to do before you can even think about filling out applications. Where to Look | Winning Culinary Scholarships | Reality Checks | Conclusion PART 1: WHERE TO LOOK FOR CULINARY SCHOLARSHIPS The first step for you will be to identify as many scholarship possibilities as you can. I'd suggest starting with the phone book to home in on the local ones and start a list or a database file; you'll want to search the Internet, too. Here's a sampler of some of the organizations to look for that often will offer scholarships to current and prospective culinary students:
So, start your list, chart, table or spreadsheet, and include columns like "Sponsor," "Scholarship Name," "Contact Name," "Phone number," "Amount," "Requirements," and (very importantly) "Deadline." Of course, you only want to put your valuable time into the scholarships which best suit your ambitions... or the ones you can make out to fit your ambitions (we'll get to that in the section below on "Winning Culinary Scholarships"). Once you've made your list, you'll be able to take a good, hard look at which options are most worth your efforts. Hopefully, the ideas in the next section will get you going with a good list. |
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Excellent Starting Points Your High School Talk to your high school Guidance Counselors to see what kinds of culinary scholarships and awards they know about, locally, regionally and nationally. Very often, the high schools themselves offer monetary rewards for good students, or the most dedicated from clubs and activities, which could include a cooking, home economics or vocational club. If not, at least, they should be able to steer you toward other sources because keeping track of that stuff is part of their job. Your University Most culinary institutes and university culinary programs offer scholarships to students attending their schools, either directly through the school or through business, benefactors and foundations that support the school. Many schools also offer them to students planning to attend. If you're attending or have chosen a culinary program, BE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN to contact your advisor or the financial aid department to ask what scholarships may be available. Or, check out the program's website or the bulletin board near the office on-campus - scholarship opportunities are often posted in these places. For example:
These kinds of scholarships are definitely the easiest to find out about, but somehow overlooked by a great many students who could benefit greatly from the funding… and from the prestige of winning! Note that the federal Department of Education reports that at public universities, scholarship and fellowship expenditures per full-time student has risen 84 percent since 1986, and at private universities during the same period, scholarship and fellowship costs per student rose 67 percent. This may be an indication that there are opportunities waiting for you. Again, at the very least, you should ask about other sources if there are none available at your university for your circumstance. Your Employer (or Your Parent’s Employer) Many, many businesses offer some kind of funding program for their employees and their employee’s children, as part of the benefits package. This might be in the form of “reimbursable tuition,” “continuing education” or even internal grants, scholarships or awards. Even if you’re only working part-time, you still might be eligible. Somehow, this is a fabulous financial outlet for academic funding that is overlooked year after year by many students. All you have to do is ask! Local Community Groups and Churches There may be local groups involved in culinary activities, such as a Food and Wine Club, a Dining Club, or even a local chapter of a large, national culinary organization. If not, though, there are certainly many others that may not appear to be directly involved with the culinary arts, but have a simple stake in supporting the community. And guess what… YOU are part of that community! If you discover these groups, find out if they offer some kind of reward for local youths who have the same kinds of goals. Just look them up and ask. Here are a few possibilities that we've seen, which you might want to check out:
Professional Culinary Organizations By definition, professional organizations are designed to promote their profession. In large part, that entails the development of future professionals, and scholarships are a great way for them to promote that. For the culinary profession, groups that may offer scholarships deal with cooking, restaurant management, hospitality and tourism. You'll find many direct links on our Resources Chapter page under Professional Organizations, and many more on the same page under Professional Organization Directories. Many of these websites make no mention of scholarships, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t offered! Get the phone number, address or e-mail, then write or call to ask. You may be pleasantly surprised to discover opportunities that many others will miss. When you make contact, keep in mind that many national groups have local affiliates – and your chances of winning are so much better when you start local! So ask about that, too – do they have a local or regional affiliate in your vicinity or state? Meantime, for your "scholarship ideas list," here's a small taste of the professional groups which we know offer culinary scholarships: National
State or Regional
Businesses and Corporations One creed that all successful businesses adhere to is that you have to keep your customers happy. A great way to do that is to show how much you care about them and their community once in a while. And, guess what? For some of them, offering scholarships or awards is a way to do that. There are all sorts of big corporations and small companies that offer or contribute to scholarships - some give directly to students, some give to the culinary schools to give to students, and many give to only their employees and their families (see above, under Your Employer). On our Financial Aid Chapter page, you’ll find links leading to the following opportunities and more:
Certainly check these out, but to better your chances of winning, you should try to get more local. Also contact your community’s Chamber of Commerce to see if they have any leads, or if they know of any organizations that might offer scholarships to culinary students. When you call, don’t limit yourself to “culinary.” Inquire about the related industries we mentioned above - restaurant, hospitality and tourism industries, plus food and beverage distributors. They also have a tremendous stake in promoting the culinary arts, and the Chamber might not always be aware of this connection. Keep an eye out for the biggest businesses in your area because they always are the most likely to be offering scholarships. Charitable Foundations and Programs There are many charitable foundations that specialize in helping culinary professionals. Often, these are branches of the professional organizations and foundation we mentioned above, but often they are independent, too. These are good sources of funding, if you can find them. Here are a few on our list that we’ve found for you:
Check the web, too Of course, the web has some great free resources for finding specific scholarships, including those focused on culinary. It's worth it to take the time to fill out some of the long forms in order to find a few more outlets to add to your list. They're also great for information on other sources of financial aid, like student loans and state, federal and local grants. Here are a few of the bigger sites with scholarship searches: * PART 2: WINNING CULINARY SCHOLARSHIPS There are many scholarships for culinary students – the 30 or 40 found here on our site are just the beginning. The following section includes a few important keys to landing one. Don't Think "Where to Look"... Think "WHEN" Start looking early! And, I don't mean just a few months before the semester, or even six months. I mean EARLY, as in at least a year in advance... and you'll be even better off if you’ve scouted out the possibilities and starting two or more years in advance. For example, maybe you read in the newspaper about a local scholarship recipient - newspapers love that kind of stuff. Take note! Find out who won it and what they did to win it. Contact the sponsoring organization and find out the details for next year. Same goes for scholarships you may come across on the web which have already been awarded, or when you see one for which the deadline has already passed. The vast majority of the time, these scholarships will be available again in a year Next: Think Local Now, before you get any more specific, realize this: Your best chance of winning a culinary scholarship is to focus on local opportunities. Sure, you can chase after the really big bucks that are widely publicized by the major corporations, foundations and institutions. But, your odds are far greater in your own local area with a local group because you may only be going up against a few other local students, versus the entire student population of the country. While you might think that the monetary reward may not justify the effort, remember that the effort might not be all that much. And, it sure won't hurt to put any culinary award-winning performance on your application for colleges, or on your resume when applying for jobs. Position Yourself When you give yourself plenty of time, you can "position" yourself much better to qualify. In other words, if there are requirements that you may not have met or excelled in, by starting early, you now have time to do it and really impress the judges! Take a hard look at what past winners did to win, and learn from what they did right. When you start late, then it's less likely that you'll have done exactly what the judges are looking for… then, you may have to stretch your qualifications to make it appear that you did. That isn't the best position to be in. If possible (and it's not always), do what you can to talk to some of the people granting the scholarships and find out specifically what they're looking for. There may be more to the application than you'll find in the instructions. Apply EARLY! Most people turn their stuff in at the last minute, so don't you dare be in with that crowd! When the application deadline approaches, you must get your stuff in early to stand out from the crowd. First impressions last! If your application is strong, and you get it in the hands of the judges early, then there's a much better chance that they will remember you. You need to show that you're different from the rest, more deserving than the rest. An important way to do that it to get it done before the rest - one to two weeks in advance should be plenty. Start early, think ahead. Your chances will be much better. REALITY CHECKS! Reality Check #1: Be wary of folks on the web, in the mail, or on the phone who tell say you must pay them in order to get a scholarship. The offers may sound enticing, but it also may be a marketing trick. The Federal Trade Commission warns scholarship seekers about Scholarship Scams and you'll see similar warnings on almost all of the scholarship search websites, so please take a look at what they have to say, for your own good. Reality Check #2: You won't find too many scholarships that will provide a free ride the entire way through your college experience. Yes, there are some. But the competition is fierce, with thousands of students applying, and you'd better not bet your house that you'll get one - no matter how good you are. The most abundant scholarships are in the $250 to $2,000 range, and that's mostly what you'll find here on our site and referenced in this article. Before you scoff, remember that every little bit helps, and even the smallest scholarship will buy some pretty expensive books for a semester or two. CONCLUSION The possibilities are endless As you can see, there are a lot of possibilities for finding culinary scholarships. That doesn't necessarily mean that you will find a dozen, or even a half-dozen, local opportunities just waiting for you to step up and cash the check. But you might! And without making a list as we've discussed in this article, your chances of finding any at all become much smaller. You can see that there's a lot of work involved to just find these opportunities... But that's nothing compared to the work you'll need to put in to win them. Bottom line, though: There's plenty of scholarship money available in the culinary field. You just need to show that you're worth the investment. And, if you are dedicated to pursuing a culinary career, you’ll probably even enjoy the work that it takes to stand out from the crowd. |
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