Last week, we shared upcoming scholarships including the Indspire Awards (applications due Nov. 1st!) and Shay’s advice for navigating the Indspire website from her application experience. This week, ITMP’s Chief, Todd, is sharing his tips for completing the application:
I’ve been very fortunate to receive funding from Indspire and hope to give you some tips and tricks on how you can be successful too!
First make sure you can provide Indspire with the following information/documents:
Proof of Indigenous Status (status card)
Student ID (if you’re already in university)
A copy of your class schedule showing all registered classes OR an official letter or form, on letterhead, from your institution showing that you are enrolled full-time for the applied academic year.
Attach your most recent marks (official or unofficial) from your most recently completed year, or from a completed program that you were enrolled in prior to the most recently completed academic year.
Attach a copy of your official band or Inuit government sponsorship document stating you are OR are not being sponsored for the applied academic year. The letter must be dated, state the student's name and provide a breakdown of the amounts you receive for tuition, books, and living allowance as it will reflect the same amounts in your budget.
Start looking for these documents as soon as possible (starting today!). Find your status card. Your class schedule or official letter (of enrollment) may be in your email inbox from the college/university or in your personal college/university account. You may be able to scan a physical copy of your high school marks or visit your high school in person to receive a copy (make sure to call them ahead of time so it is prepared for you). If you’re already in college/university, find your marks on your college/university account. Email or visit your band for the letter stating you are being sponsored or not, and be sure to provide them with all the information they should include. Get these as early as possible so you don’t miss the deadline. Otherwise, you could be refusing money that Indspire wants to give you!
There are also 5 prompts (with a 100 word max) that you have to answer. Based on my experience, you might have prompts similar to this:
Tell us about yourself, your family, and your community.
Why have you decided to pursue a post-secondary education and your field of study?
What are some of your past challenges and successes that you will be building from in the future?
What are your plans after you graduate from post-secondary?
How do you give back in some way?
My process for answering these:
Read the questions carefully!
Joint down some point-form ideas you might want to include in your answer
Leave it for a day and come back the next day. See if you have any other ideas to include or if you want to get rid of any of the previous day’s ideas.
Now that you’ve thought about it twice (and subconsciously in all the hours between the first and second day), discuss your ideas with someone you trust, like your family and friends.
Find one hour sometime that week to write your finalized thoughts into a nice-sounding, polished paragraph.
Leave it for a few days, then come back and see if you like what you wrote. If you’re not satisfied with it yet, repeat step 4 and 5 until you are happy. Then, trust yourself and be done with it.
Good luck!
Todd
Authors: Todd Nelson with intro by Basil Giannopoulos