If you know a high school senior who is looking for ways to help pay for college or trade school, be sure they apply for Consumers Scholars, a scholarship program open to all Michigan high school seniors. Tune into this episode of Money, I’m Home as Lynne is joined by [now former employees] Katelyn Huntington and Kelly Leversee to learn all about this year’s scholarship and how to apply.

 

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0:00:06.4 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m Home! Welcome in, everyone. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we have it all. We are going to help your high school senior get to college and possibly get some cash. Joining us today, we are so excited. We every year do our Consumers Scholars, which has turned into such an amazing program with $10,000 that we actually are going to be giving one amazing high school senior. Katelyn Huntington and Kelly Leversee as our beautiful people that lead this, they’re our champions. Hey Katelyn, start off with you. Before we begin on the scholarship, tell us a little bit about what you do here at Consumers on top of your wonderful job in Consumer Scholars.

0:00:51.4 Katelyn Huntington (KH): Sure, so I am a Senior Business Development Representative. I work for our Consumers @Work program, which is a really great employee-focused program where we partner with businesses large and small in providing all the necessary benefits and providing financial wellness and services for employees of businesses on-site. We’re working with them day-to-day, weekly, monthly in helping their employees get to where they need to be financially.

0:01:19.3 LJJ: That is awesome. Kelly, how about you?

0:01:22.2 Kelly Leversee (KL): I am a member services representative or service representative, and I help members every day, same thing, with their financial needs and goals, helping them achieve what they’re looking forward to. And I especially love working with the young people and helping them and guide them with their financial goals and dreams.

0:01:42.5 LJJ: That’s awesome. I just read an article, Kelly. And Katelyn, I’m sure you’ve seen this too. And this can be a whole different topic, which we’ll do on another podcast, but it’s about the buy now, pay later, and how that has become a credit card for young people, which can be very tempting, but also very dangerous. So, I really appreciate both of you, because you’re always out there talking face-to-face to help others with making sure that they’re making solid financial decisions.

0:02:12.3 KL: Absolutely.

0:02:13.7 LJJ: We have what is called our Consumers Scholars program, and that program has been around for years here at Consumers. One of the things that we love to do is help students get to the next level if they decide to go to a college, maybe a trade school, this is why this is so exciting. It isn’t your normal high school scholarship, and you guys are here to tell us all about it. Katelyn, I’m going to start with you. Tell us about why you volunteer before we get into the whole application, and why is this important to you?

0:02:43.5 KH: I think as a young adult, education is so important, and it gives you kind of a pathway to whatever you want to do. And in your career, your goals, and as we know, education is expensive. And I love that for, I believe the last 15 years, Consumers Credit Union has consistently every year given money to Michigan high school seniors to help them and further them in their education and reach their goals. And I just think that’s amazing, and I wanted to be a part of it. And so I decided to co-chair with Kelly and provide 11 high school seniors with some money to go to college.

0:03:22.3 LJJ: Well, and you know something that’s interesting, Kelly, you’ve now been involved as a champion. I think the one thing that we do here at Consumers is I know all of our team members can volunteer and lead and champion what they’re passionate about. You already mentioned about how important it is for you to reach out and talk with young people. Are you pleasantly surprised at what you are seeing? I think Gen Y, Gen Z, even millennials kind of sometimes get a bad rep.

0:03:51.2 KL: Agreed. And I think there’s a lot of opportunities and a lot of great things that I’m seeing out there. I know last year when I was working with the program, and I was able to go out… I also do some career coaching in the community with some high school students. And when I was able to go out and talk to them about both getting ready for a career but also about the scholarship program, I was really excited to see the number of students that actively participated in the program last year.

0:04:16.0 LJJ: So, tell us what you’re doing right now. I know the website is up, if you go over to consumercu.org, and you just type in, “Scholars,” boom, you will get right to the page to find out how you can apply. Katelyn, what are you guys doing behind the scenes? And Kelly, then I’m going to ask you a little bit about the program itself.

0:04:33.2 KH: So as of right now, the website and the link is live, so any senior can go in and start filling out and put their application in and all the necessary attachments. But we are also contacting all of our local high schools and reaching out to the principals and the guidance counselors and their teachers and sharing that this scholarship is available, they’re all eligible, so this scholarship is available to any Michigan high school senior. Even though we just have offices in lower Michigan, this is available for people up north and up in the UP, and we are just trying to spread the word.

0:05:11.8 LJJ: That is awesome. Now Kelly, tell us a little bit about the nuts and bolts of the scholarship.

0:05:17.4 KL: Like Katelyn said earlier, there’s a $10,000 prize, and then there are $1000 prizes which we’re really excited about to award. And this year we’ve changed the requirements a little bit to make it so that every student has the possibility, and we’re on a level playing field. We’re going to have them do an essay, which it talks about in the application process, but also look at not only volunteer hours, but also if they’re working or if they’re involved in sports or extra-curricular activities, we’re going to include those students in this process this year as well.

0:05:49.8 LJJ: And one thing, Katelyn, tell us a little bit about what I think is extremely important. And I remember… And this was years and years ago, but I remember filling out scholarships myself at the college, and it was always a little bit daunting to me because I didn’t have a 3.85, 3.9, 4.0, 4.5. Some people have great grade point averages. And so, I was always feeling a little like I wasn’t going to have a chance at this. But that’s not the way our scholarship works is it, Katelyn?

0:06:20.9 KH: No. So, we do have some requirements, like Kelly mentioned. The minimum GPA is 2.5. We also require a 300-word essay, and the topic is “What facet of your identity or background and what story has essentially shaped you or helped form you to the person, the young adult that you are today?”

0:06:44.2 LJJ: What makes you “you?” I love that.

0:06:47.5 KH: Yeah. And so we have the GPA requirement, which is at least a minimum of a 2.5, the essay, like Kelly mentioned, the Community Impact hours. And we just didn’t want to limit to just volunteer hours, which is wonderful, but we are aware, and we identify and acknowledge that high school students also work, they are athletes as well. And that is still making an impact in their community and their school, and we want to recognize those efforts. And so that is open, and these high school seniors can apply, and we just wanted to make this the easiest way possible for them to apply and win money for their education.

0:07:26.1 LJJ: Now, here’s the cool part, everyone, if you’re a listening parent or a student. Once the top 11 are chosen, what happens next? Kelly, this is a biggie, and every single person in Consumers has a vote and it’s so much fun.

0:07:40.6 KL: I love this part. They take a video, and they submit a video of why they think they should be awarded the scholarship. And all of the employees in Consumers Credit Union get to view the video and then vote on the number one video. And I have to tell you, last year I was blown away by the talent that we have out there, and those students that applied and the videos that they submitted to win those dollars. It was really awesome.

0:08:07.8 LJJ: And you know, the funny thing is, some people say, “Oh… ” It’s again that feeling of, “Well, I don’t do videos well.” And what is amazing is it really didn’t… The production quality isn’t what we’re talking, it really is what comes from the heart. What’s the deadlines and what does everybody have to do? Katelyn, what’s the deadlines here?

0:08:27.1 KH: The deadline is March 1st. So, by I believe end-of-day on March 1st, we need all applications sent in to be eligible.

0:08:38.2 LJJ: Now, there is online a PDF, a one-sheet piece of paper, that literally is a checklist for everybody. So, if you’re worried about missing something, get that out ahead of time so that you have everything for yourself. Kelly, once people then apply, then what happens?

0:08:56.2 KL: Well, then we take the applications, we review those, we review those great essays, and start to narrow that down to those top 11. Once we have those top 11 identified, then we again screen those videos. We ask for those videos, screen those videos, and then we make an announcement. Early May we’re going to make that announcement of the grand prize winners and all of the other $1000 winners.

0:09:20.1 LJJ: Well, this is so incredible, you guys. Number one, thank you for your volunteering, your leading of helping young people today even make it further. Again, this is high school seniors that are going to college and/or trade school. Don’t think that just because you’re not going to college, this really will work for trade school, too. And we know that those careers are just taking off like a rocket ship. Well, thanks you guys.

0:09:44.9 KL: Thank you.

0:09:46.9 KH: Thank you for having us.

0:09:48.8 LJJ: Thank you for listening. If you have a topic that you’d like to share, or how about sharing this podcast to high school seniors that you know, that’d be awesome. We sure would appreciate it. Jake Esselink, thank you so much for your production skills. Everybody have a wonderful week. Hey, Money, I’m Home!

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