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Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship
Scholarship season is upon us! That’s right -- the doors to the Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship are open for applications from now until May 15, 2024. Read on to find out more, and help promote this within our community and beyond!
What is the Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship?
As a community, we feel strongly about supporting higher education -- especially for those who are striving to become a Servant of All in their everyday lives. Applicants are asked a question: “How do you plan to use your education in a way that exemplifies being a Servant of All?” Recipients are chosen by the Community Council, a representative body chosen from the membership groups of TarValon.Net.
Applications will be accepted from March 15, 2024 until May 15, 2024. The Community Council will begin their determination process on June 1, 2024. We will notify scholarship recipients in July 2024.
The scholarship program process was changed in 2021 to make it more inclusive, accessible, and timely for students. More details are as follows:
Who can apply - Scholarships can be awarded to applicants who are pursuing any program of study at an accredited institution, graduate or undergraduate. This means those who are pursuing both traditional and non-traditional degree or certification programs. A $500 scholarship can make a world of difference to those with little to no income, and even 2+ year programs are out of reach for those in severely challenging circumstances. We want these individuals to also have a chance to be awarded this scholarship.
Equal chance regardless of program - The two scholarships will be awarded to the top two essays as determined by the Community Council. We will not divide the essays into undergraduate and graduate pools. All essays will be read and voted upon by the Community Council on an equal basis.
Essay ranking process - The voting system was changed in 2021. Before that time, a bracket system was used, and sometimes community representatives were presented with two good essays going head-to-head early on. Later, they would be voting on essays they didn’t like as much as one that had been knocked out before. We want the best essays to shine through, so we changed this system. The Community Council will be presented with a group of essays to score on a scale of 1-10. Scores will be averaged to determine the overall score for each essay. The top two will advance to a final voting round. Any essays that reach a certain scoring threshold will also be included in the final round. We want all solid applicants to have a chance, and don’t want any unnecessarily eliminated due to the system.
About the essay - We ask that essays be between 400 and 1000 words long. Grammatical and spelling errors will not disqualify an essay from winning if the content and scope are strong. We recommend writing your essay in a separate document, then copy/pasting your completed essay into the application form.
Timeline - We recognized that the starting point of many fall programs varies from state to state and country to country. In 2021, we decided to award scholarships prior to August 1, and shifted the schedule accordingly. Applications are now accepted earlier, and also for a longer period of time. After applications are received, there is a two week period to verify applications and format them for the Community Council. The Council will begin assessing essays on June 1 and voting is expected to be complete by the end of that month. The goal is to announce scholarship winners on July 1, which should provide sufficient time to arrange payment to the winners before August. Timeline is subject to change as necessary in case of unforeseen circumstances.
