Bank Scholarships
Your Bank May Be Giving Away Scholarships!
While you’re exploring all the possibilities for scholarship funds, you might consider what funds your personal lender extends to students in the way of scholarships. These days everyone is giving away money: it’s good for business. Scholarships are available internationally, nationally, and through local banks, as well.
Commercial Banks
Bank of America offers employees and dependents access to the company’s Joe Martin Scholarship, named in honor of a former BOA corporate executive. Candidates who qualify for the up to $5,000 scholarship awards must compete on a wide range of criteria, including academic scores, financial need, people skills, and extracurricular activities.
When students register for Suntrust’s Off to College Scholarship Sweepstakes, they put themselves into the competition to win $1,000 toward their tuition costs. The scholarships are available to high school students ready to graduate and take up collegiate studies the following academic year. Awards are not based on financial situation or academic scores; it’s a level playing field.
Citigroup, the parent company to Citibank and the Student Loan Corporation, has parlayed its student loan interests and educational philanthropy into one of the largest programs in the country. Citigroup has its hands in a number of valuable scholarship programs, on its own merit or in partnership with other organizations or businesses:
- Citigroup’s alliance with the United Negro College Fund spawned the UNCF/Citigroup Fellows Program aimed at promoting the visibility of underrepresented minorities in the business and financial world. To these ends, Citigroup awards attractive scholarships to top-notch African-American business majors as well as pairs them with company mentors. These highly competitive scholarships ultimately provide generous opportunities to 10 qualified candidates. Scholarships are $6,400.
- The Fed Challenge is a nationally recognized and ultra-competitive contest sponsored by the Federal Reserve and intended to pit only the most astute young economics geeks against each other in a team-oriented contest. The Challenge awards are comprised of huge scholarships from Citibank. The contest solicits teams that are able to create a current evaluation of the world markets, and make determinations and recommendations based on actual economic indicators and business savvy. Teams follow up with a critical panel interview that drills down deeper into their rationale and knowledge base. If this sounds intimidating, consider the stakes: top team in the country wins $50,000, while half a dozen runners-up take home between $10,000 and $20,000 for their teams.
U.S. Bank has been running its annual scholarship drive, the Internet Scholarship Program, for over a decade. This popular award gives away a few dozen scholarships valued at $1,000 each. Applicants must apply through the online site to qualify, hence the name of the scholarship. And there is no rule stating that you must be a U.S. Bank customer to qualify. You must, however, be able to provide the name of the school you will be attending. Only graduating high school seniors will be considered.
Wells Fargo attaches a scholarship "sweepstakes" to their CollegeSTEPS program as incentive to receive valuable information regarding your college planning process. There is no obligation to buy or purchase or sign for anything to apply for the scholarship. The Wells Fargo CollegeSTEPS program is an informational service with marketing and advertising aspects to it, but you may overlook this in favor of just throwing your hat into the ring for the scholarships. Each year, WF pays out a few dozen $1,000 scholarships that are pretty much drawn at random.
Bank Scholarships on an International Scale
Following the close of World War II, the World Bank was established as a central financial pocketbook offering extremely underdeveloped and developing countries access to necessary funds. Today, one small part of the mission of the World Bank, in conjunction with key educational partners and international governments, is to provide student scholars from member countries with scholarships that enable them to study either abroad or in their homeland. These funds, known as the Robert McNamara Fellowship Program, may be used for a year of research and study and are valued at around $7,500.
Local and Regional Bank Scholarships
The South Dakota Bankers Association is the leading professional organization for many of South Dakota’s private banks and lenders. The SDBA, in conjunction with a consortium of member banks, offers dozens of annual scholarships to South Dakota college students through its educational foundation. Winners each earn a $1,000 scholarship to help them pay for the cost of their tuition and in turn banks earn new customers from the program.
