Students can now apply for Spring semester scholarships at www.cerritos.edu/foundationscholarship in a variety of different categories including STEM, child development, veteran scholarships, cosmetology and a substantial amount of more fields or backgrounds.

Eduardo Juarez, English major, signed up for a scholarship through the Foundation program.

“The one I am going to apply for is the regular one [Albert Ostroff Scholarship $500]” said Juarez. “It could benefit me a lot, especially with books, they’re so expensive, it would be good for that.”

He works and goes to school.

According to Juarez, he came into contact with the Foundation program after winning a scholarship from his high school.

Program Assistant Rachel Samarin is the key person to contact in the Foundation building about information regarding scholarships.

“What students need to do is either go online or pick up one of the flyers to review the scholarships that we have available,” Samarin said.

According to Samarin, once a student finds out which scholarship they want to apply for and meet the requirement, usually a specific GPA score or major enrollment, then they can access the applications online at www.cerritos.edu/foundationscholarships.

Requirements for scholarships vary.

“The deadline for application is February 23 at 11:59 p.m.,” Samarin said. “All they have to do on the general information sheet is fill out basic information on contact information as well as their educational information.”

In the personal statement section of the application, the questions will mostly be on the topic of education goals and what makes a student unique and to justify why they should get the scholarship, she added.

“With some scholarships you have to have a minimum GPA or you have to have a minimum number of units that students are enrolled in. Others will have a minimum number of units that students should have completed,” Samarin said.

All of the criteria can be found on the flyer and online at the foundation website.

Some scholarships are seasonal and are offered both semesters, however, some are only offered certain semesters.

“On the flyer there is no real place that indicates that but on the website, if students go through and look at the online listing it will say either fall or spring,” Samarin said.

Students are required to have two references available when applying for the scholarships according to Samarin.

“Preferably it is someone in faculty or someone that can really give testament to their ability in the classroom,” she said.

“Outside the classroom it can be more with employers former or current.”

The references are done online electronically.

Executive Director of Foundations Steve Richardson believes they are faced with a difficult obstacle that clouds students minds from scholarships.

“I think what happens with a lot of students is they say to themselves ‘oh I’m not going to apply because I won’t win anything’ but that’s really wrong thinking,” Richardson said.

According to Richardson there are now an excess of 125 different scholarships to help students in a variety of areas.

“On average now, I think we are seeing in the neighborhood of 600 applicants this semester,” Richardson said. “We would love that number to go up.”

Once online, students fill out one online application that based on the information filled out on the application, will be sent to pools where the information matches the available scholarships according to Richardson.