Mine the Harvest

Woot! Today I was contacted by my credit union and informed I was one of 5 people being awarded a $2,500 cash scholarship!

GTE Federal Credit Union posted a notice on their website a month or so ago announcing a scholarship contest. It was open to all members and required applicants to submit an essay on the role of credit unions and what effects would be caused if legislation were passed to remove their tax exempt status.

Being in school at St. Petersburg College perusing my degree the idea of a $2,500 cash scholarship to help with tuition seemed quite an appealing idea. And the subject itself, of why it might not be a good idea to remove the tax exempt status of credit unions was of interest too. Someone could actually give me money to be opinionated and write about it – how alluring . . .

Learning about the contest late in the game left little time to prepare. I had only a week to write the essay, obtain official transcripts from school and get it delivered to the credit union. Of course, the school admin offices were only open certain hours and most often closed by the time I get off work, etc. What a pain. After missing them twice I decided to take a personal day off work, go to the school, get the official transcripts, print off my essay ane the required photo, assemble and bind it all and drive it to Tampa.

I did that a few weeks back and thought, though it might be a small chance of winning, it was worth a shot.

Today I was contacted by the scholarship program director who informed me I was one of the 5 selected scholarship recipients, and asked if I would be able to attend an award luncheon with the CEO of the credit  union and other recipients in a few weeks

I am quite excited on being selected and the $2,500 award comes just in time for fall class registration. I am also looking at spending some of the money on an ultra portable Asus EEE-PC (or similar) which can be a perfect laptop for school. I can take class notes directly to my wiki, etc. during class.

If you are interested and would like to read it, the scholarship entry .pdf can be found here

This was really exciting as I have never won such an award and it will really help with the costs of going to school this year.