By JONATHON TOLBERT

The Mirror reporter

Stevens Point Area School District (SPASH) hosted the first scholarship workshop on Wednesday, Nov. 16. More scholarship workshops will take place on Dec. 7 and 14; Jan. 4 and 11; and February 1 and 8 of this school year. All sessions take place in the Career Center.

Jenessa Reid, a guidance counselor at SPASH, is the mastermind behind the scholarship workshops. “All students are welcomed to come, whether it is for college or scholarship applications,” Reid said.

This is the first year SPASH is offering a scholarship workshop. “The goal is to help students with their [college] applications. so that they may start, work on and complete them,” Reid said.

The workshop answers questions, both uncommon and common, that students have such as: “What am I eligible for? Is it easy? Is the long process worth it?”

The counseling office recommends students to start applying for scholarships by going to the SPASH homepage and look for the Counseling Office. Students will then have to click the tab that says “Scholarships.”

A tool at the disposal of SPASH students is Career Cruising which is a program about post-secondary planning such as scholarship searches, interest inventories, college searches, budgeting and more.

There are different types of scholarships such as local, state, and national. The first step students should take is to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). It takes about 30 minutes and is the only way to gain access to more than $150 billion available in federal student aid.

Students can begin to apply for many local scholarships after Dec. 1.  Applications are due on Feb. 15, 2017. Students will be notified whether they were selected or not in mid-late April.

Senior Jaylyn Lepak is planning on going to University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County for two years, but ultimately will graduate from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a major in nursing and work as a nurse practitioner. Lepak says scholarships are complicated and hard but she is glad that she came to the workshop because she felt she was being guided in the right direction. She would recommend it to a friend but suggested gaining some background information first.

Senior Savannah Piff plans to go to the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County and then transfer to the University of Wisconsin -Madison, where she plans to graduate with a major in the veterinarian/pre-vet area. Piff says the workshop helped her fill out scholarships and she found comfort in the fact that she was not alone when it came to needing advice.

“I am just so tired of this” or “where do I even begin” phrases that are embodiments of the long and frustrating process that can be scholarship applications. Students who have recently started saying these phrases should come to a scholarship workshop.

“Students with questions can attend workshops, visit the Career Center or talk to their counselors, we are here to help,” Reid said.