The Mary Lou Marks Smith Scholarship
Details of the Award
This scholarship, in the amount of $1000, is awarded every other year in odd numbered years. It is open for application in 2011. It is intended to encourage and financially aid students who are majoring in horticulture, floral design or related fields at the community college level.
Eligibility Requirements
Applicants must be legal residents of the State of Maine and planning to attend a community college program in one of the fields noted above in the Fall following the award of the scholarship.
Application Procedures
In an effort to conserve on paper and facilitate the ease and speed of application and review, the GCFM is moving as much as possible to an electronically based application process. Applicants should download the one-page MLMS application form and the financial aid form, fill them out electronically and submit that material along with their letter of application (2 pages maximum) and their list of activities (2 pages maximum) to the GCFM Scholarship Chair, Mary Blackstone at Mary.Blackstone@uregina.ca.
Only pages requiring signatures (eg. the application form, the financial aid form) should also be forwarded to the Chair by mail or courier. Unofficial transcripts may be submitted electronically but official transcripts should also be forwarded in paper copy. Applicants should ask their referees to send their letters electronically to the chair and send signed paper copies by post or courier to the Chair at the following address:
Mary Blackstone, GCFM Scholarship Chair, 5 Christian Ridge Road, Ellsworth, Maine, 04605
All application materials must be received by the Chair no later than March 1, and applicants are strongly advised to submit their materials well in advance so that any omissions or misunderstandings can be addressed before the applications must be forwarded for review by committee.
Applicants will be notified as to their success no later than May 1.
Applicant Guidelines
Further details regarding criteria for selection and information to be provided in each of the application materials are included right on the MLMS Application form. This listing on the form may also serve as a handy checklist for the completion of all necessary materials. Applicants should feel free to contact the GCFM Scholarship Chair for clarification regarding the terms of the scholarship and application procedures, and they are encouraged to ask their financial aid officers or academic supervisors for assistance and feedback on their application.
In completing the Financial Aid Form applicants and financial aid officers should make certain that to the best of their ability the information on that form reflects the actual financial circumstances of the student should they receive the MLMS Scholarship. In other words, any reduction in otherwise committed scholarships or loans that would occur as a result of the award should be fully disclosed.
With respect to letters of reference, for at least two letters of reference applicants are encouraged to select referees who are familiar with their academic or professional accomplishments in fields related to the terms of this scholarship. Academic supervisors, professors, teachers, previous employers or colleagues in professional associations, 4H or scout leaders, senior designers, gardeners or horticulturalists in the community, etc are in a position to provide the strongest recommendations for these letters. For the purposes of personal and character reference there is a much wider possibility of choice but generally speaking family members, room mates or other student friends are not as good a choice as other individuals in the community who are likely to have greater objectivity.
Timelines
March 1 --Receipt of all application materials by the Scholarship Chair
Before May 1--Notification of the results of the competition
June 21, Castine --Formal award of the scholarship at GCFM Scholarship Banquet (2011 date)
August--$1000 will be mailed to the student’s college
Mary Lou Marks Smith Scholarship form
PDF Version