Here Are Sources For Helping Minority Women Get Free Money To Start A Business

By Herb Wills

Every year Congressmen and Senators make promises to the people that put them in office. Hundreds of of those promises are made to minority groups in specific areas but most are made at a National level.

Here are just a few of the Minority Grant Programs that should give you instant access to all this funding & more!

Arab American Institute Scholarships for American Students of Arab Descent, Arab Students Studying in the U.s., and Other Scholarships http://www.aaiusa.org/foundation/33/scholarships

Actuarial Scholarships for Minority Students http://www.beanactuary.org/minority/scholarship.cfm To deliver scholarships at the undergraduate or graduate level for numerous minority students who are interested in pursuing actuarial careers. (Last checked 11/02/06)

American Indian Science and Engineering Society Scholarship Programs http://www.aises.org/highered/scholarships/ AISES scholarships are awarded to undergraduate and graduate students, who are members of AISES, for leadership and academic achievement. These monies are to assist talented students in meeting the financial demands of attending college. The awards are intended to augment unmet need, loans, and student employment.

Cuban American Scholarship Fund http://www.scholars.uci.edu/scholarshipinfo.asp?sid=52 The Cuban American Scholarship Fund awards scholarships to high school seniors and undergraduate students of Cuban descent. Students must have a GPA of 3.0 or better and must attend a university in California on a full-time basis. Awards range from $500 to $2,000. For more information, contact: Mr. Victor Cueto, Cuban American Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 6422, Santa Ana, CA 92706; Tel: (714) 835-7676; Fax: (714) 835-7776; E-mail: lawvictorcueto@aol.com

Hispanic Scholarship Fund Online http://www.hsf.net The Education Gateway for U.S. Hispanics. Brought to you by AT&T. HSF scholarships ranging from $500 to $2,500 are available to undergraduate and graduate students of Hispanic parentage who have completed at least fifteen units/credits of undergraduate college work with a minimum GPA of 2.5. Applicants must be enrolled for the fall and spring semester of each year as full-time students, carrying at least six units if they are graduate students or twelve units if they are undergraduates. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and at least half Hispanic background. Send a self-addressed, stamped, business-size (9" x 14") envelope to the Fund's office between August 3 and October 9 to receive an application form or download the application from the Fund's website. For more information, contact: Hispanic Scholarship Fund, One Sansome Street, Suite 1000, San Francisco, CA 94104; telephone: (415) 445-9930; e-mail: info@hsf.net. Currently offers listings in the following categories:

Scholarships for High School Seniors Scholarships for Undergraduates Scholarships for Community College Transfer Students Gates Millennium Scholars Scholarships for Graduate Students

Black Excel's 100 Minority Scholarship Gateway List http://www.blackexcel.org/100minority.htm Black Excel has presented gateways to well over 1000 Scholarships for students nationwide. In the Black Excel African American Student's College Guide (available at major bookstores and at Amazon.com), we list many scholarships and furnish a step-by-step tutorial as to what to do after you get a gigantic list like the one below. Knowing the "rules of play" gives you a tremendous advantage in regard to the A, B, C's of winning scholarships. Note that Black Excel is linked to over 900 websites, and that hundreds of colleges are directing their students to our resources and info. -- Isaac Black, Black Excel Founder and Author

American Health and Beauty Aids Institute Scholarship http://www.ahbai.org/scholar/ AHBAI is an internationally reknowned trade association representing the world's leading Black-owned companies that manufacture ethnic hair care and beauty related products featuring the Proud Lady Symbol.

Finding the Grant Source is only the first stage. Writing the grant proposal will be the most basic thing that you do. Successful grant writing involves the coordination of several activities, including planning, searching for data and resources, writing and packaging a proposal, submitting a proposal to a funder, and follow-up. Good Grant Writing Software should be a vital tool in your quest for your Minority Grant.

Herb Wills is webmaster and CEO of money-from-grants.com a leading resource for and about government and private minority grants for women. They also have Free Grant Proposal Writing Software available. An indispensable tool when seeking Free Minority Grants.

The Need For Scholarships

Author: Dana Goldberg

Scholarships are the amount of money that is given or cut in fees of students on some spatial basis. Various institutes all over the world provide scholarships for students, based on performances in exams or in some other cases as arias, finance or family backgrounds.

Scholarships are the financial help to the students for their studies. Most of the time scholarships are given based on performances. It is a kind of reward for brilliant students as the reductions of fees or direct financial help. Institute provides scholarships to uplift the level of education and to make it easy for brilliant students to get higher education at low cost.

Higher education is getting more and more costly now a days. Sometimes it gets even out of reach for a certain class of people. Scholarships provide the opportunity to the students of those classes to reach up to that higher education, without caring about big amounts of fees. Sometimes students have to earn money for their own expenses besides the fees of the institutes, in such cases scholarships helps a lot.

In countries, where higher studies are not world class, students tends to go abroad for studies, sometimes because of differences of currencies it becomes a big problem for them, most of the world class institutes provides scholarships for outsider students on the basis of certain exams which help students study abroad. Most of the excellent engineering, medical, business, arts and other institutes provide scholarships. As in U.S.A., all big educational institutes have scholarships for outsider students as well as excellent home country students.

Not only for higher level, but for now almost every educational institute has scholarship programs in different forms. Those programs help in raising education level and provide opportunity for performers. Almost all governmental institutes have scholarship programs to help performers in which government provides money to feed excellence in the country. World over big educational institutes have various scholarship programs and now it is a regular phenomena for all kinds of institutes.

Besides performance in examinations there are some more criteria in which scholarships are provided as there are scholarships for handicaps, scholarships for poor students, scholarships for military background students, scholarships for outsider students and scholarships on the basis of personal earnings (students without financial support of any kind).

Scholarships are always given to certain students on some spatial basis; there are three basic reasons for it:

Giving reward to performers so performance is appreciated and others are given motivation to perform.

Helping students, which are financially incapable, but academically excellent.

Honoring some families from special backgrounds (as in military)

Scholarship is a very good system for studies as now importance of studies, spatially higher studies, is regularly increasing. In such case, if there are students, which have excellent qualities but are unable to pay heavy fees, will not be able to study than it will be a big loss of human resource. On the other hand scholarships provides motivation to all kinds of students and establish the importance of studies.

How To Get A Scholarship To A UK University

By: Tony Radford

There are many sources of funding if you want to study in the UK. The British Government and other UK organisations provide a number of scholarships and awards for international students.

A. Who should I approach?

1. Start with your own Ministry or Department of Education. It should be able to give you information about the funding available.

2. The British Council. They may have an office in your own country and will tell you about the relevant schemes.

3. If there's no British Council locally, try the British Embassy or High Commission.

B. How Do I Apply?

1. Many grant-making organisations have strict requirements which you must meet so read the conditions carefully.

2. Apply for your grant at least one year before the start of your course and make sure you know the deadline for applying.

3. Fill in the application form clearly and concisely. Use the grant-making body's application form if there is one.

Useful tip: The grant-making bodies usually award only small amounts of money, which will not cover the full cost of tuition fees and living expenses, so make sure you have enough money for your fees and living needs. It's nearly impossible to organise financial help once you're here and you may be refused UK entry without proof of sufficient funds.

C. Scholarship Sources:

1. British Chevening Scholarships
http://www.chevening.com/

2. Commonwealth Scholarship & Fellowships Plan (CSFP)
Funded by the Department for International Development and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office for citizens of a Commonwealth country or a British dependent territory.
http://www.csfp-online.org/

3. British Marshall Scholarships
For US citizens under 26 years of age, graduated from a US university.
http://www.marshallscholarship.org

4. Charles Wallace Manchester Merit Award
Funded jointly by four of the region's universities, the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust provides awards for one-year postgraduate students who are resident in Pakistan and have been accepted for a taught Masters course. For further information contact intoff@mmu.ac.uk

5. Fulbright Scholarships
Funded by the Department for Education & Employment and the US government. http://www.fulbright.co.uk/ or http://www.iie.org/

6. Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme (ORSAS)
For full-time postgraduate students undertaking research. Selection is by academic merit and research potential only, so you can apply whatever your nationality or finances. The grant will meet the difference between the home and overseas tuition fees, so you'll only have to pay home fees and your living costs. For further information contact Clare Holdcroft: C.Holdcroft@mmu.ac.uk

7. Royal Fellowships
For post-doctoral scientists undertake research in the UK.
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk

8. Canon Foundation Research Fellowships to Europe and Japan
Research Fellowships to post-graduate European and Japanese researchers.
http://www.canonfoundation.org/

9. Council for Assisting Refugee Academics
CARA makes small grants to help refugee academics rebuild their lives and careers in the UK.
http://www.academic-refugees.org/

About the Author:

For a full advice about claiming a scholarship to a top UK university visit the 'Scholarships' page on the Manchester Metropolitan University website here: http://www.mmu.ac.uk/international/courses/scholarships.php