Better than a letter from Hogwarts, this week Shawnee Mission juniors and seniors opened letters from the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation. 

 The letters are part of the Scholarship Shawnee Mission program and contain scholarship offers to post-secondary colleges and universities throughout the United States. A Foundation program, Scholarship Shawnee Mission works to match high school students with college scholarship offers before they’ve even applied. 

Click here to see a video about Scholarship Shawnee Mission 2022.

The Foundation presented the scholarship letters to seniors at assemblies held in the gymnasium at each comprehensive high school in the District. After opening their individual letters, students were encouraged to visit with college representatives who were set up at stations on-site. This year, 49 universities and colleges participated in the program. 

The primary goal of Scholarship Shawnee Mission is to help connect students with their futures, explained Kim Hinkle, executive director of the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation.

“For some students, this opens up a whole new world of colleges that they might not know about,” shared Hinkle. “They may have plans to go somewhere local, but now they have offers from places all over the country. The Foundation believes passionately in bringing opportunities to our students.”

SM South senior Bella MacPhearson was amazed at the variety of scholarship offers she received and excited for the possibilities they represent.

“The opportunities I thought I had are unlimited now,” MacPhearson shared. “I had four colleges in mind, but now I can look into these other colleges to see if their program fits me best.”

Ed Márquez, Foundation program officer, explained that receiving multiple offers may help students and their families make better decisions on the front end of the enrollment process.

“A student may have the sense that they will attend a specific university, but through this process they will find an option that is a better match financially, academically, culturally, or geographically,” added Márquez. “They could discover an opportunity or school that wasn’t on their radar and open the doors to a great college experience.”

Receiving multiple scholarship offers came as a relief to SM Northwest senior Michael Houser.

“I’ve obviously been in the college search for the past few months and I’ve had worries about financial aid and this just gave a big help seeing that physical number, that this is what I can do if I want to. It’s just really exciting,” expressed Houser. 

This year the Foundation has expanded the Scholarship Shawnee Mission program to include juniors. Márquez shared that including juniors will give students and their families not only more time to consider options, but more choices overall. 

Reflecting on the experience, Michael Houser shared his pride in the achievement the scholarship offers represent and his excitement for the future.

“Looking around, seeing all the kids that I’ve grown close with over the past eight years. It is kind of hitting me, it’s our senior year,” expressed Houser. “This is towards the end of our experience in high school, and it’s just really good to know that there’s going to be ground to stand on once we’re out of here.” 

Parents opt into the Scholarship Shawnee Mission program through the online verification process that occurs at the start of each school year. The Foundation shares student achievement data with participating colleges and universities, and the schools make scholarship offers to students who match their admissions and scholarship criteria. This is the 4th year that Scholarship Shawnee Mission has been changing lives in the Shawnee Mission community.