Scholarships for Asians
In recent history, the Asian minority living in the United States had to struggle with all sorts of issues. The cold hard facts are that people coming from Asia went and are still going through emotional, racial and even physical abuse. When someone is referring to Asians, for the most part, they are thinking about people that are coming from the western part of Asia.
But in reality, the Asian minority has a lot of members who originate from countries like India or their neighbors, Sri Lanka. Also, as if it wasn’t hard enough already for the Asian minority to find support in the U.S.A., bonds with the local residents became almost impossible to form after the tragedies of 9/11.
A good example of the ill treatment that Asians have to endure is the discriminatory treatment that Indians receive. Another example is the way today’s society looks at Vietnamese people or Muslims. Just because some groups belonging to their race were responsible for tragic events in the past, that doesn’t mean that the men and women you see on the street are bad and don’t have anything to offer.
To make matters even worse, several educational institutes stopped admitting Asian undergraduates, and many firms stopped employing Asian people, and these are to name but a few of the issues Asians have to struggle with.
Under these sad circumstances, men and women who come from Asia can barely survive day by day life so being able to save money for education is out of the question. Luckily there are some programs that offer grants for Asian students but the truth is more financial help is needed for this minority.
Financial Aid Sources
A good source of grants for Asian students is the Asian American Journalists Association ( AAJA ) which was set up in 1981 by several journalists of Asian origin set to raise the participation of their people in the news media. AAJA is a non-profit organization with around two thousand members and while their main offices are located in San Francisco, they also have twenty branch offices throughout the U.S.A. and Asia.
AAJA has 3 programs that provide grants for Asian students interested in a career in the media. One of them is the AAJA Internship Grant for Broadcasting awarded annually, which finances the costs of living and transportation for one person doing the internship at a television or radio network. For people working at a news organization AAJA offers the Chicago Tribune Print and New Media Internship Grants, which can be used to supplement living or travel expenses.
People working as interns at smaller broadcasting stations or medium-sized newspapers can also benefit from financial aid in the form of the Stanford Chen Internship Grant. For any applicant to be eligible to receive this grant, he must prove he is very serious about working in broadcast journalism. One of these three grants is offered to an intern working in the Pacific Northwest because that is where Stan Chen spent a lot of time as a journalist.
Asian Cultural Council
The Asian Cultural Council offers grants for Asian people with an aptitude for both visual or performing arts. The Council came to be for the sole objective of supporting cultural exchange between the United States and Asia and also among different countries in Asia. To help fulfill its main purpose, the ACC awards grants to many cultural and educational institutions in the U.S. and Asia so that bonds between the two continents become easier to form. Financial aid is given for a wide range of traditional and contemporary fields like music, dance, art history, conservation, literature, painting, photography and many others.
For anyone wanting to ask for assistance, the first step is to send a letter to the ACC. The request will then be reviewed, and if it is decided that the respective activity also serves the Council’s interests more information will be asked from the applicant.
New York City Urban Arts Initiative
The Urban Artists Initiative is a program that helps New York City artists belonging to a colored minority. This means that grants for Asian people are also available from this foundation. The sums awarded are anywhere from $250 to around $2500 and are to serve the purpose of supporting new creations from the fields of visual, performing and literary arts that are still in development or in completion stages.
The minimum age limit is 18 and applicants must provide proof of New York City residency. Even artists who are collaborating can apply but only one of them must go through the application process. The grant will cover any project related cost like equipment, research, material, travel expenses, rehearsal space and many others. The following information must be covered in the application: resume, project description, project budget and timeline and a sample of completed work.
SEASREP Grants
The (SEASREP), commonly known as Southeast Asian Studies Regional Exchange Program is managed by the SEASREP Foundation in Manila, which is sponsored by the Japan Foundation and the Toyota Foundation. Grants for Asian students were given to those interested in many activities like language training or studying a Southeast Asian country other than their own. Sadly, the present state of the global economy has taken its toll on the grant program making sponsorships no longer available for now. Still, their annual training programs continue, and those interested should check their website for important news updates.
The U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC)
The USPAACC’s main purpose is to increase the number of Asian American students in higher education and does so by offering tuition assistance to students for more than 21 years. The Pan Asian Scholarship is available in any field of education and some of the large corporate donors include FedEx, McDonald’s, Pepsi and many more.
The Bruce Lee scholarship requires students to write an essay that portraits the challenges they had to struggle with and overcome during their lives. Another example of Scholarship that requires essay writing is the Jackie Chan Scholarship. This time, applicants must describe their personal talents and the ways they want to use them.
Students with Asian origins that have excellent academic results and are interested in community service can apply for the Telamon Scholarship which awards $3500.
