The Student Government Association (SGA) opened the SGA Scholarship for Student Advancement application and it will be closing tonight, Dec. 5. The scholarship is designed to provide aid to students enduring financial or personal hardship.

SGA president Baleigh Picou commented on the creation of the scholarship and its intended purpose of meeting the needs of Southeastern students living in vulnerable situations. 

“One of my biggest goals, when I became SGA president, was to create a scholarship for students who were struggling with something outside of school, while still coming to school. We went through a lot of revisions with the scholarship and met with various department heads on campus to get their feedback on how to address the sensitive issues within the scholarship,” Picou said.

In order to qualify for the scholarship, applicants must be considered “full-time” students or be enrolled in twelve or more credit hours and have at least a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

Applicants must also fall into at least one of five categories: 

1. Suffering from chronic illness or a disability. 
2. International student suffering from financial insecurity. 
3. Parent with children suffering from low income.
4. Suffering from homelessness or hunger insecurity. 
5. Victim of domestic violence.

 Students can choose more than one category if they fall into multiple. 

When students open the application, they’ll have to record their name, Southeastern email, W number, current GPA, number of hours enrolled, the categories of hardship they fall into and an essay detailing how the scholarship will help them. The word limit is 2500 words. 

Students can also submit official documentation proving financial hardship, such as an unemployment compensation statement or a termination letter. However, submission is not mandatory. 

The scholarship is based on a rubric system. Students’ applications will be assessed on their GPA, level of hardship and essay quality.

“Once the applications are scored, we then put them in order by points to decide how much money each student will get,” Picou said. 

SGA expects to award each student “anywhere between $100-$500, depending on how many students apply.” The scholarship is $5,000 in total and $2,500 will be given out to students each semester. 

Students can access the scholarship application via the following form or head to SGA’s Instagram to access the link in their profile. For more information on the scholarship, contact Picou at [email protected].