Scholarship
Who We Are
The Metro Washington DC Chapter Scholarship
The MWCPSAA scholarship endowment is run through the Pennsylvania State University; therefore, we can only award scholarships to students who meet the University’s requirements for financial aid. This prevents any favoritism or unethical handling of the funds. Each year, our chapter is provided a pre-qualified list of candidates from the Metro Washington Area (DC, Virginia and Maryland), vetted by the PSU Office of Student Aid, to whom we open the opportunity to apply for the annual MWCPSAA scholarship. Dozens of first-year students apply every year, and over the last 5 years, the Metro Washington Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association has been able to donate over $100,000 to students from our area!
Throughout the year, we hold fundraisers that contribute to the total amount of scholarships we are able to award. These fundraisers include our annual golf tournament, Cause Tuesdays, student bus trips, Football Watch Parties, happy hours, raffles, and more! You can keep up to date on our upcoming events on our website and social media sites, and can donate directly to the cause here.
Choosing Recipients
Each year in the May/June timeframe, the Penn State Office of Financial Aid sends the Student Affairs Chair a list of local (DC/MD/VA) students ranked by both financial need and academic potential (based on high school GPA).
The Scholarship Committee sends an email to the eligible students inviting them to apply. After applications are received and reviewed by the committee, approximately 10-15 candidates with the best written applications are invited to a formal interview.
After the formal interview, the Scholarship committee makes two decisions:
- Who to award a scholarship to, and
- How much to award each winner.
The factors that we use in that determination are financial need, academic potential, quality of written responses, and quality of the verbal responses. Our chapter treasurer then writes a check to the University, and the funds are awarded and disbursed to the individual student accounts by the Bursar’s office. Depending on the number of recipients, which often ranges 6-12 students/year, our chapter is normally able to award amounts anywhere from $250 – $5,000 per student.
FAQs
If a student is not on the pre-approved list from the University, can they still apply for the MWCPSAA scholarship?
We are sad to say, unfortunately not. In order to ensure that students meet the proper qualifications for Student Aid (ie: they are enrolled as a full-time student, they are an incoming, first-year student, etc.), we are bound to the list provided by the Office of Student Aid. Regardless of whether or not you qualify for this scholarship, we encourage you to visit studentaid.psu.edu and seek out other opportunities for financial assistance!
What is the timeline for the scholarship review & award process?
Typically, our chapter is provided with a list of candidates in the May/June time frame. We then set an early July deadline to fill out and return applications and give our board 2-3 weeks to review (we sometimes get as many as 90 applications!) and set interviews with our top candidates for early August, with the goal of making final selections before the start of the fall semester. Once we submit our nominations and fundraising check to the Office of Student Aid, they will go through a multi-week review and distribution process and they will be the ones to notify the students of their award, normally in the Sept-Oct. timeframe.
How are students notified of the scholarship?
Through their @psu.edu email. Our chapter is only provided that email address for the eligible students so we highly encourage students to activate and regularly check their PSU emails early in the summer. If you have any concerns or would like to provide alternate contact information, please reach out to scholarship@psuwashdc.org or submit a response using our contact form below.
Do you accept late applications?
In order to maintain our tight schedule for reviewing, interviewing and nominating students before the fall semester, we unfortunately have little flexibility on our deadlines. If you need to get in contact to ask about an extension or late submission, please email scholarship@psuwashdc.org and we will do our best to accommodate.
What are your major sources of funding?
Our 3 major, annual fundraisers are our student bus trips, annual golf tournament and football Watch Party raffles. We are always seeking sponsors and donors to help underwrite events and provide raffle prizes for these events to help increase fundraising totals, so if you are associated with a business that may be interested in getting involved, please let us know using our contact form below!
On top of our yearly fundraising efforts, our chapter also contributes to an Endowment fund managed by the greater Alumni Association. This fund generates interest and each year, a percentage is paid out for us to use towards our annual scholarship awards. We normally receive ~$9k each year from the endowment, but the more we contribute to it, the greater our future payouts will be, meaning a larger scholarship allotment!
How can I support your scholarship efforts?
There are many ways!
- To make a monetary donation, you can visit this page or join us at any number of our fundraising events.
- Sponsor an event or donate a raffle prize! Want to host or put your branding on one of our events? Interested in becoming an underwriting sponsor of our chapter’s scholarship efforts? Want to contribute some branded swag, gift cards or other items to be used in our various raffles? All is extremely helpful and very much appreciated. Let us know your thoughts on how we can best partner up!
- Join our scholarship committee! We are always seeking enthusiastic volunteers to help plan new fundraising events. If you have any ideas or would simply like to offer a set of helping hands, please contact our Scholarship Chair to discuss this flexible volunteer role using the form below.
If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Scholarship Chair at scholarship@psuwashdc.org or by submtting a contact form below.
Student Testimonials
“My first year experience at The Pennsylvania State University has been an amazing look into the rest of my college career as well as the years beyond. My scholarship has allowed me to attend the best school in the country and, in turn, I strive every day to give back to the Penn State community and to always take advantage of opportunities that come my way. During my first year at Penn State, I have become involved with student leadership and served as secretary, and now vice president of the Pollock Halls Residence Association. I have sought out to improve my professional development skills by participating in the college of IST’s career fairs where I was able to speak to FBI recruiters and talk with them about internship opportunities within their company (where I one day hope to attain a job working as an intelligence analyst). A few other exciting achievements include me being accepted into the RA training class as well as being chosen to work on the IST Pro Expo board for the upcoming fall! Overall, my first year experience has been extremely rewarding and I have been able to make memories that will truly last a lifetime. Thank you to the Metro Washington Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association for allowing me to follow my dreams and strive for greatness each and every day! Cheers to the future!”
–Judy Rodriguez, PSU Class of 2021
Recipient of 2017 MWCPSAA Scholarship
“I am so thankful for the scholarship award that allowed me to experience all that State College has to offer. Coming to Penn State has allowed me to meet amazing people, while furthering my education. I have been able to meet new people from all backgrounds, talk to company recruiters in my very first year, participate in THON, and of course experience Penn State football. Thank you once again! We Are!”
— Justin Lee
“I am forever so thankful for the opportunity to be able to receive a scholarship from the PSU Alumni Association, Metro Washington Chapter. Freshman year at Penn State was amazing and to be able to go into my first year of college with a tremendous scholarship was a joyous moment. I got the chance to do research with UNESCO this year and joined a Pre-Law Fraternity, Phi Alpha Delta. I was also elected President of Penn State’s National Honor Society, Phi Eta Sigma, and will be partaking in my leadership role this coming fall! I am excited for what the future will hold at Penn State and I can’t wait to be a part of the Metro Washington Chapter once I graduate in order to give back to the Association that once helped me.”
– Nusheena Parvizi
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