Apply for a PLEN Scholarship Today!
PLEN seminars are a space for women students from across the country to connect, learn, and grow personally and professionally. We understand that time and budgets are tight in college, so we offer scholarships to our six annual seminars to offset the costs of seminars and make them accessible to all women. While we do everything we can to provide a scholarship to all applicants, our process is very competitive. Follow the steps below to make sure your application is not only completed on time, but also stands out from the crowd!
- DECIDE WHICH SEMINAR YOU’RE GOING TO ATTEND — AND PUT THE SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINE ON YOUR CALENDAR
This step is simple: decide on the PLEN seminar you want to attend (remember, you can always come to another one later!) and put the scholarship application deadline on your calendar. Scholarship applications are accepted throughout the year, so PLEN has a September deadline, November deadline, and February deadline. The scholarship deadline for the Women, Law, and Legal Advocacyseminar and Women in Health Policy seminar are in September; the scholarship deadline for the Women in Public Policy seminar and Women in STEM Policy seminar are in November; and the scholarship deadline for the Women and Congress seminar and Women in Global Policy seminar are in February. Mark these dates on your calendar, and make sure your evaluator and financial aid office is also aware of the date they should send in your application materials. We know that you have a lot going on during these times of the year, so we sometimes extend the scholarship deadlines to give you more time to apply; make sure you check the PLEN website for deadline updates.
- CREATE A BUDGET PLAN FOR THE SEMINAR
Receiving a PLEN scholarship can greatly help your ability to attend a seminar, but creating a detailed budget will help you understand the money you need to raise in case you don’t get a PLEN scholarship or need to look for additional funding elsewhere. PLEN has put together seminar fees, estimated hotel fees, transportation fees, and costs of meals during the seminar in our student portal. This is not an exhaustive list, but it can help you when setting an initial budget plan for your time in DC.
- ASK SOMEONE FOR A RECOMMENDATION
One item in your scholarship application is a letter of recommendation from someone who can attest to your deservingness of a PLEN scholarship. Professors, coaches, internship and workstudy supervisors, and academic or organization advisors are all great options for letters of recommendations. When you have someone in mind, ask them as soon as possible (they’re even busier than you!) If possible, sit down with your evaluator and tell them about PLEN, why you’re interested in this opportunity, and the experiences that you’ve had or learned from them that make you a great fit for this scholarship. While you may feel that your evaluator knows you well, you should still make sure they know about PLEN so that they can personalize your letter. Once they agree, make sure to send them the Letter of Recommendation Form and ask them to fill it out and submit it with your letter.
- FIND YOUR PROOF OF FINANCIAL NEED
If you receive financial aid, you can access your FAFSA account online and download your Student Aid Report. Attach this document to your online application. If you do not receive any sort of financial aid, you’ll need to contact your financial aid office. Like asking for a letter of recommendation, ask your financial aid office for this letter as soon as possible. When you find a contact, send them the Proof of Financial Need Form and state in the email why you’re requesting this information from their office. They can send the completed form and a letter attesting to your financial aid status to plen.scholarship@gmail.com.
- WRITE YOUR RESUME
At every PLEN seminar, there is a resume review session where PLEN mentors will provide resume writing advice and review students’ resumes one-on-one. We don’t expect your resume to be perfect, but we do want to get a sense of who you are, and that includes looking at your resume. A great resume is no more than a page long, easy to read, and includes your name and contact information, and your most relevant work, volunteer, leadership, and academic experience, with short descriptions of what you did in that position. If you have additional questions about resume writing, visit your university’s career services office and set up an appointment to review your resume.
- PLAN OUT YOUR ESSAYS
There are two short-answer essays included in the scholarship application. The first question asks about your career goals. Like the resume, we don’t expect your career plan to be perfect, but we do want you to get the most out of a PLEN seminar as possible. When answering this item, ask yourself the following questions: what career am I interested in pursuing? What do I know about policy, and what more do I want to learn? How can I apply what I learned in my coursework to this seminar? With this question, PLEN staff wants to see how you see yourself and your future.
The second question in the scholarship application refers to how you will use your PLEN experience to enrich your community or campus. Your PLEN experience doesn’t end when you step back onto the plane to go home, it doesn’t end when you graduate college, and it still won’t end even if you never come back to Washington, DC. PLEN is a network of over 6,000 alumnae that live all over the United States and the world that will offer support wherever your career path leads you. When you finish a PLEN seminar, you are immediately part of the PLEN Alumnae Network, and will be added to our growing Facebook and LinkedIn groups, and receive exclusive invitations to events. Think about the answers to your first short answer question, and tell us how you can share this leadership experience with your friends, colleagues, and greater community.
- SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION!
You can now submit your application easily through a Google Form! Once you have perfected your resume and essays, found your financial aid information, and requested a letter of recommendation, you’re good to go! You can access the scholarship application here, or on the PLEN Scholarships webpage. Read the directions and the questions on the form carefully, and make sure you’re submitting everything correctly. When uploading your materials, you can either upload your FAFSA information and letter of recommendation yourself, or submit them via email. If you don’t have all of your documents ready at once, that’s okay! When you submit your application, you’ll receive an email confirmation, and that will provide you with a link to edit your submission if necessary (just make sure you submit everything before the deadline!) If you cannot find this email or cannot edit your response, you can always submit materials to plen.scholarship@gmail.com.
- CHECK YOUR EMAIL
When you submit your application, you’ll receive an email from plen.scholarship@gmail.com within 2 business days confirming your application submission. The scholarship committee will let you know if your application is complete or if you’re missing any materials. All scholarship correspondence will be over email, so make sure you check your inbox regularly!
PLEN seminars enrich your coursework, introduce you to the policy world in DC, and connect you with a lifelong network of strong women leaders from around the country. When applying for a PLEN scholarship, planning ahead is essential for budgeting, writing effective resumes and essays, and ensuring that each item of your application is submitted on time. Are you ready to take the first step towards your policy career? Apply for a PLEN scholarship today!
Hayley Humiston is the Programs and Communications Manager for PLEN, where her main focus is to plan the logistics of each seminar. She is also responsible for marketing, communications, and social media outreach.
