How to Write Creative High School, College and Scholarship Application Essays

My middle school daughter is applying for one of our high school programs, called Distinguished Scholars. She spent several weeks before Winter Break working on two different essays. One that was to introduce herself, her interests and why she wanted to apply to the program. The other essay requirement was to set up a non-profit organization of her choice and explain why she chose that society issue to address. I thought she did a great job of brainstorming different ways to approach each essay and wanted to share that process for future high school and college essay writers.

Friendship First Essay (2 pages)

 I watched as for a week, all she did was plan out her non-profit, including detailing the programs it would provide so she would have a good understanding of what she was representing. She based it on the peer mentoring program she's in and mixed it with wanting to help kids with disabilities (her oldest brother has autism). But she took it from just being a middle school program to being a full school journey experience. Pages and pages of details, programs and ideas. It was inspiring! Then she decided to write a business letter to address that essay. Specifically, a business letter requesting a donation for her non-profit. Here's the non-profit essay. PS - I deleted the street addresses, etc for privacy.

MJ Ferguson

xxx Street

City, State Zip

xxx-xxx-xxxx

December 12, 2014

Paul Williams

XXX High School

xxx Street

City, State Zip

xxx-xxx-xxxx

RE: Friendship First

Dear Mr. Williams,

Thank you for your interest in the Friendship First Program. Our program helps children with disabilities feel like they fit in. Many students with disabilities are left out or bullied. We want them to be welcomed by their peers and enjoy positive social experiences.

In elementary school, we have developed a curriculum for teachers and school counselors to use. In the curriculum, there are short videos that model different disabilities and positive peer friendships. Teachers follow up with a series of questions to spark classroom discussion. The Friendship First website allows students to interact with animated characters that model friendships. The animated characters go through different situations and the students can make choices for the characters to do and see what happens. Along the way, students receive positive guidance.

The program changes as the students move from elementary to middle school. There is a Peer Mentor Program for incoming 6^th to 8^th graders who can apply to join. These mentors are matched up with special needs kids in their grade level. The mentors help with making friends, social situations, and stay buddied through middle school. The mentors train over the summer and through the school year. Ideally these friendships will follow into high school and even after that.

In high school, the Peer Mentor Program is continued but with an added social media aspect. On a Friendship First Forum, there are links for groups to chat with other students, with special needs or not. The goal of the social media addition is to teach teens to interact appropriately on social media. We also have events organized to get the mentors and students with disabilities together to create positive social experiences.

We hope that with this program, students with disabilities will be accepted in the student body, be bullied less, as well as teach the general student body to have more respect and understanding for working with people with disabilities throughout their whole lives.

This program came to be because I grew up with an older brother who had autism and to understand him, you either had to take the time and make an effort to get to know him or grow up with him. I know people probably look at him weirdly when he does certain things, but that is who he is. This program also came to be because when people act differently, the easiest choice is to either ignore them or even bully them to look “cool”. It takes a courageous person to stand up for them and be their friend.

I appreciate your interest in the Friendship First program. If you have any questions, you can contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Sincerely,

MJ Ferguson

Director of Friendship First program

  

Why the Distinguished Scholars Program (1 page)

This was the most difficult essay for MJ to write. She had a hard time adjusting from the attitude of focusing on others and not yourself to needing to brag about her talents, service she's given and her interests. Because really, that's what the essay is for. It's the judges/professors first glimpse at who you are. If they aren't excited or impressed with what they see, then they'll move on to the next person. MJ spent a few days organizing lists of the awards she's received, competitions she's participated in, her talents, service projects, and what specifically makes her interested in the program she's applying for.

*As a side note - this is a great document to create on your computer and continue adding to it every semester. This way you don't forget important activities or awards from earlier in your education career.

For this essay, MJ played with writing it as a serious essay, but it just wasn't working well. She brainstormed some more and decided to use her creative writing talents to make it into her own little fairy tale. I really liked how it hit all the requirements of the essay, but was done in a way that is so totally my daughter.

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Olathe, there lived a girl named MJ with caramel-brown frizzy hair. On hot and humid days, her hair looked liked Taylor Swift with an Albert Einstein twist. At least until she discovered the wonders of anti-frizz hair products!

One day in eighth grade, her teacher asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. MJ thought and thought and thought. But there were so many choices.

She loved going to the Kansas City Astronomy Club to view the stars through their humongous telescopes. But wait! She also loved hiking and adding fossils to her rock collection. But wait again! She enjoyed learning about the world and other countries’ histories. She was even in the Geography Bee twice and really liked it! Maybe she should study science and teach about the stars, the earth, or even the world.

Mixed in with all that geeky stuff was a very creative side, too. Oh so much creativeness. Acting and crafting and music – oh my! The frizzy-haired girl participated in three middle school plays (in one role, she even barked like a dog). Craving cinnamon rolls? She learned how to make the most delicious, moist rolls using potatoes. And music. Oh the joy! Singing, playing the flute, and bringing music to life on the piano brought her happiness every day. Not to mention books. MJ was a readaholic. Friends and teachers almost never saw her without a book in hand. She not only loved to read, but to also create her own stories. Attending writers conferences helped her learn about plot, conflict and how to make her characters interesting. Maybe she should be a baker, a music teacher, or a novelist?

Poor MJ’s head hurt from all the career paths she could take. How could she possibly choose? Then she heard about the Distinguished Scholars program and just knew it could help her explore her geeky side and creative side – and hopefully discover a way to mesh them together for her own happily ever after.

In Closing

A few things to take from this article are:

1. Be organized and take the time to really prep before you start writing.
2. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. Sometimes that's what makes you stand out above everyone else.
3. Be creative in a way that is totally you.
4. Start tracking all your awards, accomplishments, camps, clubs, etc now so you don't have to rethink all those years every time you write an essay.

How to Make Sunday School Class Journals

I'm a Sunday school teacher for the 13 year olds. It's become one of my favorite church classes to teach. In our congregation, we get a new class each January. As I thought about the upcoming year, I wanted to do something fun for my class. I took a few weeks to consider different ideas and finally settled on making Sunday school journals.


The benefits of class journals:

•    The kids have a place to write thoughts and promptings any time during class, rather than trying to remember it for later. My hope is that they'll develop a habit of taking notes on things that are important to them, as well as write down and follow through with promptings they receive.
•    If you have any kids with special needs in your class, the journal will help them remember topics when they return home and is a great visual for review.
•    I am planning to print out 3x5 cards with quotes to go along with the monthly themes and sometimes the individual lessons.
•    At the end of the year, the kids will have a book full of their own thoughts on gospel related topics.
•    And hey, no need to bring paper to pass out for writing activities. It does mean one more bag of stuff to bring to church. I let the kids decide if they wanted to keep the journal in their scripture case or leave it with me to bring each week. Half the class kept them and the other half preferred to have me keep them (as one kid said, to protect it from his younger siblings).

I'm not a crafty person, so I looked up several tutorials on Pinterest to find the best way to cover composition notebooks. This tutorial helped me the most, except I didn't use Modge Podge. A crafty friend of mine suggested Elmer's Adhesive Spray - which was seriously awesome.

A word of caution: It is uber sticky. Protect your crafting area. I covered my dining room table with a plastic table cloth from the Dollar Store. Then also used paper towels where I was spraying the glue so I could swap it out when it got too sticky. What I didn't realize is the spray kind of billows out. I ended up getting some residue on one of the chairs and had to do some clean up afterwards. Thank goodness for Clorox wipes!

Back to the journals.

I used 12x12 sheets of coordinating scrapbooking paper. 4 sheets (2 of one pattern, 2 of another). Then I cut an 8" wide strip, leaving a 4" wide strip. The 8" strips were the base pattern to cover the front and back of the composition notebooks. Then I added the 4" coordinating strip. 4 sheets will cover 2 notebooks. Then I added some awesome subway art scripture or church leader quotes. On the inside of the front cover, I also added a quote and our class promise.

Then I crossed my fingers & hoped the kids would like them. And . . .

They loved them! My hubby told me he even overheard some of the boys talking about them and showing them off to their friends. Score!  If you decide to make some Sunday school journals, I would love to see pics of them & your ideas.

Unique Tips for Setting Up a Blog Tour

Most authors – no matter if they are traditionally published or self published – set up their own blog tours. Some authors band together with peers who write in the same genre, then do a big blog tour together or contest together (like the Massive Romance Reader Squee Moment Ahead contest). Other authors send a “Call to Review” on their blogs or emails (See H.B. Moore’s blog post).

But what if you want to hit a broader market? Or you want to target certain niche readers? A great blog tour has reviewers with both small (100+) and big (1000+) follower counts, reviewers who have relationships with the author & reviewers who don’t know the author, and covers a variety of geographical locations.

For my book – (dis)Abilities and the Gospel – I wanted to get a wide variety of reviewers. Very few people on the tour were writer friends. My goal was to have a lot of reviewers who didn’t know me, who attended different churches, and who either had kids with cognitive disabilities or were church teachers who had someone in their class with a cognitive disability. Here’s how I found them:

First: Get Organized.

I’m a huge spreadsheet organization freak. It’s probably the only area I’m really good at keeping everything on track (Ask my hubby. I’m horrible at keeping my desk organized!) But spreadsheets – I can whip them out like crazy and keep track of gobs of things that way. And a good spreadsheet is essential when putting together a blog tour.

So, let’s get started. Create a spreadsheet with the following fields: Reviewer’s Name, Blog Title, Blog Address, Email Address, # of Followers, Target (for me this was either parent, church teacher, or book reviewer), Contacted On (date you emailed review request), Response, Scheduled Review Date and Review Copy Sent. Add blogs you are interested in to this list. Once you’ve done all your research, sort the list by number of followers and pick some of the bigger blogs and mark those lines in another color. Then sort the list by targets and see which demographics you need more of and mark those with a different color.

Then start sending emails to the bloggers. I had a lot of people return my emails saying they had never done a book review or participated in a blog tour. I sent them additional information, along with expectations for the tour (I gave them the option to choose a date within the tour time frame and told them I wanted their honest opinion about the book).  Don’t be afraid to choose reviewers who don’t have book blogs, but have a connection to the topic related to your book. During my tour, one of my reviewers was a cake decorator who had a child with autism. Her review not only introduced my book to a large group I wasn’t connected with, but was also picked up by several e-magazines. (See Topsy Turvy Cakes)

Start with Your Contacts

If you’re traditionally published, shoot an email over to your marketing team and ask if they have any blog book reviewers they recommend. My publisher actually had a few and even offered to send those bloggers review copies if they agreed to be on the tour.

I also emailed out to some disability and church groups I work with to see if they had recommendations, blogs they frequently went to for information, etc.  If you write YA, email out to your nieces, nephews, church youth groups, your friends’ kids, etc and ask them what blogs they go to check out cool stuff.

Twitter

Twitter was actually my best resource to discover new reviewers. If you’re not on Twitter, then you should start a profile. It’s a great way to connect with others – even if you don’t post on it daily. I try to go out once a week to socialize for about an hour.

On the Twitter homepage, there’s a link at the top that says “Who to Follow”. If you click on it, it brings you to a page with a search box. You can search for anything here (book reviewers, YA Romance, etc). You can also search for books that are like yours – for example, Matched by Ally Condie. Twitter searches through status updates and profile descriptions to suggest friends for you. For my tour, I searched for autism, LDS autism, Down syndrome, special needs, and church to name a few.I went through about a hundred profiles, checked out their activity and following. I also looked at who that person followed. I often found more good leads that way. After narrowing down who I wanted to review, I contacted them through either Twitter email or an email address that was listed on the profile.

Another tip is to do geographical searches – such as Autism Canada or Fantasy Reader Arizona.
Take advantage of hashtag searches too. Check out authors who write in the same genre as you and see what they are doing on Twitter. Elana Johnson did a huge Twitter promo for her book Possession using the hashtag #tagged. You could go through the postings with that hashtag to find readers who loved her book, then contact them to review your book.

Amazon & Goodreads

The awesome thing about Amazon and Goodreads is that they link to their reviewers profiles. Some of those reviewers list their websites or blogs. So you can check out books similar to yours and do some research on readers. Find a few who you really like, then send them an email through their website or blog.

Check Out Other Authors

It’s time to go hit the websites for all the big authors who write in your genre. Especially if you know of an author who has a book coming out in the next few months. They often list all the stops on their blog tour. Go check out those reviewers and their guidelines.  (BTW - Keep all this info in a spreadsheet for future reference!)  To find more authors: Go to Amazon.com, type in an author’s name and hit enter, then check out the “Related Searches” results just under the search box.

In Closing

Putting together a good blog tour involves a bit of internet stalking sleuthing.  But it’s totally worth it when you put together a completed list of reviewers from all over. The goal of a blog tour isn’t just to get (hopefully) awesome reviews, but to reach reader circles you currently don’t have connections with. Go for variety! Happy book tour scheduling!

Teaching Kids About Germs

Our theme for this week's family night was Cold and Flu Awareness. We started off the night by singing Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes - led by Rob (8 years old). Then our 13 year old son, Isaac, was in charge of the lesson. He did a fabulous job, too! He shared some good health habit reminders.

• Wash your hands with warm water and soap for 30 seconds (which is the length of singing the ABC's)
• Wipe down kitchen and bathroom counters and the dining room table with disinfectant wipes.
• Cover your sneeze or cough into the crook of your arm (your elbow)
• Exercise and get plenty of sleep 
• Eat good food and drink lots of water
• Don't share your food or drink
• Use hand sanitizer 

Isaac then followed up his lesson with two short Sid the Science Kid videos. The younger kids loved them!







We ended the night by playing Wii Tennis and munching on popcorn. It was the perfect theme for the upcoming fall and winter weather.

How do you teach your kids about germs and staying healthy?

How to Teach Kids About Money

We are a family with four munchkins. Over the past year, my hubby and I have been teaching our kids about earning money. First we started out with earning rewards with a button system. This was a great starting point. The kids were motivated to do extra chores and help each other.

Now we have a twelve year old and an almost 11 year old. Both of these kids are more interested in earning a bit of moolah to either save for special purchases or fun activities. After some talk with my hubby, we agreed that it's time to start teaching the kids the difference between savings, spending money, and church tithing. Soon after this conversation, I left for my book tour. While I traveled, I found these awesome banks - which totally fit we want to teach our munchkins!

While the wording isn't exactly how I'd like it, it works really well. When I showed them to my kids, I told them the fun money is their spending money, tithing is for church, and the mission fund is their savings and can be used someday for college, wedding or church mission. The kids thought it was cool to have a bank with 3 sections, instead of just one big one.

Since then, we've revamped our chores system.  

I write down chores that need done on small Post-It strips, then put them under our calendar in the kitchen. The kids can choose any they want to do - but they can only take one strip at a time. That way no one can hog all the money. But if no one is interested in doing chores because they'd rather play the Wii (or whatever else is distracting them), then the munchkin who is helping can earn more moolah. Some days everyone takes chores, other days just a few do. It all works out.

When a chore is completed, then the munchkin brings me his strip and I go check to see if it was done the right way. Sometimes I need to give a little direction. When everything is done, then I get out the quarter stash. We pay 50 cents for each chore completed. Some chores we pay more - like raking the leaves or shoveling snow. Sometimes two kids decide to work together to complete a chore. Depending on how big the chore is, they either each get 50 cents or they each get a quarter. 

 

 Earned money goes into their baby food jars we used for the button system. Each week we count up their money and figure out tithing, savings, and spending.

We teach our kids that 10% goes to church, 10% to savings, then the remaining 80% is their spending money. For example, if one of the kids earned $5.00 the break down would be like this:

Tithing - 50 cents

Savings - 50 cents

Spending - $4.00

We've seen this system work well for others. One friend in particular had a mother who taught him this concept when he was young. He stuck with it all through his teen and college years. When he eventually married, he surprised his wife with an awesome 1st anniversary gift - their very first house PAID IN FULL. Now that's a gift his wife will never ever forget!

My husband and I use this same system with our finances and it's been a blessing. We hope our kids will grasp onto the concept, too. Next up, teaching our kids how to create a budget with all that spending money their saving.  =)

All Buttoned Up: A Family Good Works Incentive System

This year, our elementary school rolled out a new "incentive" program, called Brag Bands. Basically, if the kids get caught doing something good, then a teacher or other school worker can reward them with a Brag Band. At the end of each week, students tally up their bands then consult a classroom reward card. Each student gets to choose a reward within the amount of bands he has collected. Each class also had "big prizes" which a student can save their bands up to redeem.

My kids liked this system so much that in February, they devised their own "Brag Band" system for here at home. And let me just say, the work was much harder to earn rewards than my hubby or I would have put together. We told the kids we'd think about it and come up with something that would work better for our family. At the beginning of Spring Break, we unveiled our new plan:

Button Rewards

Yep, buttons. All sorts of pretty buttons.

My hubby and I put together a list of things the kids could do to help out at home. Each item has an assigned number of buttons to go with it. For example:

1    Homework Done without Complaining
1    Clean Room (not on Saturday because that's our family cleaning day)
1    Set the Table
1    Clear the Table
1    Put Dishes Away
1    Load Dishwasher
1    Recycling Out
2    Trash Out
2    Gather Laundry


We've even added a few things that are for a specific child. Our three-year-old is still working on potty training. We decided to add a reward just for her. If she stays dry until lunch time, she earns one button reward. Then if she stays dry until bed time, she can earn another button reward.

My hubby & I also decided that if we found the kids doing something extra nice for one of their siblings, we could reward them with buttons. And the items on the list above are not the only things they can do. Our three-year-old helped me sweep the kitchen one day, so she earned a set of buttons. The list we came up with has items my hubby and I wanted the most help with.

Many of the items listed above can be done by more than one child. Team work is definitely encouraged at our house. If two of our kids work together to set the table, they each earn button rewards.

Handing Out Buttons

There are two different types of buttons in our system - white buttons and colored buttons. When a reward is earned - let's say for putting the dishes away - the child earns 1 white button and 1 colored button.  If the reward is for taking the trash out, then the child would get 2 white buttons and 2 colored buttons. Earned buttons are then put in the child's jar (which are baby food jars we cleaned out & labeled with each child's name).

We started with 100 white buttons and 300 colored buttons. So far, that amount has worked for our four kids. My kids have had fun digging through the button container (which is an easy to open Rubbermaid container), searching for their favorite colors, small buttons, or big buttons. Some colors have gone really fast. The most popular colors have definitely been pink and purple.

Redeeming Awards

You've probably been wondering what's up with the two different types of buttons. My hubby and I decided that we wanted to reward the kids often, but also wanted them to learn how to work for a longer term goal.

So, the white buttons are used for rewards that require fewer buttons. This way, each child should earn at least a weekly reward, but hopefully two or three per week. When someone wants to choose a reward, they count out his buttons with Mom or Dad. Those buttons go back into Mom & Dad's button container. The "Short Term" rewards we came up with are:

Rewards - White Buttons 
5    Wii (30 extra minutes)
5    Computer (30 extra minutes)
5    DS (30 extra minutes)
5    Book Time
10    Call Grandma or Aunt Cheryl
10    Help Make Dinner
10    Dance in the Kitchen
15    Take a Bubble Bath
15    Have a Bowl of Ice Cream
20    Get a Sonic Slush
20    Get a Sundae
20    Rent a Movie
25    Go for a Bike Ride

If the white buttons are for "short term" rewards, then the colored buttons obviously get saved up for the "long term" rewards. We figured these would be redeemed once a month. The "long term" rewards we came up with are:

Big Rewards - Colored Buttons   
60    Visit Julie's House & Jump on her Trampoline
75    Invite a Friend for a Playdate
75    Buy a  Book
100   Invite a Friend for a Sleep-over
125    Go to the Pool
125    Go Roller Skating
125    Go to Monkey Bizness

So far, the button rewards have been working really well. It's been fascinating to see which chores the kids prefer to do. Our five-year-old has cleaned his room every morning before breakfast. Our ten-year-old loves to load & unload the dishwasher. The sink has been dish-free for a longer period of time than I've ever managed! Our eight-year-old has been clearing the table & our three-year-old loves to wipe off the table with a wash cloth after breakfast lunch, and dinner.

It's also been interesting to see who works well together and who doesn't. It's all about personality - who meshes well with each other, or clashes against each other. Kink of like in college when you have roomies. I'm hoping this system may even help the kids prepare for that future part of their lives.

So there you have it. The Ferguson Clan is all buttoned up - and loving it!

How To . . . Make Easy Fleece Blankets

My kids love snuggling up in blankets while they watch TV, read books, or play board games. Lately, I've been finding their bed comforters and mine on the playroom floor, left in the upstairs hallway, and just about anywhere else I can trip and fall over them.

After some brain-storming, I decided to make each of the kids some snugly fleece blankets for Christmas. I'm hoping these smaller blankets will be easier to keep track of and be less of a tripping hazard. They can also be stored in a basket in the playroom for easy clean-up.

The problem was I had never actually made a cute fleece blanket before. So I did some internet research and talked with my friend, Amy, who answered some of my questions. As I was making the blankets, I had this great thought that I should take pictures and pass on my new-found wisdom to others who are clueless about making fleece blankets as I was. :)

My first suggestion is to watch for a really good sale on fleece. I kept watching the Joann Fabric sales and went shopping when their fleece was 50% off. Fleece isn't cheap, and the sale price was totally worth the wait! Before purchasing the fabric, I had to figure out how much to get for each person. The lady at the cutting desk helped me. For my one and half year old, I purchased 1 & 1/4 yards; my four year old 1 & 1/2 yards; and my seven & nine year olds 2 yards of fabric.

Once the fabric is home, the fun begins! I was surprised how easy and fast each of these blankets were to make!

First, you'll want to decide how you want the blanket edges to look. Because fleece doesn't ravel, you don't need to hem the edges - which means you can do lots of fun stuff! There are some fun rotary cutters with creative edges, such as waves, zig zags, etc. You can also cut strips in the fabric and knots on them. I decided I didn't want knots. I thought the knots might be uncomfortable if the kids are laying on the floor, wrapped up in the blanket. For our blankets, I decided I really liked the fringe-edge look.

For this project, you will need:


Fleece, Scissors, One Sheet of Card Stock, and Ruler.



Step 1: Trim off the selvage edge of the fleece. This is the edge that has tiny holes that run up the side. There may be a white edge to indicate the selvage edge, but some fabrics don't have it. I found this edge has a slightly different texture with the holes running along the length. It just needs to be trimmed to the point the texture is fleecy & the holes are no longer on the fabric.


Step 2: Decide how long and wide you want your fringe to be. I decided to have each fringe to be 3" long and 1" wide. This is where the card stock comes in hand. I laid the card stock length-wise (landscape), and measured 3", then cut that section off. This is how long each fringe would be. Then I measured & drew lines every 1". This became my guide for cutting.

At this point, I folded my fleece in half (the direction doesn't matter), then laid it on my bed. I started on the side opposite of the fold, where the two sides meet together. Be sure they are evenly matched before cutting. I like to cut right to left, so I put my ruler on the right side, and laid the extra portion of card stock at the 3" mark, and the section of card stock with the 1" measurements along the bottom of the fleece. (see picture above)


Step 3: Let the cutting begin! Line up your scissors with the 1" marks, and start working your way across, cutting up to the card stock at the 3" mark. After several cuts, I was able to figured out just how far to open my scissors & make the 3" cut at one time. I also got really good at eyeballing how far 1" was. Then I used the bottom portion of the card stock to double check every once in a while. (See two pictures below)





Step 4: When you've finished that side, you will start working on one of the sides that has a fold. I found it was best to start at the fold and work away. Begin by cutting the actual fold itself. (see picture below)



Step 5: Tricky Corners . . . The closer I got to my corner, the more I was worried about how to make it look right. I had read some instructions online, but they were confusing. Basically, you will continue cutting every 1" until you meet the cuts going the opposite direction. (see picture below)



Your last cut will be right along the edge of the opposite fringes, cutting those fringes off. (see below)



When you cut off the fringes, you will be left with a pie wedge shape, as pictured below. (PS - while cutting fringes, be sure not to mistake your finger for the fabric! If you do, cute band-aides really do make it all better!)



Repeat steps 4 & 5 on the last side, and voila! Your fleece blankets are done. If you'd like, you can add some zigzag stitching above the fringes on the blanket, but it's not necessary.



Me & one of the finished blankets.



I finished all of our kids' blankets in about 1 1/2 hours one evening while they were in bed. I hope these pictures and instructions were helpful. If you have any questions, just let me know!

This is a fun and easy project for presents, baby showers, or an easy craft activity for an older child.