When students apply for our funding, we also help them identify and apply for additional pots of money as part of a larger strategy to leverage resources. For example, when a student expresses interest in Worker Retraining, we also have that student apply for Federal Financial Aid. Why? Because a pot of money like Federal Financial Aid can typically provide more financial support than a local program like Worker Retraining can. Moving a student onto Federal Financial Aid also allows Workforce Education to preserve its funding - in this example, Worker Retraining - for other students who, for some reason or another, do not qualify for Federal Financial Aid. It's a win-win scenario for all parties involved.
In addition to Federal Financial Aid, we also encourage students to apply for Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funding, WAVE scholarships, the Quality Through Training Program (QTTP), Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), as well as Foundation Scholarships offered at Green River Community College.
In a nutshell, our philosophy in Workforce Education is simple - create options by applying for as many different funding programs as possible.
A final source of funding we regularly encourage new students to look into is a free, web-based scholarship clearinghouse for Washington State scholarship seekers called TheWashBoard.org. This scholarship clearinghouse adds new scholarships every week, and it allows users to create an online profile, then find scholarships within the system that "match" the information provided in that profile.The site is secure and recently went through and intensive enhancement phase to improve accessibility and ease of use. What's more, according to a recent Seattle Times article, there are scholarships at the site that go unclaimed for lack of applicants. If you haven't already, visit the site to set up a free online profile today!
