Apply now for Jack Kent Cooke Foundation College Scholarship
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation College Scholarship Program offers funds — up to $40,000 a year — to support the college ambitions of high-achieving students with financial need.
The scholarship, which can be renewed for up to four years, is available to high-school seniors who have GPAs of 3.5 or higher and have scored in the top 15 percent on the SAT or ACT.
According to the foundation’s web site, students whose families make up to $95,000 a year will be considered; however, most of the recipients will have family income low enough to qualify for a Pell Grant.
The first part of the application process is open now. There is no cost to apply. The Phase I application must be mailed in by November 3, 2015. Financial information, school records and teacher recommendations are required for the application, so allow yourself time to compile and complete the needed paperwork.
One-day science classes for kids at UWG in Carrollton
The University of West Georgia will offer two science workshops for kids ages 8 to 12 this fall.
- Oct. 9, 2015: Spooky science workshop. (Yes, this is a Friday. Carroll and Coweta county schools are closed that day.)
- Nov. 7, 2015: Crime lab chemistry workshop.
Each workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on UWG’s Carrollton campus and costs $35.
Kids, teachers invited to STEAM3 conference at GSU
Kids can play in an interactive STEAM playground while teachers learn about new classroom tools and techniques at the STEAM3 conference, Sept. 11-12, 2015 at Georgia State University.
The educational portion of the conference will feature speakers from Georgia State, Georgia Tech, and the private sector. Displays and demonstrations will be broken down into four areas: the living classroom, interactive storytelling, make magic, and the game of learning. Installations will include robots, multi-layered projection, virtual reality, and music composition via computing.
Ticket prices range from $10 for a one-day student pass to the interactive playground to $49 for access to the entire conference.
Free Saturday classes at Atlanta Gifted Academy
Atlanta Gifted Academy in Marietta is offering a series of free Saturday classes, starting next weekend.
Sessions planned for 2015-16 are:
- Sept. 12, 2015: Kitchen chemistry (ages 4-6)
- Oct. 10, 2015: Spanish (grades 2-5)
- Nov. 14, 2015: Engineering in motion (grades 2-5)
- Dec. 5, 2015: Mind bending art class (grades 2-5)
- Feb. 27, 2016: History mystery (grades 2-5)
- March 15, 2016: Kitchen chemistry (grades K-2)
To register, contact the school at (770) 726-0123.
Registration starts today for Duke TIP programs at UGA
Registration will begin today at 5 p.m. for the fall session of the Duke TIP programs at UGA.
Current fifth and sixth graders who have participated in the Duke TIP 4th-6th Grade Talent Search can sign up for the Academic Adventures program, one-day classes on the UGA campus. The fall 2015 dates will be Nov. 14 and Dec. 5.
For students in grades 8 to 11, UGA will offer a Duke TIP Scholar Weekend, Oct. 10-11. This program is open to students who have participated in a Duke TIP talent search or who have been identified as gifted by their local school criteria.
Popular courses will fill quickly.
Scholarships to elite colleges for low-income, high-achieving students
Low-income students often don’t apply to our nation’s elite colleges, believing those prestigious campuses are out of their reach because of their families’ finances.
QuestBridge aims to change that with its National College Match program, which is now accepting applications from rising high-school seniors.
Students choose their top schools from three dozen highly respected universities, including Amherst, Dartmouth, Brown, Emory, MIT, Princeton and Stanford. The schools review the applicants, and if they want to admit a student who selected them, the student will receive a full scholarship to their school. If a match isn’t made with the applicant’s top choices, the student will still be considered by all participating universities and may receive significant financial aid.
The application deadline is Sept. 28, 2015. The application is extensive, requiring transcripts, letters of recommendation, and financial records, so you’ll want to get started now.
Robotics team for teens forming in East Cobb
East Cobb Robotics is looking for teens ages 14 to 18 who would like to join a FIRST Robotics Competition team for the 2015-16 season.
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international program that gives high-school age kids the experience of being on a team of engineers. FIRST teams not only learn to use sophisticated hardware and software to design and create their competition robot, but also raise funds, build community partnerships and create a team brand, all while learning leadership and teamwork skills.
For this reason, East Cobb Robotics is recruiting teens interested in not only robotics and programming, but also community outreach, marketing and video production.
East Cobb Robotics will hold an informational meeting for prospective team members and their parents on July 25, 2015. Applications will be due August 1. See the web site for details.
Writing contest open to Fulton County teens
If you’re looking for a little motivation to get your teen writing this summer, the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System is running a writing contest with cash prizes.
The contest asks for essays of 250 words or less about a real-life hero who had an impact on the writer’s life.
Entrants must live in Fulton County or attend a Fulton County public school, and must be 12 to 18 years old. The submission deadline is August 1, 2015.
Full contest rules are available at the library’s web site.
Teens invited to submit original films for local festival
The Fayette Youth Film Festival is seeking short films made by teens, age 19 or under.
Selected films will be screened at the group’s first ever film festival, taking place July 31, 2015. Finalists will be eligible for internships, cash prizes, and even an appearance in a feature film.
To qualify, a film must be five minutes or less, must have been made after January 2014, and must contain only PG-rated content.
The registration page provides more detail on the judging criteria and categories.
The regular submission deadline is June 13. Fees for entry increase after that, with the final submission deadline set at July 11. Entry fees range from $20 to $40 per film.
Museum of Design offers summer weekend workshops
Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) is offering a variety of hands-on workshops for kids on Saturdays and Sundays this summer.
Now through early August, weekend workshops will let kids ages 8 to 15 try their hands at 3-D printing, aircraft design, or coding with the simple SCRATCH programming language. Younger children, ages 8 to 12, can take littleBits classes in which they’ll design an animal or superhero gadget from their imagination.
All classes last 90 minutes and are $25 for MODA members, or $30 for non-members.
Gifted Atlanta 