Dear Partner Colleges,
We had over 100 Scholars who did not renew their scholarship. This is not surprising as we know that many did not do so because they graduated, have permanent residency, transferred to a non-Partner College, or chose not to continue their college education. Unfortunately, because they did not officially “decline” the award, we do not know the reason for their non-renewal.
We now know through your enrollment confirmation forms that some of the Scholars who did not submit the renewal form are still enrolled and attending your institutions. Because they did not submit their renewal form, we could not confirm their continuing eligibility (including DACA/TPS and GPA) and intent to re-enroll. This means they are not eligible to receive funding for the 2016-17 academic year.
As explained in the email to the Scholars (see below), these Scholars do have the opportunity to remain in the Scholarship program and receive funding in future years IF they send an email to Melissa Barrera by November 4thconfirming that they want to renew their Scholarship for the 2017-18 academic year. ISTS will then keep these Scholars active in its system and the Scholars will receive the renewal notice and form in June of 2017. If they do not respond by this date, we will assume that they have decided to forego the Scholarship.
While we appreciate that this may seem harsh, we want you to understand the extent of our outreach to inform and help our Scholars in the renewal process.
- In accepting our Scholarship, our Scholars make a commitment that they will sign up to receive text messages from TheDream.US, add ISTS to their email address list, and promptly respond to emails, text messages, and other communications from TheDream.US and ISTS.
- We continually remind our Scholar to include ISTS in their email address list so important emails do not go to spam or junk folders. As a backup, we send also important emails directly to Scholars from TheDream.US.
- In both our Scholarship Program Guide and our Annual Renewal Orientation, we emphasize the importance of submitting the renewal form on time and advise Scholars that the failure to do so will result in a loss of the Scholarship.
- ISTS sent numerous reminders to the Scholars about the deadline.
- We post a notice of the renewal on the Scholar Facebook page and send text messages reminding Scholars that that they must submit their renewal form by the deadline or they will forfeit their Scholarship.
- And, in the end, we accommodate late, but complete and submitted renewals.
Thank you for all that you do in supporting our Scholars. You are critical to their success. Anything you can do to encourage these Scholars to contact ISTS prior to the deadline will be much appreciated.
Best,
Candy