Thread: Scholarships

A teacher friend of mine is wondering whether it is feasible to have a scholarship program paid for by troupe funds for dedicated students can't afford more than one class a week. I am wondering how this could even be administered, who decides on the student, how many classes subsidized and for how long. Anyone had experience with this and what problems were? I can already see potential problems of other students jealousy if they feel they are just as deserving. What would criteria be based on?

Opinions, ideas, thoughts?.w.:

Well this is me and I'm not an instructor, but if I were and if I were to offer a scholarship it would be to one of my most dedicated students...

The ones that I know are practicing every night at home, showing up to class every week, the ones that are taking the most classes and show their dedication. They would not necessarily have to be the best dancer but drive and motivation would be a number one factor for me.

As for the other students? Jelousy issues? They would have to get over it. Its like college, not everyone gets a scholarship and those that usually do deserve it cause of some kind of merit that they have demonstrated beyond the norm....

That is not to say, a scholarship does not come without a price. Students must maintain a certain standard, if they are still in school definetly a minimum GPA. Should be required to assist around the studio number hours a week and so forth and or community service.....

Now if your going to offer one openly then have everyone apply, fill out application, have them demonstrate past performance and knowledge of ME dance, write an essay as to why they deserve it.

Personally, I'd prefer to use the troupe funds for something that benefits the whole troupe, like bringing in a special guest instructor for an afternoon class. I might choose to offer a scholarship, work/study situation, or financial break to a student, but I wouldn't expect her troupemates to pay me for her tuition. At least that's how it would feel to me.

When I do a special arrangement with a student who's having financial trouble, that's between me and her unless she's comfortable talking to her peers about it. If they were paying for it, they'd have the right to review her financial situation & decide whether her dance skills/practice habits/etc made her 'worthy' and that would make me very uncomfortable.

I have known teachers over the years who have granted scholarships, but they have made the recipients "earn" them. In NO case was it paid for by money earned by other troupe members.

In every case I've known of that involved scholarships, the student earned them through activities such as the following:

• Mowing the teacher's lawn
• Cleaning the teacher's house
• Giving the teacher manicures
• Handling administrative duties for the teacher's classes, such as updating the teacher's database of students registered for the class, recording attendance, tracking who has paid for class versus who needs to pay, collecting payments.
• Building and updating the teacher's web site
• Giving the teacher massages

In every case, the teacher accepted these services such as barter in exchange for class fees. The good thing about this is that it keeps the transaction strictly between the teacher and the student who receives the scholarship, and it's not necessary for anyone else to be told about it. The teacher then decides who is worthy, and what services the student has the skills to provide that she considers valuable enough to be a fair barter.

I think troupe-earned funds should be NOT be used to grant special favors to individual members. I believe that troupe-earned funds should be used in ways that benefit the troupe as a whole.

I give one for hanging up flyers, or to a young student of mine as my teacher did for me many many times before I even had a car. I am so grateful and pass it along.

I also barter-
Hair dying
Photo shoots (I am lucky to have two professional photographers as students)
Sewing
Hanging up flyers
Etc. etc.

But I also let my students kind of act as my TA on smaller gigs such at high schools and middle schools.

Great to see this thread. I used to offer scholorships with few requirements (like you had to perform at 50% of our gigs, come to 4 classes per week - and people still didn't meet the requirements!) but now I'm thinking of doing more of a barter system or as you all have mentioned, hanging fliers. Something for nothing is sometimes not motivating enough for people.

Pet sitting would be another good barter op added to the list, provided you trust the individual. I'm trying to think of a good one for a low income single mom whose 5 year old is really wanting to take lessons and has already shown some tallent. I was her preschool teacher, so she may have learned to flutter and undulate already from somebody;), though the Ansuya style float escapes her.

What are some things a single mom could do? I don't want to ask her to clean my house because I know she gets little enough time with her children already. Right now all I can think of is giving her a list of businesses to hang fliers at on a weekly basis. Any other ideas?

Thanks for bringing this up!

Kittie

i have a barter system. kind of. i have two students that i pay a fictional 8E per hour for administrative work. they do the work, tell me how many hours it took them (and i know how realistic the figures are as i used to do the same work myself) and then they get to deduct the total amount of their class fee.

Thanks, buzzers for your ideas on this - I like the "barter" system idea because I also think troupe funds are better spent on something that benefits all troupe members.