For those women that search for educational funding, college grants are the best option to go for because it is an essential source of college funding targeted at reducing the negative effect of the high cost of education among women.
By taking advantage of grants, scholarships, loans, and alternative means of funding, women can easily attain their desired education and career level.
Now, are you interested in information about the best funding opportunities for women! Seat tight and read this article, we are bringing you the compilation of the most prominent opportunities that donors have open for women.
What are college grants
College grants are financial aid to people who are pursuing higher education. Unlike student loans, grants do not require repayment. College grants also differ from scholarships, which are usually given to and by specific groups of people for a specific line of study and often require students to excel as a scholar or athlete.
Grants are typically need-based and awarded to students who may need help overcoming obstacles or barriers to education.
College Grants for Women
College grants for women enable females students to meet their educational and career demands. For women who have put their studies on hold, securing a grant may aid them to pay for college expenses. Like scholarships, education grants for women are free money. Meaning they aren’t like loans. As such, they can be a perfect source of financial aid for women of all ages and levels of education.
Why college grant for women is important
Below are a few ways grants are improving opportunities for women:
Bridge the gender pay gap
Reducing the cost of higher education by making scholarships available to female students helps women continue closing the wage gap.
Widen access to male-dominated fields
By providing financial aid to the male-dominated educational pursuit, female grants can lead to more gender diversity in the workplace.
Enable women to find work and gain skills
Many organizations have realized the skill gap among women and have created grants for women who want to advance academically after taking a break to raise their kids.
Top college grants for women
Here are the list of college grants for women:
- Patsy Takemoto Mink Education Foundation Scholarship
- AAUW Career Development Grants
- Barry Goldwater Scholarship Grant
- AAUW Research Publication Grant in Engineering, Medicine, and Science
- Jeannette Rankin Foundation Award
- Live Your Dream: Education and Training Awards for Women
- Philanthropic Education Organization for Continuing Education
Patsy Takemoto Mink Education Foundation Scholarship
The Foundation offers grants of up to $5000 each to assist low-income women with children who are pursuing education or training.
The grant is to felicitate educational access, opportunity, and equity for low-income women, especially mothers, and educational enrichment for children.
2021-2023 application criteria Patsy Takemoto Mink Education Foundation Scholarship
- Have to be a woman, at least 17 years of age.
- must be a mother, with minor children.
- should be pursuing a first degree at a post-secondary level of education and must be pursuing such degree at an institution that does not discriminate on the basis of sex/gender, identity, race/ethnicity, religion, disability, immigration status.
- The applicant should be from a low low-income household
AAUW Career Development Grants
This grant provides funding to women with a bachelor’s degree and are preparing to advance or change careers or re-enter the workforce in education, health, and medical sciences, or social sciences.
The grants were first developed in 1972 to offer “encouragement” funding to AAUW members seeking to renew or resume academic work for credit toward career or employment advancement.
Today, the grants sponsor academic work beyond a bachelor’s degree, including a master’s degree, second bachelor’s degree, certification program or specialized training in technical or professional fields.
Barry Goldwater Scholarship Grant
This college funding was established in 1986 to serve as a legacy to honor the lifetime work of Senator Barry Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years in the U.S. Senate.
By providing scholarships to sophomores who intend to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering, the Goldwater Foundation is helping ensure that the U.S. is producing the number of highly qualified professionals the Nation needs in these critical fields.
AAUW Research Publication Grant in Engineering, Medicine, and Science
It is a fact that having a strong publication antecedence is a factor to receiving promotions and tenure in engineering, medicine and science. Yet persistent gender stereotypes and bias in these fields can make it difficult for women to find the time and institutional support needed to publish their research. These grants help women overcome these barriers by funding research projects that will culminate in scholarly publications.
They are open to women scholars conducting basic research in engineering, medicine or the physical or biological sciences and who have a doctorate degree in one of those fields. The grantee must publish their research in a scholarly publication and be listed as a primary author.
Jeannette Rankin Women’s Scholarship Fund
Jeannette Rankin Foundation (JRF) awards financial aid to help low-income women over the age of 35 women succeed through post-secondary education. JRF provides a full menu of wrap-around supports including Scholar Support Calls, an Emergency Fund, and a program called Compsych that serves as an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to provide free mental health counseling for the whole family, along with legal and financial advice and a host of other services.
Live Your Dream: Education and Training Awards for Women
The Soroptimist Live Your Dream: Education & Training Awards for Women assist women who provide the primary source of financial support for their families by giving them the resources they need to improve their education, skills and employment prospects.
Each year, more than $2.8 million in education grants are disbursed through the Live Your Dream Awards program to over 1,700 women, many of whom have overcome enormous obstacles including poverty, domestic violence, the death of a spouse, and/or substance abuse.
Philanthropic Education Organization for Continuing Education
The P.E.O. Program for Continuing Education (PCE) aims to give one-time need-based grants to women who are citizens or legal permanent residents of the United States or Canada for use in completing a degree or certification necessary for improving or gaining skills leading to employment.
The grant is financial aid for education-related expenses such as:
- Tuition
- Books, supplies
- Testing and graduation fees
- Transportation
- Childcare (only while in class or studying)
- Uniforms required by the educational program
- Equipment/tools necessary for the course of study
Conclusion
As a grant seeker, you need to consider various options and multiple identities that would best suit various grants schemes, such as being a female religious affiliation, Also worth considering is the locality and geographical locations. As a grant seeker, you should check where you live or where you have or had a residency.
Another major thing to consider in your search for a grant is your research and academic interests.
Personal workshop for grants opportunities: after taking note and consideration of all these points listed above, you then start to organize your opportunities. Create a mini journal or template with a list of grants and when they are due and their deadlines.
Get your applications ready: ensure that your resume, transcripts, personal statement, and other application documents are ready. Review them over and over again. Ensure that the persons to write your letters of recommendation are ready to work with you. Help them by providing your resume, transcript, and a brief statement of your career aims.
