Scholarships

Over the past several years, many educational exchanges have taken place between schools located in the Western Piedmont region and schools located in the Altenburger Land region. Many of these students have been able to participate in these memorable lifetime experiences as a direct result of scholarship funding made available through the generous donations of WPSCA’s members, supporters, and partners. Successful exchanges have taken place in Germany with US students traveling from Hickory High School (Hickory, NC), Freedom High School (Morganton, NC), and Hibriten High School (Lenoir, NC). Successful exchanges have also taken place in the US with their German student counterparts traveling from Lerchenberg Gymnasium (Altenburg, Germany) and also from Regelschule Schmolln (Altentenburger Land, Germany).

The primary focus of the WPSCA student scholarship program is to build multicultural awareness and understanding among youth globally with a special focus on WPSCA’s Sister Cities partnerships with Altenburg and Altenburger Land in Germany and The Town of Valdese’s relationship with Torre Pellice in Italy.

Additional key focus areas for the WPSCA student scholarship program are as follows:

Youth exchanges
Teacher exchanges
Youth and adult mentorship programs
Youth in governance
Youth in business
Youth in art and music
Youth in technology
Youth in foreign languages
Youth in sciences
Virtual classroom learning
Digital pen pals
Sister school ongoing programs

One-Time Scholarship Amount:

$500

Annual Scholarship Application Deadline:

February 1 for upcoming academic school year

Scholarship Purpose:

To offset the expense of international travel

Scholarship Overview:

Applicants will be asked to customize their own project, which would include a description of how this would benefit their local community based on the experience they would gain from visiting an international partner community. Special consideration will be given to existing partnerships. Applicants with projects defined in any category such as art, music, technology, social sciences, administration, business, or others not specified here are encouraged to apply. Applicants should be 25 years of age or younger and may be sponsored by any educational institutions, businesses or industries located within the 4-county Western Piedmont region of Alexander, Burke, Caldwell or Catawba counties. A WPSCA student scholarship panel of 3 members, nominated by the WPSCA Chair will review the applications and nominate a final recipient by February 15.

Scholarship Requirements:

Must be 25 years of age or younger
Must reside within the 4-county Western Piedmont region (Alexander, Burke, Caldwell or Catawba county)
Submission of the scholarship application form (below) including your 200-word project description.
One written letter of recommendation (personal or business related)
Two personal references including name, email, and phone number of each contact
Student resume with education, skills, experience, and awards listed
Follow-up report submitted to WPSCA scholarship panel no more than 2 weeks following travel return date. Send report directly to scholarships@nullwesternpiedmontsistercities.org.