North Carolina Campus Compact is excited to welcome a new scholarship for Community Impact Student Award Recipients. Students who receive the CISA, and have demonstrated continued leadership in community service are eligible to receive the Alternative Service Experience Scholarship.
Starting his freshman year at Western Carolina University, Aaron Marshall viewed the alternative break experience to be an opportunity for university students to step out of their comfort zones. Students were able to perform acts of direct service for individuals far removed from the typical university setting, an extremely gratifying and transformative experience. As his time continued at Western, his involvement increased substantially with the alternative service experience program. His last year at Western, Aaron created and staffed a paid position within the Center for Service Learning. This paid position was to lead, organize and facilitate the spring and fall break alternative service experiences and grow the capacity of these programs at Western Carolina University.
Aaron saw the transferrable benefits of his 9 total alternative service experiences and the enormous impact on his personal and professional life. Through these alternative service experiences he changed his perspective and built a perspective on servant leadership with a heart of respect, resilience, and empathy. In realizing that a need to existed to engage, enable and inspire students to cultivate those same leadership skills from the experiences he was offered at Western, Aaron has worked alongside North Carolina Campus Compact to develop a scholarship opportunity, the Alternative Service Experience Scholarship.
This scholarship opportunity is focused on fostering a spirit of community service to students who demonstrate the capacity and desire to lead an alternative service experience. This experience would be in coordination with their institution and the student would need to demonstrate a need for advanced funding in support of the alternative service experience. The funds would directly augment those needed for the student to attend the alternative service experience, provided they serve in a leadership capacity on the experience and then assist in facilitating an upcoming alternative service experience within their institution, thus setting a framework to build and sustain capacity within the alternative service experiences of that students institution.
Selection Criteria:
Students are recipients of the CIS-Award from North Carolina Campus Compact.
Students have attended or plan to attend an alternative service experience during an academic break period during their academic career at a North Carolina Campus Compact member institution.
Students demonstrate capacity and desire to lead, facilitate and organize an alternative service experience at their institution within the coming academic year.
Preference is given to students who are currently receiving financial aid, and/or are military veterans or dependents.