Director of College Counseling Courtney Hatch Blauvelt regularly uses her expertise to provide a personalized college search experience for MHS students.

This winter, she is also using her expertise to help interested students find ways to help pay for their post-Miss Hall’s education. Ms. H launched the MHS “Scholarship Club,” providing time each week for students to research and work on scholarship applications.

“Every year, students have told me that they wanted more guidance on scholarships,” Ms. H noted, but between busy school days and the work required for the college search and application processes, finding the time for researching and applying for scholarships can be a challenge.

So, she set aside blocks of time spread out over six weeks to offer students a time specifically for scholarship guidance. The sessions are open to 10th, 11th, and 12th graders, and offered during lunch, “What I Need” (WIN), and X blocks, providing opportunities to dig into the work.

“Generally, students who are successful in scholarship applications have an adult presence helping them navigate the process and be accountable for completing application requirements and meeting deadlines, so I try to provide that for our students,” she says. “The goal is to give them dedicated space and time to do the work to find the right scholarships for them and to apply for them.”

Because there is no central database or website with scholarship information, there is a lot of work involved in determining which scholarships a student might even be eligible for, notes Ms. H, though she maintains and shares a detailed list of opportunities she has compiled through the years.

“I don’t really teach or lead during Scholarship Club time,” she adds. “It’s more answering questions and being in the background and helping students narrow their search, prioritize which opportunities they might pursue, and navigate application requirements for particular scholarships.”

Fer Morais Laroca ’23 decided to drop in on the Club on the recommendation of her roommate. “Ms. H showed us how to search for scholarship opportunities, and she provided us with more online tools for doing that,” says Fer. “It was also really helpful to learn more about the timeline to apply for scholarships. I would advise everyone to go, even if they don’t really plan on looking for scholarships, because all of the advice and tools we learned were really helpful to other parts of the college process.”

“There’s a myth that if you go to a private high school, you don’t get to apply for scholarships, and that’s not necessarily the case,” she says. “There are opportunities out there for students in independent schools, and it’s a matter of having the time and support to research and follow through on those opportunities.”