Scholarship Information
The Elize Aunahn Memorial Brainfuse Scholarship is a highly-selective scholarship for outstanding students from low-income households. Each year, Brainfuse awards scholarships to deserving students, with the intent of helping them to realize their maximum potential. Awards will be issued to high school juniors. seniors, and community college students who are seeking to attend technical training programs, community colleges, or four-year bachelor’s programs. Scholarship funds will be disbursed directly to the institutions to be attended by recipients.
Elize Aunahn, Vice President of Operations and Academics with Brainfuse for approximately twenty years, passed away on June 16, 2020. To honor her legacy and commitment to enhancing educational opportunities for deserving students, Brainfuse has established a scholarship fund in her name. The award is designed for low-income students who otherwise might be missed by traditional scholarship criteria.
Institutional clients of Brainfuse are eligible to nominate up to two deserving high school juniors or seniors who embody the traits for which Ms. Aunahn was particularly well known. Scholarships will be awarded to promising students who demonstrate a strong work ethic based on schoolwork, employment experience, volunteer contributions, and extracurricular activities; strong leadership ability; exceptional personal success skills; and financial need.
To be eligible for the Elize Aunahn Memorial Brainfuse Scholarship, applications must be submitted on or before May 1, 2024. Applications are only accepted online and may be completed through this Google Form.
Q: My library is part of a consortium or a state program. Does the application need to come from the consortium or state?
A: Each library may submit 2 recommendations. For statewide, consortiums, and other unique groups, the recommendations would come from the individual library. However, if your library has several branches, the recommendations would be 2 for all the branches.
Q: Is this open to US institutions only?
A: Eligible institutions are based in either the US or Canada.
Q: How is “low-income” defined? Is there a certain threshold the student needs to be under?
A: We do not have a specific threshold for what is considered low-income.
Q: How can I collect responses from staff and the community without using the Google form?
A: We have created a customizable PDF that you can use to collect responses from your staff and community members.
Please note the scholarship committee will only consider applications submitted through the Google Form.
Q: Is this for employees only?
A: No, this scholarship is open to any high school junior, senior, or community college student who uses the services provided by your institution.
Q: What happens if there are more than 2 submissions from an institution?
A: We will only review the first 2 applications received from existing institutional clients.
Q: On the application, what do I put for Brainfuse program(s)?
A: Brainfuse offers a number of programs to institutional clients, specifically HelpNow, JobNow, LearnNow, and VetNow. You are eligible to submit recommendations if your institution subscribes to any of the services. For our school and community college institutions, your program is a customized version of HelpNow.
Q: Will the two recommended students automatically receive a scholarship from Brainfuse?
A: We will award 2 per year based on the submissions from our institutional clients. A recommendation does not guarantee a scholarship.
Q: Is there a deadline for the submission of names?
A: The application needs to be submitted through this Google Form on or before May 1, 2024, for students to be eligible to receive a scholarship award for the fall semester of 2024.
Q: I want to nominate a high school junior, but they have no applied for college yet. Are they still eligible?
A: Funds for the scholarship will be distributed to the schools by June 1, 2024. If the student has not decided by then, the funds will go to an alternate.
Q: Do the students need to fill anything out?
A: The essay section titled “Student Qualifications” can be filled out by a student or by a school staff member. Parent/guardian assistance is also allowed. Staff is permitted to fill out the entire application.
Q: When/how will winners be announced?
A: Winners will be announced via email to the institutions and then we will send out a press release.
