NICEVILLE — The Mensa Education & Research Foundation Scholarship program annually awards thousands of dollars to students, and this year, at least two Northwest Florida residents could receive scholarships.
The application process — available at www.mensafoundation.org/scholarships — is open through Jan. 15, 2015. Applicants must be legal United States residents and plan on attending or be attending United States universities. They don't have to be Mensa members.
The program bases awards totally on applicants' up to 500-word essays. Judges evaluate essays for content, style, grammar and coherence. Emphasis will be placed on a goal statement with specific information on experience or steps taken toward the goal, persuasiveness — how past achievements, experiences and planning increase the probability of reaching your goal — and how you expect to succeed. Grammar, spelling and punctuation also will be evaluated.
The Northwest Florida Mensa Local Group, which covers 10 counties west of the Apalachicola River, is a participating group again this year. Over the past decade, the foundation has awarded more than $14,000 in scholarships to these counties' residents.
Additional scholarships are awarded at regional and national levels to applicants who meet specific academic or personal requirements.
The Mensa Education & Research Foundation is a philanthropic, non-profit, tax-exempt organization funded by American Mensa members' and other donors' gifts. American Mensa is an organization open to anyone who scores in the top 2 percent on an accepted, standardized intelligence test.
Learn more at www.us.mensa.org or call 800-66-MENSA.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Mensa foundation offering NWF scholarships