Treasure Hunt for Unusual Scholarships

When Kathie and Rosemary Galan first thought of attending Cal State Northridge, they never dreamed that their father’s job as a sheet metal worker would help get them college scholarships.

But as dependents of a CSUN physical plant management employee, the sisters have secured three scholarships between them, totaling $2,250. Rosemary Galan, who said she had previously applied for financial aid but was rejected because of her parents’ incomes, is grateful for the money in spite of its unusual source.

“It motivates people and gives them a chance,” the 19-year-old liberal studies major said after recently learning that she will be awarded a second $750 scholarship. “I’m going to buy books with the money. I think it makes me study a little bit more.”

Funds for the scholarship, which can be applied for by any full-time CSUN student who is a dependent of a CSUN physical plant management employee, come from an annual department-sponsored supervisory training workshop. Proceeds from a fee that public and private companies pay to send their employees to the workshop are set aside for scholarships.

Carlos Galan, who in March marks his 20th anniversary as a sheet metal worker at CSUN, and his wife, Mary, a teacher’s aide, are putting their two children through college.

“We would have been able to have done it without the scholarships, but it helps,” Carlos Galan said. “It encourages the students to be here and also helps the employees to appreciate working here.”

At colleges across the nation, unusual scholarships can be found along with the more traditional ones awarded to athletes, minorities or high-achievers.

At CSUN, these oddball scholarships include some available to students interested in careers in the retail grocery trade, the frozen food trade or the insurance field, or those who are dependents of Litton Industries employees.

Some are offered by businesses hoping to attract management-level graduates into their ranks.

Farmers Insurance Group, for instance, has made more than $39,000 in scholarship funds available to CSUN since 1986. The money, given to employees’ alma maters for at least four continuous years, is intended for students whose field of study is related to insurance, such as math, business administration or personnel, said Jerald G. Clemens, company spokesman.

Samantha Banh, 19, a CSUN finance and real estate major, said the $750 she received from Farmers allowed her to spend less time at work and more time on her studies.

The Southern California Frozen Food Council will award $4,000 in the 1991-92 school year to business students, with special consideration given to those employed in the retail grocery business or by a frozen food broker or food manufacturer. The Western Assn. of Food Chains awarded two $1,000 scholarships last year to students interested in the retail food trade. In addition, Litton Industries has scholarships open to dependents of its employees.

Companies fund these types of scholarships because “they’re trying to promote people into their industry,” said Dan Cassidy, president of the Santa Rosa-based National Scholarship Research Service, which compiles a comprehensive nationwide list of unusual scholarships.

Jerry Campbell, vice president of the Southern California Frozen Food Council, agreed. “We want qualified people in our trade,” he said. “By supporting education, in the long run, the people who enter our field are more qualified.”

Lili Vidal, scholarships administrator at CSUN, said businesses and organizations gain by offering such scholarships.

“In order for business to stay competitive, they need a work force that is educated,” Vidal said.

Other companies and organizations hope to give students a better shot at a good education.

The Network of Executive Women in Hospitality’s scholarship committee plans to ask its board of directors for $30,000 in scholarships for the 1991-92 school year. The scholarships will be offered for the sixth year to women enrolled in an accredited program relating to the hospitality trade, such as interior design or hotel management. Last year, the group gave out $21,000 in scholarships.

“Women have been passed up for men in the office for a long time,” said Nan Quarles, the group’s vice president of scholarships and education. “We’re not women’s libbers; we’re just trying to give them a chance.”

The CSUN scholarship program is designed to give students the optimum chance at receiving funds, Vidal said. Those applying must complete a two-page form stating academic and employment information and, for those seeking need-based scholarships, a Student Aid Application for California. Each student’s information is examined by a faculty committee, which ranks the applicants according to financial need and academic achievement.

Vidal then matches the student with an appropriate scholarship. In the 1990-91 school year, about 700 students applied for $260,000 in scholarships, a figure that has risen from $88,000 over the past four years (the number of applicants has remained about the same).

CSUN will offer 35 merit scholarships of $1,000 each for the first time for the 1991-92 school year. The merit awards were endowed by the late James Simpson, a longtime Encino resident.

But sometimes finding a match to scholarships with strict requirements is impossible and the money goes unused.

In other cases, students aren’t aware of the scholarship opportunities or don’t bother to apply. The Congressional House Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education found in 1983, the last time it conducted a survey, that nationally $6.6 billion in aid from the private sector had gone unused each year.

The deadline for scholarship applications at CSUN is Feb. 1. Forms and information are available through the University Scholarship Program in the campus Financial Aid Office, (818) 885-4907.