As a graduate student, I don’t get the massive number of enthusiastic (often time repetitive) emails about “New Scholarship Opportunities in Your Account!” (an actual, albeit too rare, email subject heading) as I did when I was an undergraduate or even a high school student.  It would be nice, some time, just once, to have an email inbox overflowing with potential college money, ripe for my picking instead of electronic reminders that “Loan Interest Payment Due Soon” or “Your Checking Account Is Overdrawn [because you had the audacity to buy groceries AND pay your electric bill]” (yep, more examples of actual, far-too-frequent, email subject lines).

That being said, I’m a giving person at heart.  I sponsor families in need in my hometown, give generously to campaigns and causes about which I am passionate, and tweet like mad for organizations I support.  While the latter doesn’t cost me any money, and I don’t do these things for anything other than the intrinsic rewards, it would be nice if I could have my cake and eat it too, instead of donating it to the local food pantry.  So, when I found the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation’s newest scholarship reward, I’ll admit I was equal parts psyched and skeptical.  A scholarship just for graduate students that also promotes and supports the Bullying Academy’s anti-bullying program?  I clicked the link and, sure enough, right under “Eligibility” it said: “All graduate education majors in the U.S. [emphasis added]”.  Score! 

Having been a teacher for several years, I have seen firsthand both the bullying done in schools and the potential teachers and administrators have to affect positive change for their students surrounding the issue of bullying.  The Bullying Academy’s online program can offer me, the teacher, a tool for raising awareness and combating the disastrous effects of bullying both in and out of my classroom.  Far too many of my students have feigned headaches or stomachaches in order to stay or go home early from school because they were being bullied.  I’m only one person in a classroom of twenty students, and my colleagues and I do what we can, but it never seems like enough.  What I love about the Bullying Academy program is that it puts the power and tools to end bullying in the hands of people who can do the most to affect it: the students.

By participating in this scholarship through the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation, I have my long-awaited opportunity to do some good and (maybe) get a little something extra in return.

www.cksf.org

The school year is coming to an end for many high school students, but we want to take a moment to focus on those students whose “school” never closes: the thousands of home school students whose classrooms are also their living rooms. At the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation (CKSF), we know that the process of figuring out how to pay for college is a daunting one.  With long, complicated financial aid and scholarship forms that often ignore a “Home School” option, we understand the frustration of applying for money you rightly deserve when you don’t fit the “traditional” student mold.  That frustration is, in part, what led to the start of CKSF in 2001.  Just like how not every student is a stellar academic or award-winning athlete, not every student leaves home for eight hours-a-day, 180 days-a-year to receive a quality education.

Whether you call your teacher “Ms. Smith” or “Mom,” CKSF has a scholarship for you.  Once registered with us, it does not matter whether you are home schooled by Dad or attend an elite, Ivy League preparatory school.  We strive to create an environment of scholarship opportunities in which every one of our students has an equal chance of earning a scholarship through CKSF.  Our scholarships have been won by home schoolers before, and we are confident they will be again and again. 

If you are home schooled or know someone that is, feel free to contact CKSF.  The contact link is at the bottom of the CKSF website or you can click here.

For thirteen years, high school and college students have been signing up with the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation (CKSF) to win scholarships by testing what they know.  Sometime in June or July of 2013, an unsuspecting student will become the millionth to do so. 

Thirteen years ago, Alex Velasquez and Daryl Hulce noticed an interesting phenomenon; students from around the world were logging into their online quiz generator and taking quizzes for no apparent reason.  They wondered why anyone would do that, unless they were forced to as part of a course.  A couple of quick emails asking students why sparked a source for scholarships that really has become “common knowledge” in the scholarship world. 

As it turns out, all sorts of people want to test what they know or remember about a specific book, movie, course or general trivia.  When the chance to win money is added to the mix, the numbers increase exponentially! And this is the story of the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation.  Since its beginning, people have been donating money to create scholarship quizzes, and students across the United States have been signing up to take them. 

It isn’t hard to understand why Common Knowledge Scholarships are compared to most other scholarships.  With CKSF, there are no essays to write, no forms to fill out, no GPA requirements and it doesn’t matter how much money you or your parents make.  Scholarships are awarded based on what a person knows about the quiz topic and how quickly he/she can answer a set of quiz questions about the topic. 

There are several things that add to the appeal of Common Knowledge Scholarships.  The fast-paced quizzes are only 15 questions long.  Even students who take their time spend no more than ten minutes answering the questions. The quizzes are also automatically scored and results are displayed as soon as the student submits the last question.  All scores are then ranked on the CKSF results page www.cksf-results.com. But most of all, the quizzes are fun and interesting.  Many CKSF participants are fanatical about taking every CKSF quiz they can even though they have never won a scholarship; they just enjoy testing what they know and learning new things. 

So somewhere in the near future, a student will register with CKSF, probably in the middle of the night, and become the 1,000,000^th person to do so.  There will be a small celebration in the CKSF office on the Nova Southeastern University campus in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; then, it’ll be a countdown to reach a million dollars in scholarships awarded. 

May 3, 2013 

Dear Nursing Student, 

The Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation (CKSF) has a new program called Tuition Back Scholarship specifically for undergraduate nursing students.

Each semester the Tuition Back Scholarships program gives nursing students several opportunities to earn their "tuition back" by taking online quizzes. Each quiz is based on a specific course and is designed to help students review and prepare for exams.

Eligibility and Cost

Tuition Back Scholarships are free to all undergraduate nursing students in the United States.

Scholarship Award

A scholarship of up to $1,000 per course will be awarded to the winner if his or her college or university   is participating in the Tuition Back Scholarships program. If the winner is attending a school not yet participating in this program, he or she will receive a scholarship of $100. Make sure you ask your college advisor if your school is participating in the CKSF Tuition Back Scholarships program..

Getting Started

Make sure to update your CKSF profile to include your college or university and college graduation date. Complete details for each scholarship can be found on the CKSF website.

Go to www.cksf.org and click on "Tuition Back Scholarships."

*Students and parents should ask their college advisor or financial aid administrator if their school is participating in the Tuition Back Scholarship program. 

Thank you and good luck in your college endeavors. 

Daryl Hulce, President
Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation.

In February 2013 CKSF launched a Marine Biology Scholarship  based on the sharks found in Guy Harvey's artwork. Following the awarding of the winner and meeting Guy Harvey at the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation office in Davie, the CKSF staff took a field trip the NSU Oceanographic Center in Dania, Florida.

The trip started with a stop at the Quarterdeck on Dania Peer and then the ride through John Lloyd State Park to the center. Our tour of the NSU center included seeing each floor of an amazing facility. Each floor has a very unique style and amazing view.  Out one side is the Atlantic Ocean and the other side is Port Everglades.

Any high school or college student considering studying marine biology should seriously consider Nova Southeastern University.  The undergraduate program is on the main campus in Davie, FL (about nine miles west of the ocean) and the graduate program is in Dania, Florida.  It's an amazing place doing great work to better understand the oceans and marine life.

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Hollywood, FL - Jenny Poon became the first winner of the Aikido of South Florida Scholarship offered by the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation.  The scholarship competition sponsored by sensei Stephany Yap, required participants in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties to learn the details of Aikido, one of the specialized martial arts, and take a series of online quizzes.  The program resulted in a college scholarship for the high scoring male and female participants and personal lesson at the Aikido of South Florida dojo in Hollywood, Florida.

Jenny Poon, a student at the School for Advanced Studies, visited the dojo with her family where she received personalized instruction in self defense.  Jenny was awarded with a certificate and scholarhsip check which may be used at the college or university of her choice. The day ended with a celebration dinner and new friendships being forged.

They must be doing something right at the Carroll Community College nursing program.  As of March 29th J.Lippy is leading the CKSF National Nursing Tuition Back Scholarship.  So far J. Lippy is demonstrating a greater knowledge of anatomy than the other 614 students competing for this scholarship.

History suggests the lead will change several times before the nursing scholarship is actually awarded.  There are still two physiology quizzes left in this scholarship competition and often times students will study hard to come out on top in the second and third rounds.

The Tuition Back Scholarship program allows students to earn scholarship money for simply studying and taking an online quiz. Quizzes are developed on the core courses found in any nursing school curriculum. Any nursing student in the United States may register with the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation and take the quiz.  There are no essays, just simple online quizzes.  The winner is determined by time and accuracy.  

It's not too late.  Nursing students can still register with CKSF and get into the contest at www.cksf.org.

Every day is a new adventure at the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation.  As if being a part of Nova Southeastern University wasn't reward enough, outside our window (CKSF office in the background) is a pair of burrowing owls. 

Even with a great deal of traffic and commotion in the parking lot, these two birds seem calm and secure.  They make me want to create a wildlife scholarship using the National Audobon Society as the source of information.

Imagine yourself at an elementary school at 3:15 on a Thursday afternoon and the students have just been released. What is the last thing any sane person would try and do?  The list is long and varied but the correct answer is herd the students into the library and try and get them all to do math.

And yet, look closely at this picture, these kids are so engaged trying to calculate basic math problems that at times they were literally crawling over the tables to see the quiz questions on the laptop.

It actually happens when we implement Pizza Math at a school.  Pizza Math is simply an online quiz in which all the quiz questions are simple math based on pizza.  Kids get 500 points for each correct answer and lose 1 point for each second it takes to calculate the answer. The person with the most points at the end of the quiz wins a free pizza.

So when it comes to Pizza Math, nothing is quite as it sounds.  Kids will do try very hard to do math after school and pizza becomes the carrot (it's all very metaphorical).

Making the Pizza Math a little easier to implement was teaming up with a Kiwanis club in south Florida that sponsors a K-kids.  It made for a great activity during a regularly scheduled K-Kids meeting. And if you really have things together, you can have a pizza shop donate or discount the pizza.  For this Pizza Math day, Pizza Loft in Davie, Florida helped us with the pizza.  The Kiwanis president then became a patron of the restaurant and everyone came out ahead.  Kids did math and had pizza and the big hearted pizza shop ended up with new customers.

Scholarships are hard to come by after high school and teacher scholarships should be listed as one of the endangered species in this country. To help right this academic wrong, the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation has added education to the list of Tuition Back Scholarships. This means that education majors can now compete for scholarship money for simply reading their text books.

The first Education Tuition Back Scholarship is based on the course, Human Development.  This is a course found at almost every college that prepares teachers for the classroom. The scholarship consists of several quizzes that correspond with midterms and finals.  So the first quiz should include the same content as would be seen on a midterm exam.  Even if a student doesn’t win the scholarship they will be preparing for the exam at the same time they are competing for scholarship money.

All Common Knowledge Scholarships utilize the same method in determining the winners.  Students log in during a specific window of time (days) that the quiz is available.  They receive 500 points for each correct answer and lose one (1) point for each second it takes to complete each question.  The person with the most points at the end of the contest is the scholarship winner and receives all or part of their tuition back for the course.

It is a fun and effective way to prepare for exams and earn scholarship money.

For complete information visit www.cksf.org