Medford Guidance Department Announces New Scholarship Program

MEDFORD, MA – The Medford Public Schools Guidance Department Wednesday announced a new scholarship program through the website raise.me.

A resource to help make colleges more affordable to students and parents, teens can automatically earn scholarships each time the following goals are reached:

• Get an A in a course - ($100 - $1,000)
• Get a B in a course - ($50 - $600)
• Participate in a school club or sport - ($25 - $250)
• Volunteer or provide community service

The scholarships are unique in that raise.me offers funding for activities not necessarily associated with college, such as babysitting, working part time and helping out in the community. Medford High School is one of the first high schools in the country to take advantage of the opportunity, according to a press release.

The program is partially funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and schools across the country.

Here's how to sign up, according to Medford Public Schools:

1. Ensure that your student creates an account on raise.me (which will also earn students a $100 scholarship!)
2. Make sure "Medford High" is selected as your High School.
3. Regularly add good grades, community service, extracurricular activities, and other achievements to his or her raise.me “Portfolio” in order to earn “Micro-Scholarships” from colleges. Students are eligible to receive scholarship money for each achievement from the start of 9th grade until midway through 12th grade.
4. Visit www.raise.me/parents for more information.

"We hope using raise.me will make student’s paths to college both more fun and affordable," said Amelia Jensen, Director of Guidance, in an announcement. "Increasing numbers of public and private colleges continue to join the raise.me program. Colleges are added on a monthly basis and you can request colleges at any time. Students will automatically get related Micro-Scholarships from all new colleges as they become available."

All questions can be directed to Tim Klein at tklein@medford.k12.ma.us or emailed to support@raise.me.

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