Associated Students Inc. President John Haberstroh and Vice President Jonathon Bolin launched the start of a series of scholarships for Cal State Long Beach students, fulfilling one campaign promise the duo made in March.
The first scholarship available is the “John & Jon Textbook Award.”
During ASI elections in spring semester, Haberstroh and Bolin made a commitment to cut their salaries by 15 percent each, totaling $7,200, and use the money for scholarships if they were elected to serve as executive officers.
The “John & Jon Textbook Award” will be granted to eight fulltime CSULB students and will award each student $200.
Haberstroh said he and Bolin decided to do the textbook scholarship at the beginning of the school year because the cost of textbooks is on the minds of every student.
“We decided on the number based on how much money we wanted to give,” Haberstroh said via email. “Based on the 30 percent reduction and taking into account the fact that we wanted to spread it out over the whole academic year, we had a certain pool of money for this award.”
Bolin said the textbook scholarship is intended for not only textbooks but also other essential school supplies, such as notebooks and computers.
“We thought a textbook scholarship would be a great way for students to start off the year with a little extra cash in their pockets to help ease the burden of supply cost,” Bolin said via email.
In order to apply for the scholarship, students must have a 2.75 GPA and write a brief essay about how the award would contribute to their successes as students at CSULB.
Valerie Kelsey, coordinator of university scholarships, met with the ASI executives over the summer to begin the scholarship process. She said the Center for Scholarships will verify the eligibility of the applicants and send the applications to a committee of faculty, staff and students who will determine the recipients.
“Just like any other private donor, I met with John [Haberstroh] and Jon [Bolin] to better understand their intention for the scholarships and to determine how the scholarship would be administrated on campus,” Kelsey said in an email.
According to Kelsey, donors can choose the criteria for a scholarship within the parameters of campus policies.
Bolin said he and Haberstroh decided not to choose who will sit on their scholarship committee.
“John and I have purposely left ourselves out of deciding who sits on the committee,” Bolin said. “We purposely do not have any say into who is selected for the award, that is up to the committee.”
According to Kelsey, many private donors choose to let the university determine the outcome of the awards.
“I think it’s a good idea that they [Haberstroh and Bolin] care about the students and want to help out even if it’s just a little,” Lisa Chim, a junior biology major, said. “That’s $200 the students can save.”
Nia Tatum, a junior psychology major, also agrees that $200 can go a long way for struggling students.
“Even though $200 isn’t a lot of money, it still could help out people, like myself, who don’t get financial aid and have to buy books on top of paying tuition,” Tatum said. “With the increase this semester, it’s a lot harder to afford everything.”
According to Haberstroh, the next scholarship will be “The Beach Pride Award.” He said this scholarship is an opportunity for applicants to demonstrate their pride for CSULB.
“They will be required to write a short two-page essay describing why ‘The Beach’ is the best in the west, and what they will take with them from here when they move on,” Bolin said. “It will be three $500 awards. The deadline will be Nov. 20.”
The “John & Jon Textbook Scholarship” is currently available on the Center for Scholarship Information website. The deadline to apply is Sept. 19.