Monday, April 1, is the deadline for graduating high school seniors living in Murphy to apply for one of eight $1,700 scholarships being awarded this year by the Murphy Chamber of Commerce Scholarship Foundation.
Applicants need to live in Murphy but can be homeschooled or attend private school.
To date, the foundation has awarded $136,000 to 80 Murphy students.
Starting in 2003, the chamber, wanting to give back to Murphy, initially awarded scholarships of $1,000 each to one Murphy resident graduate in each of the two independent school districts, Plano ISD and Wylie ISD, serving Murphy.
In 2006, the scholarship foundation was formed as a 501(c)30 nonprofit organization within the chamber and awarded two $1,000 foundation scholarships in 2007.
Jon Lashbrook served as chairman from the inception and continued through 2018, during which time the foundation increased both the Foundation dollar amounts of the award, along with the number of awards presented
Starting in 2019, Steve Dault became chair of the scholarship foundation with Lashbrook continuing to serve as chairman emeritus.
The scholarships were then no longer based on school districts, with 2021’s six awards of $1,500 open to all Murphy resident students who graduated the end of the 2020-21 school year.
That included Career and Technical Education students, home-schooled and private school students, and college-bound Plano ISD and Wylie ISD resident seniors.
Thanks to donations, the chamber is now able to award eight scholarships of $1,700 each.
Application details are on murphychamber.org.
Applicants will be asked for their SAT or ACT scores, if available, along with where and what they plan to study. Students will be asked to provide work experience and extracurricular activities along with an essay of no more than 600 words.
The essay asks: “What are your future educational and/or career goals? What are your plans to achieve those goals?
Briefly explain your financial needs as it pertains to you attending college.”
The application form may be emailed or mailed to the chamber.