Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hatua Scholarship Fund: The selection process

Following the application deadline last Friday, the whole Hatua team has been busy this week processing a total of 195 returned applications for 35 new secondary scholarships to be awarded in the new year.


At Hatua we endeavor to select students for scholarship in the most fair and equal way possible, always according to academic ability and need. We use a points system, awarding points according to a students average end of term marks during the previous school year, the strength of a recommendation letter written by a teacher, and the quality of three essays written by each student. Each essay is marked by two different staff members from Hatua, following standardized marking criteria. Throughout we use each application’s reference number rather than the name of the student in order that we make the selection without any knowledge of who the particular student is, so as to prevent any chance of bias. 




Those who earn high points on their written applications are selected for the second round of the process, during which we conduct home visits to assess the need of each applicant through conversation about the family's economic activity and by seeing their living situation. We also consider the teacher’s comments regarding need in his/her recommendation letter, as well as a note written by the family's village elder or religious leader commenting on the family's need.
After home visits our short list is shortened to only comprise top students with high need. We then wait for the results of Kenya's end of primary standardized exam results, which we assigned a point value to, and which we add to each applicants score from earlier in the process. We then select the top boys and girls, being sure to maintain gender balance. Only once we finish our final selection do we pair applications with the name of the applicant and come to know the names of the students we have selected.

Our scholarship selection process has been designed to help us find top performing students who would otherwise be unable to continue their education. We strive to give equal opportunity to all applicants.

If you have any questions about the selection process feel free to visit our office!

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