Scholarship Project and Activity Descriptions

What a good one includes

• Strong action verbs that establish your specific leadership role right from the first word of the description.
• Clear context of the project, including the target audience, organization, or scale of the initiative.
• Measurable results and data points, such as funds raised, percentage increases, or number of participants impacted.
• Explicit mention of high-level skills utilized, such as quantitative analysis, cross-functional collaboration, or community organizing.
• Strategic keywords that directly mirror the selection criteria and mission statement of the scholarship provider.
• A brief indication of the lasting legacy of your work or how it informs your future academic trajectory.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Listing passive job duties and daily tasks instead of highlighting active leadership achievements and personal initiative.
• Repeating your job title or the organization’s name in the description field, wasting precious character limits.
• Failing to include concrete numbers, leaving the scale and success of your projects entirely to the reviewer's imagination.
• Copying and pasting the same generic descriptions across different applications without tailoring them to each scholarship's specific values.

Frequently asked questions