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RVC Foundation Scholarships
RVC Foundation Scholarships
Through the RVC Foundation, scholarships are made possible by generous donations from individuals, businesses, families, groups, and local family foundations. Every donation and every scholarship represents a genuine and heartfelt belief in the potential of education. Each donor is investing in the future, recognizing that education is not just about acquiring knowledge but also about empowering individuals to create positive change in their lives and communities. Please direct scholarship questions to the RVC Foundation.
Contact Us
- RVC Foundation
- (815) 921-4500
- RVC Main Campus
Spring Brook House
6520 Spring Brook Road
Rockford, IL 61114 - Monday-Friday: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
RVC Foundation Scholarship Application Portal
Access our online scholarship portal at any time to view available RVC Foundation Scholarships and create a scholarship account. During stated application periods, you will be able to complete and submit an application. Remember, one application is all you need. The scholarship system matches you to every scholarship to which you meet the specified criteria.
How to Apply for RVC Foundation Scholarships
Review Dates and Deadlines
- Applications accepted February 14 through April 1, 2024
- Preliminary award notices will be emailed on May 1, 2024
- Thank you letters to your donor(s) due June 20, 2024. No exceptions can be granted.
- Financial Aid and Fall Registration must be complete by July 25, 2024. No exceptions will be made.
- If you miss either deadline, re-apply during the Last Chance application period August 14 – September 11, 2024
- Final award notices will be emailed when your thank you letter is submitted, financial aid file is complete, and fall registration is done.
Complete the Financial Aid Process
Everyone is encouraged to file the New FAFSA Form.
Complete the New FAFSA Form and the financial aid process even if you know you don’t
qualify for a Pell Grant. This could open up additional opportunities for a scholarship
from the RVC Foundation. International students, students under 18 and students who
are not eligible to file are an exception as we recognize you are unable to receive
federal funding. Everybody else, please make every effort to complete the New FAFSA
Form.
Apply for RVC Foundation Scholarships
- Put all deadlines listed in section 1, Dates and Deadlines, in your calendar so you don’t miss any important dates.
- Watch for emails from RVC-Foundation@rockvalleycollege.edu in your student email.
- Activate your voicemail on your phone. We will leave you a message if we have any questions or critical information regarding your application.
- Work on writing good Personal, Educational and Financial statements. Please be willing
to share your story. Your personal statements are what brings your application to
life for our application reviewers.
- Be specific
- Poor example: My education goal is to get my degree (certificate) and start my career.
- Good example: My education goal is to get my CNC Machining Certificate from RVC along with my NIMS certificates and work for one of the major manufacturing companies in the Rockford area.
- Be personal:
- Poor example: Receiving an RVC Foundation Scholarship would mean a lot to me because I have a lot of bills to pay and I want to buy a new car.
- Good example: I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to teach. My dad taught high school history, and my mom teaches 4th grade, so I grew up with lesson plans and bulletin boards, class projects and papers to grade, and can’t wait until I can do the same thing. With my parents’ example to follow, I know I can become the teacher I want to be, but receiving a scholarship would help make my goals a reality.
- Provide details:
- Poor example: The FAFSA says my parents make too much money so I won’t get a Pell Grant, but I really need help to pay for school.
- Good example: Two years ago, my father was a VP at Good Company, but they were bought out. He still has a job, but had to take a 30% pay cut. My mom is only working part time now due to health reasons. Neither parent can afford to help me pay for school. I have filed an appeal to adjust my parent’s income, but I don’t know if it will be approved. I have some savings from working part-time the last two years, enough to pay for 2 classes a semester, but I’d really like to be able to go full time so I can graduate quicker and get a decent job while I work on my bachelor’s degree. Thank you for considering my application.
- Be specific
- When you receive your Preliminary Offer, complete your supplemental tasks as soon as possible. If a document is to be uploaded, please ensure that you have the right one. You will not receive your Final Offer and release of funds until everything is done.
- When writing your thank you letter, please remember that you are writing to an individual. Please pay attention to their name so you can address the letter to the person who gifted to you this amazing opportunity. Please include the name of the scholarship you received within the letter. See Section 4 for further instructions and examples.
- RVC Foundation Scholarships cover your direct costs only and are paid to the College to cover tuition, books, fees and mandatory supplies. Any funds not used will be returned to the Foundation to be awarded again next year.
Anytime you have any questions regarding the scholarship process, please reach out to the RVC Foundation at (815) 921-4500 or RVC-Foundation@RockValleyCollege.edu. We’re here to help!
Understanding a Scholarship Thank You Letter
A properly written thank you letter to your donor(s) is a mandatory requirement of receiving a scholarship. Thank you letters won’t be due until June 20, 2024, so you will have plenty of time after you receive your preliminary award notice to write it. Please take advantage of the Writing Center and your Advisor to ask for help in writing your letter.
Four things to keep in mind when you’re writing your thank you letter:
- Remember, all of our scholarships only cover your direct costs such as tuition, fees, books and mandatory supplies. They won’t help with your indirect costs like your car payment, cell phone bill, or rent. That is what your Federal Financial Aid is for.
- The scholarship provider is a real, live, person. Even if your provider is the RVC Foundation Board, the President and Members of the Board volunteered their time to raise funds so YOU could receive a scholarship to help YOU get your education.
- If your scholarship contains the word “Memorial”, the scholarship is in memory of someone the donor loved, or thought enough of to provide a scholarship in their name.
- Include the name of the scholarship in your letter.
Writing Your Thank You Letter
A proper thank you letter should include the date written, and a more formal way of addressing your letter as you are writing to someone you do not know. There are two addressee samples below – one if the scholarship provider is an organization, and one if the scholarship provider is an individual. Since your letter does not have to be mailed, you do not need to include the mailing address.
How to address a letter to an organization:
February 15, 2024 [Date]
Mr. Robert Stenstrom, President [Addressee – organization representative]
RVC Foundation Board of Directors [Organization]
Dear Mr. Stenstrom and Members of the Board [Salutation]
How to address a letter to an individual:
February 15, 2024 [Date]
Mr. and Mrs. Dudley D. Donor [Addressee – look at the donor bio for your scholarship and address your letter the same way. It will be either formal as shown, or casual, like Dudley and Polly Donor]
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Donor, [Salutation – match the addressee style. Casual would be Dear Dudley and Polly,]
Your letter should include:
- Opening thank you paragraph. Acknowledge the scholarship you received.
- Thank you so much for awarding me the RVC Foundation Endowment Scholarship. I am so very grateful to receive these funds.
- Background paragraph. Tell the scholarship provider a little about what lead you to
your major, or what lead you to Rock Valley College. Why are you studying your subject?
- I can remember when I was little, my babysitter brought over a book on the stars. She’d take me outside so we could look at the stars and try to identify them. I hated it when a cloud came by and covered up the stars. That got me thinking, where do clouds come from? Why are some white and others almost black? How do they move? It was then that my love of weather and astronomy was formed.
- Current status paragraph. Where are you in your educational journey? What do you like
best about attending RVC? Will you move on to another school after graduation, or
do you plan to work first? What is your ultimate purpose in going to school?
- So, that’s why I’m at Rock Valley College studying to get my AS degree. I want to study the weather, and knew I’d need an excellent background in science and math. I’m just finishing my first year here, and absolutely love it! After Rock Valley, I want to go to NIU to get my Bachelor of Science in Meteorology.
- Closing paragraph. Thank the scholarship provider again. You can never thank someone
too many times.
- Thank you again for the privilege of receiving the RVC Foundation Endowment Scholarship. It means a great deal to me and my family. Thanks to this scholarship, maybe someday you’ll see me on the news as your weather forecaster!
- Closing line – you can use the standard “Sincerely”, or let the donor know how you
really feel.
- Sincerely, ( Other options could include: With deepest gratitude or From a grateful student or With heartfelt thanks)
- Signature – Always use your first and last name. Do not provide your student ID or
address or other contact information. Just your name.
- Rayne Weatherman
Anytime you have any questions regarding the scholarship process, please reach out to the RVC Foundation at (815) 921-4500 or RVC-Foundation@RockValleyCollege.edu. We’re here to help!
About RVC Foundation Scholarships
over $659,000 of scholarships awarded to our students this year
students received RVC Foundation scholarships this year
RVC Foundation scholarships awarded this year
actively funded scholarships through the RVC Foundation
Other Scholarship Searches
In addition to applying for an RVC Foundation scholarship, we also suggest you seek out additional scholarship opportunities.
RVC Foundation Student Emergency Relief Funds
If you are currently experiencing a financial crisis, you may qualify for assistance through the RVC Foundation's Student Emergency Relief Funds. To apply, kindly reach out to a trusted RVC employee who will serve as your sponsor and help you with your application.
Frequently Asked Questions
RVC Foundation Scholarships are provided by donors who believe in your right to receive a good education at a quality institution. Many of them are alumni of Rock Valley College, others are your neighbors, friends and employers, and still more believe in the Rockford community as a whole and know that education is the key to economic growth. Whatever their reasons, our donors are passionate people. Some make big gifts that will fund a scholarship for years to come, others make small gifts month after month, year after year. They all have one goal in mind – to give you a chance at a brighter future.
Be a student in good standing (2.0 cumulative GPA and 67% completion rate), complete the financial aid process at RVC or NIU, and register for fall classes. That’s it. This does not mean you’ll be matched with every scholarship the RVC Foundation offers, but you will match many of them. And finally, write out your statements ahead of time. Put some thought into them. Remember, you are not writing a text message! Your statements are the way that the donor and the scholarship committee get to know you. You’ll need 3 of them: 1) What it will mean to you if you should receive an RVC Foundation Scholarship; 2) Your education and career goals; and 3) Financial information that you are willing to share.
Both the preliminary award email and the final award email will be sent to your RVC student email account. It is your responsibility to monitor your RVC student email account. Any email we send will come from RVC-Foundation@RockValleyCollege.edu. Please add our email to your contacts list. We also require that you provide a textable cell number for notification purposes. You may also provide a personal email address.
It depends. The more information you provide, the better matched you’ll be to multiple scholarships. See above. In general, unless a donor has specified a particular dollar amount, scholarships are awarded based on how many credits you will be taking in the fall, your official student status (freshman, sophomore) and your GPA.
At the top of the RVC Foundation scholarship web page is a list of important dates. Check your RVC student email account when those dates occur. NOTE: Even though we make every attempt to get all notices out to applicants as stated, there is a chance that our scholarship provider will hold the emails in a queue and release them in the middle of the night. You may not see your notice until the next day.
Your scholarship award will be posted to your financial aid account shortly after you receive your final award notice. The date will be provided within that notice. This allows you to see the balance of tuition owed and make arrangements for payment. However, the funds will not be released to you until after the 10th day of classes, in either fall or spring semester. As long as your scholarship shows as "pending", you have nothing to worry about. If there's any other message by the scholarship name, please contact the Foundation office at RVC-Foundation@RockValleyCollege.edu so that we may investigate and make sure your funds go through.
Call us at (815) 921-4500 for the Foundation office, or (815) 921-4506 to reach the scholarship manager. We all love to talk to students, and will be happy to answer your questions and help you through the process. You can also email RVC-Foundation@RockValleyCollege.edu.