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Equal opportunity fund
Equal Opportunity Fund Programs & Applications
The VLACS Equal Opportunity Fund provides financial assistance to New Hampshire full-time VLACS students and adult learners to support their goals. Explore funding opportunities below and apply today!
VLACS Equal Opportunity Fund Programs and Applications
Take the next step toward your academic, career, and life goals and apply for any of the following financial aid awards.
Technology Assistance Fund
The Technology Assistance Fund provides laptops and/or internet access to New Hampshire-resident full-time VLACS students whose families do not have sufficient financial resources to purchase these technologies.
Eligibility: Students in grades K-12 living in New Hampshire and enrolled in our full-time program who demonstrate a financial need.
Norma McGarr Scholarship
This award is open to graduating students who exhibit a love of learning and embody the qualities of optimism, determination, and courage. Funding includes up to $1,500, which can be utilized to support students’ educational goals per their post-graduate plan.
Eligibility: New Hampshire-resident full-time, graduating students.
McGarr Real World Learning Award
For juniors and seniors, these funds (up to $500) may be used for activities or projects related to the student’s developing interests and career goals. Examples include certification exams, business start-up costs, or equipment needed to pursue a career or interest.
For graduating seniors, funds (up to $500) may be used for expenses connected to their post-graduate plan career goals. This includes covering expenses such as certification or licensing courses or exam fees, launching a business, and acquiring necessary equipment for career pursuits.
Eligibility: New Hampshire-resident, full-time K12 VLACS students who are juniors or seniors enrolled in an Experience, preparing to enroll in an Experience, or graduating seniors.
Adult Education Diploma Assistance
This award offers tuition assistance to adults seeking their high school diploma.
Eligibility: Adult students who do not have a diploma and are residents of New Hampshire demonstrating a financial need.
Adult Education Career Preparation Assistance
This award offers tuition assistance to adults enrolling in college preparation courses or courses that prepare students for an industry certification.
Eligibility: Adult students who are residents of New Hampshire.
Your Interests and Aspirations Are Worth Pursuing
Access to education should not be determined by income. With the help of the VLACS Equal Opportunity Fund, New Hampshire students can get the necessary support to pursue their dreams.
What Our Students Are Saying
Receiving the Norma McGarr Award shows me that VLACS not only cares enough about their students to support such a unique opportunity, but has a genuine belief in the future of their students, and wants to offer them a strong cornerstone to continue the personal and academic growth that their instructors and staff began to foster and encourage. This award is not only providing me with valuable funds to pay for my college textbooks, resources, and the furthering of my education, but emboldening me to pursue the future I see ahead of me – the very same future outlined in my award application. It’s showing me that others believe in that future just as much as I do, and encouraging me to work hard to make that future a reality!
What Our Students Are Saying
I am very honored to have been selected to receive VLACS’s Norma McGarr award; it especially means a lot to me to be recognized for an award by my own school. This award covers costs for important “background” technology, certifications, tools, or other paraphernalia associated with long-term goals, and I think this is a very valuable type of award, as sometimes the biggest hurdle to starting towards a long-term goal is the lack of equipment or academic prerequisites that can be quite pricey to attain. This award is helping cover a cost associated with technology that I need for college and graduate school, and thus serves as a vital long-term investment that could more easily be made thanks to VLACS’s scholarship.
How might you use the Equal Opportunity Fund?
While there are many different ways we can support your goals, here are a few examples of funding opportunities.
Aspiring Photographer
A photography micro-internship student decides to join the NH Society of Photographic Artists, which provides access to a studio and a large-format printer. The McGarr Real World Learning Award can help this student pay for ink and paper, matboard, frames, and the fees associated with entering work into exhibitions.
Future Nurse
A student working towards becoming a Registered Nurse (RN) must take high school anatomy to enter a nursing program. They can receive tuition assistance for the Adult Education Anatomy and Physiology course to complete the prerequisite to begin the nursing program.
Environmental Activist
A student interested in environmental sciences enrolls in a Biology Experience and invents a low-cost smart bin that beeps when non-recyclable items are placed in the bin. The Real World Learning Award funds can cover the cost of application fees required to obtain a utility patent.
Small Business Owner
A student with plans to open a personalized cookie company enrolls in an Entrepreneurship Experience. The McGarr Real World Learning Award may fund the cost of fees associated with creating a Limited Liability Company (LLC), ingredients, packaging, shipping fees, and advertising on Facebook.
Certified Programmer
An adult student interested in becoming a certified Java programmer can receive tuition assistance to complete the Adult Education Creative Coding course, which they use to prepare for the certification test.
VLACS Equal Opportunity Fund
Please consider joining us in our initiative to provide financial support to students and adults who need assistance achieving their educational and career goals.
