The Elma Stuckey Scholarships in Creative Non-Fiction and Poetry Writing, Department of English

The application for the Elma Stuckey Scholarships is available online through your OASIS portal. Only complete scholarship applications submitted by the deadline will be reviewed by the scholarship committee.

Please follow all directions carefully. Students must submit the following materials to make a complete application for the Elma Stuckey Scholarships. There are three parts to the application:

In a 750 word essay, present your case for receiving this scholarship with appropriate evidence relating to your experience with one or more of the following:

• Significant social or economic obstacles
• Outstanding creative and leadership abilities

Humanity

If I am blind and need someone
To keep me safe from harm,
It matters not the race to me
Of the one who takes my arm.
If I am saved from drowning
As I grasp and grope,
I will not stop to see the face
Of the one who throws the rope.
Or if out on some battlefield
I'm falling faint and weak,
The one who gently lifts me up
May any language speak.
We sip the water clear and cool,
No matter the hand that gives it.
A life that's lived worthwhile and fine,
What matters the one who lives it?

One letter of recommendation is required from a Columbia College Chicago faculty member in either the Poetry or the Creative Non-Fiction program who is familiar with your academic achievements or how you applied yourself in your major.

Note: Remember to contact your recommender directly before providing his/her information on the application. Be sure to give faculty members as much time as possible to write the letters. Requests made at the last minute are often difficult for faculty to fulfill by the deadline.

A current Student Aid Report (SAR) must be on file. To receive an SAR, students must complete a financial aid application (FAFSA), available after January 1st of each year.

Access online application form through OASIS portal:

1. Applicant Portal: You may scroll through the list of scholarship programs until you locate the Elma Stuckey Scholarships, and then select the "Start Application" link.


2. Scholarship Search: Select the "Search Scholarships" link in the navigation on the left-hand side of the page. You may search for the Elma Stuckey Scholarships by using category, keyword, or description/name search. Once you locate the program, select the "More Info" link to be taken to the application form.

Elma Stuckey was an educator and highly regarded poet. After obtaining a teaching certificate from Lane College in Jackson, TN, Stuckey became a teacher and ran a nursery school. She moved to Chicago in 1945 and later began working for the Illinois Department of Labor, where she became a supervisor. Interested in poetry for most of her life, Stuckey was first recognized for her literary talents when she read her work on a radio program hosted by historian and writer Studs Terkel. She was invited to read her work at various and prestigious universities, including Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford, and her widest acclaim came with the 1976 publication of The Big Gate. Stuckey followed that with a second volume, The Collected Poems of Elma Stuckey, published when she was eighty years old. Her primary poetic subject is African American life from the time of slavery to the present.

• Application must be submitted by February 01, 2013 (11:59 pm) for review by the committee
• Maximum amount of this one-year award is $5000
• The award is applied toward tuition, fees, and other educational expenses
• Students must be enrolled at the time of application and must maintain enrollment during the 2013-14 academic year
• Scholarship may not be used toward independent study abroad programs. Please note: Recipients who enroll in an independent study abroad program will forfeit their scholarship for the semester spent abroad
• Recipients will be asked to submit a short biography describing their background and life goals, which will be shared with donors; portions of the essay may also be used for publication
• The rules and regulations governing other sources of financial aid (federal, state, institutional and other grants, gifts, or loans) will apply
• Columbia College Chicago reserves the right to withhold the award in any year in which, at the sole discretion of the scholarship committee, suitable candidates cannot be found among applicants