Applications for students in grades 7-11 to receive up to $500 for student enrichment grants have been opened. Up to 10 students can be awarded per semester.

The grants are a financial award to help students strengthen their abilities in the field that they want to pursue or they think they may be interested in.

Travis Bloom, executive director of the Maize Education Foundation, said he wishes that the grant was more well known throughout the USD 266 school district.

“I would say that it’s definitely a missed opportunity,” Bloom said. “[This program] has been in place for well over five years. I want more students to be aware of it. We had nine apply in fall of 2017 and around 10 students applied in spring of 2018.”

Past winners have put the money toward the Jayhawk Debate Institute, Space Camp Academy, LUMCON Lead Camp, Marine Expeditions and the Naval Academy Summer Seminar.

Junior Aenya Richards received the award in May and said she wouldn’t have gone to summer camp if it weren’t for the grant.

“I applied to get it [the grant] to go to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and do architecture camp,” Richards said. “The camp was about $600 to go to, and I applied for the grant and got $500. My parents only had to pay $100 for me to go, which was much easier to afford than the original cost. [The application] wasn’t hard at all to do either, just a couple of essay questions about yourself and why you want the award.”

Richards said she only knew about the grant because her older brother won it during his high school career as well.

“I don’t think that very many people know about it, and it’s not that hard to try to get,” Richards said. “People always like the idea of camp but don’t think about it seriously because it costs so much money.”

Bloom said he hopes that communication regarding the grants will be better and hopefully the word of this opportunity will spread more this year to give more students a chance to broaden their horizons.

“I want as many students to know about is as possible and let them know to try,” Bloom said. “A lot of these things cost more than $500, but it’s a little bit of help. Sometimes just that much could make the difference between a student being able to go and not going at all.” 

The application is a printed form that can be accessed through the counselors or principals from MMS, MSMS, MHS and MSHS, or you can go to maizeeducationfoundation.org. Click the link to download the form, print it and turn it into the front office. The deadline is Oct. 16.