AISES Polaris Vocational Trades Scholarship (2023-2024)

AISES is excited to be partnering with Polaris Inc. to provide AISES’s first vocational trades scholarship. The vocational trades scholarship program offers a $1,500 scholarship to students pursuing a vocational certificate or diploma at an accredited institution.

The Polaris Vocational Trades Scholarship is for any individual who has not yet earned a college degree and is enrolled in or will be enrolled in a vocational credential, vocational certificate, or occupational license program. Vocational degrees typically are one year or less in duration, certify competency in a specific trade, or provide a license to perform certain occupations. Vocational programs will be verified prior to making final awards.

Scholarship Amount

$1,500 for the academic year 2023-2024.

Apply Now!

FAQ

Scholarship Policies

Scholarship

Eligibility

Eligible Degrees

Studying one of the following fields: Welding, Carpentry, Residential Building, Commercial driver’s license, Electrician, Electric Utilities, Clean Energy Technician, Automotive Technology, Diesel Technology, Business Certificate, Highway Construction, Agriculture Technology, Tribal Management/Leadership, Heavy Equipment Operator, Construction, Engineering General Studies, Concrete Technology, Administrative Assistant, CNC Machinist, Computer Technology, Business Entrepreneurship, Information Technology/Science, Office Management, Industrial Maintenance/Operations, Grants Project Management, Data Entry, Cyber Security, and Plumbing.

Student Status

Students must be full-time at one of the following types of accredited institutions: vocational-technical school, trade school, tribal college, two-year community college, or state college for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Grade Point Average

Must have a 2.5 or higher cumulative grade point average (GPA).

Tribal Citizenship

Applicants must be an enrolled citizen or a descendant of an enrolled citizen of a federally-recognized American Indian Tribe or Alaska Native Village; or Native Hawaiian or descendant from a Native Hawaiian; or Pacific Islander or descendant from Pacific Islander; or Indigenous person of Canada. Enrollment documents and/or a copy of birth certificate(s) showing descendancy from an enrolled citizen, Indigenous group of Canada, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander are acceptable. Applicant may also, instead, provide a copy of their Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood or Certificate of Degree of Alaska Native Blood (CDIB) card. Please note, AISES may not always have scholarships available for non-citizens of the United States.

AISES Membership

All scholarships require applicants be current AISES members at the time of application. All applicants will be required to enter a valid AISES membership number. To get a membership number join AISES or retrieve your membership number through AISES Membership Portal.

AISES membership is now free for all pre-college and vocational/college students.

Application

Access Application Here

Required Documents

Resume: If you need help creating a resume, your school will likely have a Career-Services office that can help. You can also find many good resources at https://careers.aises.org/jobseeker/resources. Resumes WILL be shared with Polaris for review.
Transcript(s): Submit your most recent Academic Transcripts. The transcripts can be unofficial or official at this time.
Tribal Citizenship/Indigenous Native Verification: Enrollment documents and/or a copy of birth certificate(s) showing descendancy from an enrolled citizen, Indigenous group of Canada, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander are acceptable. Applicant may also, instead, provide a copy of their Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood or Certificate of Degree of Alaska Native Blood (CDIB) card.
Letters of Recommendation: Be sure to give your recommenders plenty of time to complete their recommendation (at least three weeks). It is often helpful to talk with them before you submit the form, to ensure they can complete a positive recommendation for you in a timely fashion. All recommendation letters must be submitted through the OASIS platform.
Email of Recommender

After finalists have been selected, the finalists will move into post acceptance where they will be required to submit additional documents for final verification.

Required Documents for Final Verification

Academic Institution Enrollment Verification
Online Scholarship Agreement
Recent Photo/Headshot
A thank you letter to Polaris, Inc.
A signed AISES direct deposit form with accompanying bank information

Timeline

Notification to Students of Scholarship Awards:

AISES will review scholarship applications and notify awardees on a rolling basis.

Acceptance of Scholarship/Internship Awards:

Upon selection as a finalist for an AISES scholarship award, the student must accept the award in the OASIS System AND provide the post-acceptance documents required for the award within the amount of time communicated by the AISES team through multiple notifications. The AISES Scholarship team will do their due diligence to send notification reminders in the form of emails, texts, and phone calls to the student, but after this time allowance has passed, the scholarship will be revoked.

Selection & Notification

Selection Process

Once the scholarship application deadline ends, the AISES Scholarship Team members will verify that all applicants are members of AISES and meet the other eligibility criteria. Applications that are not complete or do not meet the eligibility criteria are declined automatically.

The scholarship applications will then be reviewed by AISES reviewers who score each application based upon factors such as applicant potential to contribute to their communities, academic performance (GPA and academic record), the student’s personal essay (i.e. writing skills, character, commitment, goals), strength of recommendation letters, and other extracurricular affairs the student has undertaken including jobs, volunteer efforts, internships, culturally related activities, etc. The scored applications are then placed in a ranked list, and this list is used to select the scholarship finalists.

Scholarship Post-Acceptance Documents Required for Verification:

Once selected, the scholarship finalists will be notified through email of the post-acceptance documents. All scholarship finalists will be required to submit the following post-acceptance documents:

If you have questions about AISES Scholarships, or your institution requires documents be sent by mail, please send an e-mail to tkingsbery@aises.org

Check Disbursements

Scholarship Check Disbursements: Fall 2023 and Spring 2024

Timeline for First (Fall) Payment Semester Scholarship (2023-2024 Academic Year)
If you have submitted all documents as required by AISES, scholarships will be distributed from September 15– November 30, 2023.

Timeline for Second (Spring) Payment Semester Scholarship (2023-2024 Academic Year)

For a Spring 2024 distribution, students will need to provide AISES with a transcript that includes Fall 2023 grades, a Spring 2024 course schedule showing credit hours, and an updated direct deposit form (if applicable) by January 31, 2024 (for the 2023-2024 Academic Year).

If you have submitted all documents as required by AISES, Spring Scholarship disbursements will be sent out beginning February 1, 2024 – March 31, 2024.

Please note, AISES cannot award scholarship funds to students before we have received the funding from the scholarship donor. Although we do our best to award scholarships according to the months noted above there may be occasions where AISES may not be able to send scholarship funds according to this schedule. We reserve the right to make disbursement changes at any time. AISES will notify scholarship finalists should changes to the disbursement schedule be made.

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AISES Polaris Vocational Trades Scholarship (2023-2024)

Scholarship Amount

Scholarship

Eligible Degrees

Student Status

Grade Point Average

Tribal Citizenship

AISES Membership

Timeline

Selection Process

Scholarship Post-Acceptance Documents Required for Verification:

Scholarship Check Disbursements: Fall 2023 and Spring 2024