Scholarship Overview, Process, Expectations & Restrictions
Overview
-Financial need should be provided in the application. Insufficient information may lead to follow up questions.
-Scholarships are for hotel and travel expenses only. Other fees related to an ESFL event, can be discussed on a case-by-case basis. Meals are not a reimbursable expense as we try to offer as many meals as possible at ESFL events.
-For an ESFL event, the maximum scholarship allowance is $1000. SFL Workshops can be up to $1200 on a case-by-case basis.
-If you use miles for your flight, points for your hotel stay or travel by car, you might come in way under the total allowed amount. This would be amazing as the leftover amounts can go to helping other people. The point of maximum allowed amount is to cover as much of the scholarship recipient’s travel and hotel expenses as possible, it is NOT to see how close you can get to the maximum allowed amount. We will not be able to cover extra nights because your flight was cheaper than expected or because traveling by car is cheaper than a flight.
-Reimbursement is made by check or PayPal after the conclusion of the event.
Overall SFL 7 Process
1) Fill out the ESFL Scholarship Application on the SFL 7 Website. We will not be able to pay for your hotel or travel if we do not have your application. We need the application completed so we can get you entered into our spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is what we use to communicate the master billing/scholarship list to the hotel and for tracking ESFL reimbursement to recipients.
2) Reserve your SFL 7 hotel room with your own Credit Card as soon as possible (the reservation can always be cancelled closer to the time if needed). We will pay the hotel directly upon checkout through our master billing/scholarship list. The hotel needs your CC on file for incidentals and/or any room service/restaurant charges.
3) Register for Skills for Life 7 Workshop, if you are under the travel/hotel amount and family members have paid for the family member registration, we will likely be able to reimburse that fee at the conclusion of the event.
4) A scholarship committee representative will be reaching out by email or phone to either ask additional questions and/or confirm your application has been approved.
5) Once your application is officially approved, please confirm your hotel reservation and workshop registration by emailing info@enhancingskillsforlife.org.
Hotel
-Please verify the number of nights ESFL will cover at the negotiated rate. For example, if the Skills for Life Workshop is 3 days, ESFL will cover 4 nights. Additional nights will need to be covered by the scholarship recipient. For the bowling events or any other ESFL program, please verify the number of nights that ESFL will cover at the negotiated rate.
-Once you make your own reservations, please send confirmation to: info@enhnancingskillsforlife.org
-You will be added to the ESFL scholarship list
-ESFL will pay the hotel directly upon checkout.
Flight
-Standard economy fares will be reimbursed, any changes to the reservation that cause an increase in price or any upgrades will be the responsibility of the scholarship recipient.
-Certain exceptions may apply.
-Once you make your flight reservations, please send confirmation/receipt to info@enhnancingskillsforlife.org
-Recipient will be reimbursed for full or partial flight depending on what is left over from the allowed amount after paying the hotel.
Car Travel
-Please keep gas receipts and email receipts to info@enhnancingskillsforlife.org. Make sure the receipt is for gas only when you submit or it will not be reimbursed.
Other
-If you use Expedia or a 3rd party to make hotel/flight combination reservations, we will need a clear breakdown of hotel and flight costs. Resort fees are not included in most 3rd party reservations and are the responsibility of the scholarship recipient.
-We will not reimburse an AirBnB stay unless it is organized and approved by ESFL.
-If you rent a car at the event, this must be pre-approved by ESFL and used to help with group transportation as needed.
Overall Expectations
Attendance
As a scholarship recipient, the expectation would be attendance at all events for the duration of the conference. We will not reimburse hotel nights or flights if you only attend portions of the event.
Social Media/Public Acknowledgement
As a scholarship recipient, we will require social media tags of ESFL either while at the event or within one week post event. We will make sure to communicate what these requirements are close to the event. It will be something small along the lines of “Thanks for making this possible, @Enhancing Skills for Life!”