Omaha, NE (PRWEB) April 23, 2014 -- Storage.com — one of the leading websites in the self storage industry dedicated to helping storage seekers find, compare, and rent storage units throughout the United States and Puerto Rico — is proud to announce the launch of the inaugural Storage.com College Scholarships.
The scholarship contest is designed to give students around the nation an opportunity to acquire a scholarship that relieves some of the financial pressures of college. College students are frequent users of self storage, and Storage.com wanted to find a way to give back.
“Paying and packing for college can be a challenge,” said Nick Bilava, Director of Sales and Marketing for Storage.com. “We’ve seen college students around the country use Storage.com to find additional space for their things because of this.”
“Giving back to our many, many self storage renters that have a need for self storage in college was a key reason for building the annual Storage.com scholarship program,” said Bill Hipsher, CEO of Storage.com. “Going to college can be stressful on so many fronts, logistics and financial aid being two major stresses. The Storage.com scholarship can alleviate some of the stress on both of those fronts.”
On April 17, 2014, Storage.com launched its inaugural college scholarship contest in which three scholarships, each worth $2,500, will be awarded. The three contest winners will come from different applicant categories:
• a current high school senior enrolled or enrolling in a college or university in the fall of 2014
• a current college student who was enrolled at a college or university in the spring of 2014 and will be enrolled in the fall of 2014
• a parent/guardian of a student enrolled or enrolling at a college or university in the fall of 2014
Applicants must submit a 250 to 400-word essay in order to be considered for the scholarship. Applicants also have the opportunity to create a one to two-minute video to supplement their essays. "The video supplement to the scholarship application is strongly encouraged," said Hipsher. " Technology makes adding a video to the submission so easy today. The video portion allows our judging panel with an opportunity to get to know a bit more about the applicants via video and not just written word."
For current high school and current college students, the essay question is as follows: “Given that you already have the necessities for college, if you could only take what fits into a backpack with you to college, what would you bring?”
For the parents/guardians, the essay question is as follows: “In a perfect world, when your child moves out for college, what are you going to do with their bedroom?”
In addition to answering the primary question above, all Storage.com Scholarship contest entries, whether from high school students entering college, current college students, or parents of students, should include no fewer than 50 words and no more than 150 words about why the student deserves the scholarship (e.g., academic achievement, civic contributions, etc.), and/or how the scholarship will benefit the student (e.g., how the Storage.com scholarship will contribute to their future).
The winning essays will be selected after two rounds of judging. In the first round, the top 20 essays from each of the three applicant categories will be chosen by the Storage.com Scholarship Committee. During the application process, all essays and video submissions will be available for review on Storage.com and will have the opportunity for social sharing, promotion, and voting. Should there be any ties in first round voting, social votes may be used as a tiebreaker, giving the public a chance to weigh in on who they think may be most deserving.
In the second round, the Storage.com Scholarship Committee, which consists of storage industry professionals, both past and present, will evaluate the essays chosen and select the three winners.
The application period for the Storage.com Scholarship ends at 12:00 AM CST on July 31, 2014. Applicants who have made it to the second round will be announced on Storage.com's website and via e-mail by August 7, 2014. Winners will be notified on August 15, 2014.
For more information about Storage.com’s college scholarship contest, including contest rules and how to enter, visit Storage.com/scholarships.
About Storage.com
Storage.com helps storage facilities, large or small, compete more effectively in the online marketplace. Storage.com lists facilities on the largest network of storage directories on the web, allowing potential customers to search for storage in their area. Storage.com features software integrations with major property management systems and provides easy-to-use online inventory management tools for facilities not using property management systems, allowing consumers to find and rent storage units from real-time availability. Storage.com is the only online marketing tool that delivers exclusive reservations, provides a complete search engine optimization (SEO) package, and is fueled by self-storage experts.
Bill Hipsher, Storage.com, http://www.storage.com, +1 4029329990, [email protected]
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