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Painting, sculpture, music, photography, theater and film all come to mind when the word "art" is mentioned, a fact reflected in the criteria for many art scholarships.  In today’s world, students who major in commercial arts, graphic design and photojournalism are all considered artists in their respective fields. To recognize and support artists working in diverse media, Scholarships.com has created this week's Scholarship of the Week.

Students who apply for the Scholarships.com College Art Scholarship will have the chance to earn $1,000 towards their college education—and it couldn’t be easier. Just respond to the following question in a 250 to 350 word essay (entries that fall outside of this word range will be disqualified): "What has influenced your decision to pursue a career in art?"

Prize: $1,000

Eligibility: Applicants must be U.S citizens and registered users of Scholarships.com.  To apply, users must be undergraduate students or high school students planning to major in one of the following areas of study at an accredited two-year or four-year college or university in the fall of 2009:

• Art
• Art History
• Commercial Arts
• Cosmetology
• Dance
• Design
• Fashion
• Film Studies
• Fine Arts
• Graphic Design
• Interior Design
• Music
• New Media
• Photographic Studies
• Theatre
• TV News
• Photojournalism
• Voice
• Web Design

Deadline: April 30, 2009

Required Material: A completed Scholarships.com profile and a 250 to 350-word scholarship essay written in response to the question, “What has influenced your decision to pursue a career in art?”

Further details about the application process can be found by conducting a free college scholarship search on Scholarships.com. Once the search is completed, students eligible for this scholarship award will find it in their search results.

When Michael Jackson died, the world lost not only a talented pop musician, but also a notable philanthropist. Over the course of his career, Michael Jackson donated over $300 million to at least 39 charitable organizations and also made generous financial contributions to numerous individuals, especially children and their families. While many of his charitable acts focused on helping sick or injured children around the globe, he also made substantial contributions to education.

One of the charities Michael Jackson supported most generously and publicly was the United Negro College Fund, which helps support African American students in their college goals. He first began supporting the UNCF in 1984 and participated in several fundraisers for the organization. One of his donations established the Michael Jackson Scholarship, which has existed as an endowed scholarship since 1986, supporting students attending college with the goal of pursuing careers in the performing arts. His generous contributions have allowed the UNCF to extend scholarship opportunities to hundreds of African American students over the last 25 years.

To learn more about the Michael Jackson Scholarship, you can visit the UNCF website. You may also want to do a scholarship search on Scholarships.com to find more scholarship awards for African American students and students interested in the arts. All Michael Jackson, a Michael Jackson fan website, has more information about Jackson's many charitable contributions.

Are you an graphic designer and t-shirt aficionado? Do you dream of one day having people across the world wearing something you created? Maybe you just really liked the screenprinting unit in high school art class. If you've ever seen someone wearing a cool t-shirt and thought to yourself, "I could make something like that," this week's Scholarship of the Week is for you.

The Threadless Scholarship gives college students a chance to not only see their t-shirt designs printed and distributed internationally, but to also win a $3,000 design scholarship. The best part? Winners are chosen weekly, so you have multiple chances at winning scholarships.

Prize: A $3,000 college scholarship plus a $500 Threadless gift certificate (or $200 in cash) and the chance to compete for other cash awards of up to $20,000.

Eligibility: Any undergraduate or graduate student currently enrolled at least part-time or pending enrollment in a college or university. This scholarship contest is open to students in the United States and other countries, regardless of major, GPA, or test scores.

Deadline: Ongoing

Required Material: Register as an artist on the Threadless website and submit a t-shirt design. If your design is chosen for print, you can elect to receive a $3,000 scholarship in place of a $2,000 cash award. Artists can submit multiple t-shirt designs and will receive an award for each shirt that is printed.

Further details about the application process can be found by conducting a free college scholarship search on Scholarships.com. Once the search is completed, students eligible for this scholarship award will find it in their search results.

This weekend is San Diego Comic-Con, the biggest event of the year for fans of comic books, graphic novels, online comics, and virtually anything else related to comics or the surrounding culture. While no one in the Scholarships.com office is making the trek to Comic-Con this year, we are looking at ways to help students who love comics pay for school. If you're looking for something to do while all your favorite webcomics are on hiatus, consider applying for some of these scholarship awards.

If you're interested in reading comics, you may also be interested in writing or drawing them, and creative writing and art scholarships are both widely available. Even if you're less interested in art and more interested in science fiction (comic conventions are nerd meccas, after all), there are scholarship opportunities for you. We encourage you to take a few moments to do a free college scholarship search and check out our information page on unusual scholarships, which features some interesting awards that may work for you. To give you an idea of some of the scholarship opportunities available for comics enthusiasts, here are a few examples.

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards: Aspiring artists and writers are asked to submit portfolios of three to eight pieces in this annual scholarship contest. Winners receive up to $10,000 in college scholarships.

L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests: Amateur illustrators and writers participating in the quarterly L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest can receive awards of up to $5,000 for creating an original illustration or short story with a science fiction theme.

Starfleet Academy Scholarships: Any active member of Starfleet, the official Star Trek fan club, is eligible for a Starfleet Scholarship. Members can be attending community colleges, four-year colleges, most technical schools, junior colleges and universities or graduate school.

Photography is a fun hobby, but can be a difficult profession to break into. Whether you're going for studio photography or professional photojournalism, much of your success depends on building a portfolio and gaining exposure for your work.

Amateur photographers who are interested in receiving not only a college scholarship, but also industry recognition and professional internship experience, should be sure to check out this week's Scholarship of the Week, the College Photographer of the Year contest.

In addition to scholarship money, the student with the best portfolio will also receive the opportunity to intern with National Geographic, a potentially career-launching award. Winners in individual categories are also awarded equipment and educational opportunities from Nikon, the Poynter Institute, and the Missouri Photo Workshop. With sponsors including National Geographic, Nikon, and the National Press Photographers Foundation, entering the College Photographer of the Year competition will help you gain exposure in the photography and photojournalism industries, and you may get some cash out of the deal, as well.

Prize: First prize: $1,000; Second prize: $500

Eligibility: Undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in any college or university worldwide are eligible. Entrants may not have worked as professional photographers or paid interns for longer than two years prior to entering the contest.

Deadline: September 27, 2009

Required Material: A scholarship application, available on the College Photographer of the Year website, and a portfolio of photos taken between September 1, 2009 and August 30, 2009. Complete application instructions will be available Sunday, August 30.

Further details about the application process can be found by conducting a free college scholarship search on Scholarships.com. Once the search is completed, students eligible for this scholarship award will find it in their search results.

Art school is expensive and financial prospects for those who receive art degrees are not always certain. For budding artists at any level of education, art scholarships can make a huge difference, as can gaining exposure for your works of art.

This week's Scholarship of the Week, the MyArtSpace Art Scholarship Competition, gives art school students at both the undergraduate and graduate level the chance to earn up to $5,000 in scholarship money. Students compile an online portfolio, complete with artist's statement and CV, and post it to MyArtSpace for judging. Winning entries will exhibit artistic excellence in a visual arts medium, contemporary or traditional, including photography and video.

Prize: Undergraduate and graduate entries will be judged separately, with the following awards for each: First prize: $5,000; Second prize: $2,000; Third prize: $1,000

Eligibility: Current or prospective undergraduate or graduate students pursuing a BFA, MFA, or other approved degree program in an accredited art school. Applicants can enter either the undergraduate or graduate category of judging, but not both.

Deadline: December 16, 2009

Required Material: Completed online registration and high-resolution samples of work. To enter, artsists create a free portfolio on MyArtSpace.com or NYAXE.com and upload up to 20 images. Including an artist statement and a CV or résumé is also encouraged.

Further details about the application process can be found by conducting a free college scholarship search on Scholarships.com. Once the search is completed, students eligible for this scholarship award will find it in their search results.

A new school that recently opened in Tinley Park, Illinois, hopes to lure out-of-work art students by offering a two-week intensive program that promises to teach them a new skill—body art.

The school, Bette Baron's Art of Body Coloring School, opened earlier this month, and faced little opposition from the town, which saw it as another opportunity for students seeking vocational schools. An article in the Chicago Tribune today describes how Bette Baron, the owner and a tattoo artist for the last 16 years, opened the school to take her mind off the death of her son, Brian. Her son's face and "Love You Forever Brian" decorate her left arm. "Even housewives are getting tattoos now," Baron said in the article. Students pay $900 tuition fee and $750 for a tattooing kit at the school, and can expect to make up to $100 once they become licensed body artists.

According to the Tribune article and a 2008 poll by Harris Interactive, 32 percent of adults ages 25 to 29 have tattoos. Do tattoos have a place in academia? Sure, ink and piercings been linked to all sorts of things, including deviant behavior, as Texas Tech University's school of sociology reported recently. (They say the more tattoos and piercings you have, the more likely you are to binge drink, fall into promiscuous behavior, get arrested, and use drugs.) Career counselors also usually suggest you keep your body art from public display when interviewing for a new job, especially if there's a dress code and a fairly conservative office staff.

But tattoos are also becoming the way academics express themselves. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently featured a series of scholars' photo submissions that displayed tattoos scholars got to commemorate their work, research, and theses. The tattoos in the series weren't considered taboo, but representative of the spirit and creativity of those academics. They included scholars who got inked with the symbol for the general formula of an ester linkage, coral fish, a double helix, and the phrase "read books" that came down the calves of an adjunct English instructor in Memphis. Lawrence K. Fulbeck, a professor of art who is the author of "Permanence: Tattoo Portraits," even went to Japan to have some tattoos done the old fashioned way—through an hours-long process using needles rather than an electric tattooing drill.

What do you think? Is body art so mainstream that you wouldn't be shocked to see your professor sporting a tattooed sleeve down his arm? Would any of you consider a permanent reminder of your academic work inked on your body?

Today, at 7PM EST, Scholarships.com's own Kevin Ladd will be giving a presentation on the scholarship search, focused primarily on high school juniors. The webcast will be hosted and produced by CollegeWeekLive.com, a site that offers virtual college fairs featuring all sorts of presentations from colleges, financial aid professionals, and much more. There is a College Chat, Student Chat, information on federal aid such as the FAFSA and even video chats.

Today, Kevin's presentation will address scholarships and the importance of beginning your search early, citing scholarships offered throughout a student's high school years as well as the benefit of having familiarized yourself with the financial aid and scholarship search process long before your senior year. In fact, there are some scholarships specifically targeting high school juniors for which you won't qualify if you put off searching for financial aid until your senior year in high school.

The earlier you begin searching for scholarships, the better chance you have of finding the best ones and being awarded free money for college. For more on this and to "virtually" visit some college halls while you are at it, check out CollegeWeekLive.com and don't forget to be there at 7PM Eastern Time to see Kevin's presentation on finding scholarships. If you do miss it today, you can search for it in the College Week Live archives tomorrow and thereafter, but if you catch his live presentation today, you will be able to text any questions you might have.

Class registration time is upon us! For many of us, that means looking through course catalogs and trying to find the perfect schedule that gets us closer to our degree and still gives us time to sleep and have a good time. Many of us will be looking to cross some required classes off of our lists this fall but what about the classes you have to take...for yourself? Here are some types of classes you should consider adding to your own personal required list!

Something creative. I do not have an artistically, musically or similarly inclined bone in my body but I ignored that fact and decided to take a painting class during my freshman year. This turned out to be one of the best ideas I had because it forced me to slow things down and focus on what’s in front of me. Classes that make you flex your creative muscles can take you out of your everyday college stresses and force you to have a little fun.

An interesting history class. If you’re like me, you know plenty of college students who hate history. History classes make everyone reminiscent of high school (seriously, how many times did we learn about the American Revolution?) but college history classes are way different. Find an interesting history class that isn’t on your average topics: I took a class on the history of American women and came out with a lot of interesting info that I’ve actually pulled out in average conversation.

Something to help you get ready for life after college. Many colleges and universities offer classes to seniors on getting into the job market, interview skills, writing résumés and more. There are also classes that can help you figure out what you’d like to major in and help give you direction going forward. These classes can provide you with a wealth of useful information that will help you once your formal education has ended.

What classes are on your required list? Let us know in the comments!

Angela Andaloro is a junior at Pace University’s New York City campus, where she is double majoring in communication studies and English. Like most things in New York City, her life and college experience is far from typical – she commutes to school from her home in Flushing and took nearly a semester’s worth of classes online – but she still likes to hang out with friends, go to parties and feed her social networking addiction like your “average” college student.

Even if you don’t know Julius, Clancy or Worry Bear by name, you’ve likely seen these characters in one of Paul Frank’s whimsical designs at one point or another. If you think you can create something just as funky, enter the second annual Paul Frank Art Attack Scholarship for a chance to earn $2,500 to put toward your amazing artistic future!

Art Attack participation requires an upload of one piece of original art including some element of the Paul Frank characters/brand, an explanation of how and why the artist incorporated the Paul Frank brand, a description of what kind of art education program the applicant will be supported by the prize money and brief background info about the applicant. The Paul Frank online community will vote on submissions to narrow to the top 10 in each age group (14 – 17 and 18+) on PaulFrank.com and a panel of expert judges will select the first and second place winners in each category. One first prize of $2,500, two second prizes of $1,000, and three third prizes of $500 to be allocated to art supplies or classes will be awarded; in addition to the monetary scholarship, the winning adult artist will also receive a full page ad in Juxtapoz magazine and funding for travel to visit the Paul Frank studios and attend the Academy of Awesome launch party with a feature on PaulFrank.com.

The Art Attack deadline is May 15th so applicants have just about one month left to submit their creations. For more information about this and other scholarship opportunities, conduct a free scholarship search today!