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by Agnes Jasinski

As the economy begins to look a bit less bleak and unemployment figures finally begin to see signs of improvement, a career in business may look more stable than it would have in the last year or so. If you’re pursuing a major or career in business, there are a number of business scholarships out there than will help you pay for an often expensive endeavor. If you’re a minority future businessman or woman, then this week’s Scholarship of the Week is for you.

The Marriott Minority Entrepreneurs Scholarship Program is aimed at helping minority college students and entrepreneurs in funding their educations. The award, which comes from a partnership between the International Franchise Association and Marriott, awards three $3,000 scholarships each year, and doesn’t require a very lengthy application process. If you don’t quite fit the criteria but are interested in business, make sure you browse our awards in that category or conduct a search based on your particular student characteristics.

Prize: Five $3,000 scholarship awards are presented annually.

Eligibility: To be eligible for the scholarship, students must be enrolled in an accredited college or university or be adult entrepreneurs pursuing executive education. Adult entrepreneurs must have at least five years of business ownership or managerial experience. All applicants must be U.S. citizens, and considered a member of a minority group — African-American, American-Indian, Hispanic, or Asian-American.

Deadline: June 15, 2010

Required Material: Applicants must complete an application form from the IFA Educational Foundation, along with an official academic transcript. The application includes a requirement for a brief essay asking for applicants’ career goals and reasons why they should receive the scholarship. Adult entrepreneurs must also submit a resume summarizing professional and academic experience.

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.

by Emily

A native of a "small town in the Pacific Ocean," Deisha P. hopes to use her business major to improve the economic growth of Molokai, Hawaii, her island community that has struggled to balance development and preservation. To help achieve that goal, Deisha has been named the 2009 recipient of the annual $1,000 College Business Scholarship from Scholarships.com.

Scholarships.com has been awarding Area of Study College Scholarships since summer 2008 to help students like Deisha meet their college and career goals. The competition has now entered its second year, granting a different $1,000 scholarship each month to high school seniors and undergraduate students planning to pursue careers in the following fields: Business, Culinary Arts, Design, Computer Science, Education, Engineering, English, Health, History, Science, Technology, and Art.

These scholarships give students an opportunity to voice their opinions, and provide them with an opportunity to fund their education," said Kevin Ladd, Vice President for Scholarships.com. "The Area of Study College Scholarships make paying for college easier for students like Deisha who are willing to expend the time and effort necessary to realize their career goals while taking out as few student loans as possible."

Applicants are asked to compose essays describing what influenced their career choices. In her submission, Deisha described her goals of introducing innovative ways to bring more people to Molokai while maintaining the integrity of the island's "untouched" resources and vibrant culture.

The Scholarships.com Area of Study College Scholarships are open to all U.S. citizens who will be attending college in the fall of 2009, regardless of age, test scores or grade point average. To apply for the Scholarships.com Area of Study College Scholarships, students can visit Scholarships.com, conduct a free college scholarship search and complete an online scholarship application.

A complete list of Area of Study scholarship winners, as well as their winning essays is available on our Student Winners page.

by Emily

The rise of the online auction service eBay has prompted people to attempt to sell just about anything they can affix a price to. So while it's not surprising to find some pretty out there listings from time to time, it's still not every day you see a student auctioning off a stake in his future.

A college student in Georgia attempted this week to fund the last 18 credits of his Master of Business Administration degree through an unusual source: selling a share of his potential earnings on eBay. The student, Terrance Wyatt of Clark Atlanta University, has been paying for college with financial aid for the last six years, but according to his eBay listing, he found himself $10,000 short of his funding needs this year.

So, being a business graduate student, he began looking for a way out of this financial quandary by marketing himself and seeking investors in his future. While his listing has been removed (eBay frowns on the selling of intangibles or the use of the site for fundraising), Maureen Downey's Get Schooled blog for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the partial text of the ad, as well as more information about the student.

While eBay may not have been the best venue for Wyatt's ad, his idea of seeking investors in his future is not so far-fetched. Recently, a number of peer-to-peer lending sites have launched, allowing students and individuals to arrange for anything from straightforward student loans to buying shares in a student's future success. These alternatives to alternative loans are still operating on a small scale and relatively unknown, but students like Wyatt may find the funding they need through such programs.

There are also scholarship opportunities for MBA students, and really anyone who has come up a bit short on financial aid.  Business school scholarships and scholarships for graduate students could easily bridge the gap for students who need more money and want to avoid student loan debt. Depending on your school and your program, you could even land a fellowship or assistantship that could fund your graduate education.

by Suada Kolovic

Interested in a career in business? You’re not alone. Year after year, Business Management and Administration are reported to be among the most popular college majors with students today. Why? Because not only is it a profitable major, but a business education can lead to a broad range of careers. So, if you're interested in a career that is in high demand and practical, check out the top undergrad business schools according to Businessweek.

• University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College
• University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce
• Emory University, Goizueta Business School
• University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
• Cornell University
• University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
• Villanova University
• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler Business School
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School
• Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business
• Brigham Young University, Marriott School of Management
• University of Richmond, Robins School of Business
• University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business

The rankings are based on student satisfaction, post graduation outcomes and academic quality. Businessweek surveyed approximately 28,000 students from 113 institutions to describe their experiences. Then asked 246 recruiters to identify which institutions provide the best new hires and have the most innovative programs. From more information on this survey and the complete list of institutions ranked check out Businessweek. And if you’re concerned about how you’re going to pay for this lucrative education in business, conduct a free scholarship search today!

by Emily

Yesterday, the big "oh, look, a distraction from my homework!" news was a boy in Colorado who had apparently climbed into a homemade hot air balloon and floated away. This, of course, raised questions. The immediate question was, "is this for real?" especially after he was found hiding in his house, safely on solid ground, a few hours later. Immediately on the heels of this first query was a second, "who builds a giant balloon in their backyard, anyway?"

While no one has had much luck answering the first one yet, maybe you're the type of student who knows the answer to the second question. For some people, there's a certain allure to creating and executing plans for original creations. While your experiments and blueprints may not have resulted in a shiny balloon capable of capturing and holding national attention for hours, your inventions can still gain you recognition, and even cash, by way of scholarship awards. So if the saga of "balloon boy" yesterday inspired you to build your own airborne contraption, you may want to see if you can win some scholarship money by doing so.

There are numerous scholarships available for more inventive students, whether they're interested in engineering, design, business and entrepreneurship, or just making cool things as a hobby. Students engaging in other out-of-the-ordinary pursuits in addition to inventing may take an interest in any number of unusual college scholarships, ranging from awards for speaking fluent Klingon to awards for exceptional duck-calling.

Aspiring inventors who are looking for college aid will definitely want to check out the Collegiate Inventors Competition. This annual scholarship offers awards of up to $25,000 for doing what you do anyway: creating and developing a new and workable idea, process, or technology. Students more interested in building elaborate designs from shiny material, on the other hand, may find themselves drawn to the Duck Brand Duct Tape "Stuckat Prom" Contest. This well-known annual scholarship gives one lucky couple $3,000 college scholarships for designing and wearing duct tape prom attire. If you don't just want to build, but want to also produce, market, and distribute your brilliant inventions, you may be a candidate for one of several entrepreneurship and business scholarships awarded each year by various foundations. There may even be local scholarships for young entrepreneurs in your area.

These aren't the only scholarship opportunities available to creative and enterprising students.  To see more award opportunities like the ones mentioned above, conduct a free scholarship search on Scholarships.com.

by Agnes Jasinski

More and more students are considering majoring in business now that the GRE is accepted in lieu of the GMAT at many business schools, and the job market has been looking a little better for business school graduates as the economy finally starts to pick up. This means business scholarships are even more common, as schools and organizations want to help those future businessmen and women cover their college costs.

This week's Scholarship of the Week is one such opportunity. The National Business Association Scholarship Program doles out awards to children of members of the organization and members of the organization, which is a nonprofit interested in providing supports to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Don't limit your search if you don't have connections to the group, though. There are many business scholarships out there that you may be specifically eligible for, even those aimed at accounting majors, marketing majors, or those interested in other business-related fields.

Prize: Up to five $1,500 scholarships will be awarded each year.

Eligibility: Those eligible to apply for the NBA scholarships are high school seniors, college freshmen, sophomores and juniors who are dependent sons and daughters of NBA dues-paying Members, or NBA members themselves. Institutions of attendance must be accredited, nonprofit two or four-year colleges/universities in the United States. A student may transfer from one institution to another and retain the award. Academic achievements will be considered; high school applicants should rank in the top third of their senior class but not in the top 10 percent. Standardized test scores should range from 18 to 26 for the ACT, or between 850 to 1170 on the SAT combined. Students enrolled in college should present college GPAs that range from 2.5 to 3.5.

Deadline: April 1, 2010

Required Material: By February 1 of each year, the NBA announces the start of the scholarship competition. Those interested must fill out an application packet, which will ask for things like your academic achievements, community service work, and other interests.

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.

For many women, the task of balancing the myriad responsibilities of life is an ongoing challenge.  Expectations and obligations come from many directions, including work, school, finances, family, friends, and the community.  The ability to successfully juggle these elements of life and at the same time strike out and seek out new challenges and opportunities is commendable, and should rightly be rewarded.  If you're a young woman between the ages of 12 and 18 who is pursuing her own business or service enterprise while attending high school, helping others, and taking the first steps towards financial independence, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America may award you up to $10,000 in scholarship money for your efforts.  This week's Scholarship of the Week provides scholarship opportunities for entrepreneurial girls who are going places.

Prize: Fifteen scholarships are awarded as follows:

• $10,000 for first place
• $5,000 for second place
• $3,000 for third place
• $1,000 for 12 finalists

Eligibility: Scholarships are awarded to girls ages 12-18 (as of December 31, 2008) who are legal U.S. residents and are currently enrolled in high school or middle school or are being home schooled.  Current college students are not eligible.  Successful applicants will demonstrate entrepreneurship or financial acumen, be taking steps towards financial independence, and be involved in their communities.

Deadline: February 27, 2009

Required Material: Completed scholarship application, found on the Girls Going Places website, accompanied by a 250-word application essay and a 750-word letter of recommendation from an adult sponsor.

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.

by Radha Jhatakia

Recently, the College of Business clubs at San Jose State University held a Business Olympics. In this mini-Olympics, students from the various CoB clubs participated in many different athletic games and fun activities where students had the opportunity to get good workouts, blow off some steam and socialize with others.

According to the club board members who united to host the CoB Olympics, there was a great deal of planning involved. They had to ensure a date, time and space on campus where the games could be held, as well as find faculty members who would be willing to oversee the event since it was an on-campus activity. They also needed enough of the clubs in the College of Business to join so that there would be enough participants for a competition and needed to plan which games to play (touch football and volleyball tournaments, a five-legged race, a balloon stomp game, tug-of-war and business trivia). This being the bare minimum, the board members of the clubs went above and beyond for the event: They even found sponsors for the Olympics – Monster (energy drinks), State Farm Insurance and WiLD 94.9 (a local radio station) – that provided supplies, t-shirts, snacks, water and food for a barbeque after the event. After the eight-hour competition filled with bumps and bruises, we all left having made new connections with students from other clubs and the successful nature of the event will be continued in a now semi-annual College Olympics.

Depending on the department or major you are in, you can tailor the Olympics to fit your criteria and the great part is that this kind of event can be held by any organization on campus. Does your school have any Olympic-like event like SJSU's? If not, will this article help you in planning your own?

Radha Jhatakia is a communications major at San Jose State University. She's a transfer student who had some ups and downs in school and many obstacles to face; these challenges – plus support from family, friends and cat – have only made Radha stronger and have given her the experience to help others with the same issues. In her spare time, she enjoys writing, reading, cooking, sewing and designing. A social butterfly, Radha hopes to work in public relations and marketing upon graduation.