Selection Committee

SELECTION COMMITTEE

The Ascend Educational Fund’s Selection Committee is responsible for scoring applications and selecting scholars.  As a member of the selection committee you are responsible for reading a minimum of 20 applications.

Each selection committee member is given access to the reader system and assigned 20 random applications to score based on qualities traditionally valued and demonstrated by the immigrant community: hard work, resourcefulness, perseverance in the face of adversity, academic achievement, leadership, and commitment to one’s community.

Each selection committee member is required to attend an orientation where instructions on how to score an application will be given, as well as examples of how to apply the scoring criteria.

Discretionary pick: A selection committee member that reads 50 or more applications has the option of selecting a discretionary pick.  A discretionary pick can be used to highlight an applicant whose scores do not reflect some aspects of his or her application that you find compelling, or whose “true” score in a particular category is so high that you feel the highest score does not do the applicant justice. An applicant labeled as a discretionary pick ensures that he/she is considered for an interview even if other members do not score the applicant as highly.

Commitment:

  • Read a minimum of 20 applications, time commitment will depend on each person individually, however we have noticed it usually takes 30 minutes for the first 3 to 4 applications and ~10-15 minutes for each remaining application
  • Attend a mandatory orientation that will last 30-45 minutes
  • Input application scores, this usually takes 10-15 minutes depending on the number of read applications

Questions:

Email: Erika Zamora at scholarship@ascendfundny.org