May 3, 2013 

Dear Nursing Student, 

The Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation (CKSF) has a new program called Tuition Back Scholarship specifically for undergraduate nursing students.

Each semester the Tuition Back Scholarships program gives nursing students several opportunities to earn their "tuition back" by taking online quizzes. Each quiz is based on a specific course and is designed to help students review and prepare for exams.

Eligibility and Cost

Tuition Back Scholarships are free to all undergraduate nursing students in the United States.

Scholarship Award

A scholarship of up to $1,000 per course will be awarded to the winner if his or her college or university   is participating in the Tuition Back Scholarships program. If the winner is attending a school not yet participating in this program, he or she will receive a scholarship of $100. Make sure you ask your college advisor if your school is participating in the CKSF Tuition Back Scholarships program..

Getting Started

Make sure to update your CKSF profile to include your college or university and college graduation date. Complete details for each scholarship can be found on the CKSF website.

Go to www.cksf.org and click on "Tuition Back Scholarships."

*Students and parents should ask their college advisor or financial aid administrator if their school is participating in the Tuition Back Scholarship program. 

Thank you and good luck in your college endeavors. 

Daryl Hulce, President
Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation.

In February 2013 CKSF launched a Marine Biology Scholarship  based on the sharks found in Guy Harvey's artwork. Following the awarding of the winner and meeting Guy Harvey at the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation office in Davie, the CKSF staff took a field trip the NSU Oceanographic Center in Dania, Florida.

The trip started with a stop at the Quarterdeck on Dania Peer and then the ride through John Lloyd State Park to the center. Our tour of the NSU center included seeing each floor of an amazing facility. Each floor has a very unique style and amazing view.  Out one side is the Atlantic Ocean and the other side is Port Everglades.

Any high school or college student considering studying marine biology should seriously consider Nova Southeastern University.  The undergraduate program is on the main campus in Davie, FL (about nine miles west of the ocean) and the graduate program is in Dania, Florida.  It's an amazing place doing great work to better understand the oceans and marine life.

. 

Hollywood, FL - Jenny Poon became the first winner of the Aikido of South Florida Scholarship offered by the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation.  The scholarship competition sponsored by sensei Stephany Yap, required participants in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties to learn the details of Aikido, one of the specialized martial arts, and take a series of online quizzes.  The program resulted in a college scholarship for the high scoring male and female participants and personal lesson at the Aikido of South Florida dojo in Hollywood, Florida.

Jenny Poon, a student at the School for Advanced Studies, visited the dojo with her family where she received personalized instruction in self defense.  Jenny was awarded with a certificate and scholarhsip check which may be used at the college or university of her choice. The day ended with a celebration dinner and new friendships being forged.

They must be doing something right at the Carroll Community College nursing program.  As of March 29th J.Lippy is leading the CKSF National Nursing Tuition Back Scholarship.  So far J. Lippy is demonstrating a greater knowledge of anatomy than the other 614 students competing for this scholarship.

History suggests the lead will change several times before the nursing scholarship is actually awarded.  There are still two physiology quizzes left in this scholarship competition and often times students will study hard to come out on top in the second and third rounds.

The Tuition Back Scholarship program allows students to earn scholarship money for simply studying and taking an online quiz. Quizzes are developed on the core courses found in any nursing school curriculum. Any nursing student in the United States may register with the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation and take the quiz.  There are no essays, just simple online quizzes.  The winner is determined by time and accuracy.  

It's not too late.  Nursing students can still register with CKSF and get into the contest at www.cksf.org.

Every day is a new adventure at the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation.  As if being a part of Nova Southeastern University wasn't reward enough, outside our window (CKSF office in the background) is a pair of burrowing owls. 

Even with a great deal of traffic and commotion in the parking lot, these two birds seem calm and secure.  They make me want to create a wildlife scholarship using the National Audobon Society as the source of information.

Imagine yourself at an elementary school at 3:15 on a Thursday afternoon and the students have just been released. What is the last thing any sane person would try and do?  The list is long and varied but the correct answer is herd the students into the library and try and get them all to do math.

And yet, look closely at this picture, these kids are so engaged trying to calculate basic math problems that at times they were literally crawling over the tables to see the quiz questions on the laptop.

It actually happens when we implement Pizza Math at a school.  Pizza Math is simply an online quiz in which all the quiz questions are simple math based on pizza.  Kids get 500 points for each correct answer and lose 1 point for each second it takes to calculate the answer. The person with the most points at the end of the quiz wins a free pizza.

So when it comes to Pizza Math, nothing is quite as it sounds.  Kids will do try very hard to do math after school and pizza becomes the carrot (it's all very metaphorical).

Making the Pizza Math a little easier to implement was teaming up with a Kiwanis club in south Florida that sponsors a K-kids.  It made for a great activity during a regularly scheduled K-Kids meeting. And if you really have things together, you can have a pizza shop donate or discount the pizza.  For this Pizza Math day, Pizza Loft in Davie, Florida helped us with the pizza.  The Kiwanis president then became a patron of the restaurant and everyone came out ahead.  Kids did math and had pizza and the big hearted pizza shop ended up with new customers.

Scholarships are hard to come by after high school and teacher scholarships should be listed as one of the endangered species in this country. To help right this academic wrong, the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation has added education to the list of Tuition Back Scholarships. This means that education majors can now compete for scholarship money for simply reading their text books.

The first Education Tuition Back Scholarship is based on the course, Human Development.  This is a course found at almost every college that prepares teachers for the classroom. The scholarship consists of several quizzes that correspond with midterms and finals.  So the first quiz should include the same content as would be seen on a midterm exam.  Even if a student doesn’t win the scholarship they will be preparing for the exam at the same time they are competing for scholarship money.

All Common Knowledge Scholarships utilize the same method in determining the winners.  Students log in during a specific window of time (days) that the quiz is available.  They receive 500 points for each correct answer and lose one (1) point for each second it takes to complete each question.  The person with the most points at the end of the contest is the scholarship winner and receives all or part of their tuition back for the course.

It is a fun and effective way to prepare for exams and earn scholarship money.

For complete information visit www.cksf.org

Maybe they have a receptionist by the door. Maybe they will seat me in a waiting area until they are ready to interview me. Maybe I should have worn a pair of dress pants. The endless maybes raced in my mind as I approached the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation front door. But as their impossible-to-see-through-from-the-outside door swung open, I learned with relief that my imagination had been far too colorful. Student employees in cubicles replaced the receptionist, and perhaps the small table with a bowl of mints in the middle could have served as the waiting area. As for the dress code, dress pants would have been a little too much.

As Daryl and Lauren interviewed me, I focused on minimizing my stutter and the ridiculous shake in my hands. I rambled on about my experiences and hoped that something about my boring life would impress them. Then suddenly, Lauren asked, "How would you rate your level of creativity on a scale of 1 to 10? And give an example where you applied your creativity." I will never forget this question because the office went dead silent for a minute as I racked my brain for a response. I finally settled for a 5 and gave an example I wasn't too proud of. Thankfully, they still welcomed me and later introduced me to a world of opportunities for my creativity to grow.  

I began the internship expecting to conquer the "Not Listed" schools and eventually become the "Not Listed" czar. But several hundred schools later, Daryl offered me the chance to run a blog/newsletter, News Ninja, which reaches an audience of thousands of students. Though all this is exciting, the best part about this internship is the people I work with. At CKSF, we are a family who brings out the best of each other and livens up the atmosphere of the office. Here, my strengths are recognized and my work is praised. There is always an opportunity for me to grow and to learn useful skills. And because dress pants aren't required, I almost feel like the office is my second home. But as Daryl always says, "You can't live here!"

Half way through the first round of the CKSF Nursing Scholarship there are only 317 nursing students competing for the scholarship money.  This makes the chances of winning this scholarship exceptional. 

As with all CKSF scholarships, there are no essays required for the nursing scholarship.  There are three 15 question quizzes based on a standard nursing anatomy and physiology course.  Each students' score is a combination of time and accuracy while taking the quizzes and the person with the highest score at the end wins.  Even if a participant doesn't score the highest, the nursing scholarship is a good review for the course.  

Tuition Back Scholarships are the next generation of paying for college.  If the winner of the CKSF Nursing Scholarship is from one of the Tuition Back Schools, the student will receive their tuition back for their anatomy and physiology course (up to $1,000).

There are several ways to become a Tuition Back school.

1. A fee of $100 can be paid by your school or a sponsor (maybe an alum of your school or the student government)
2. Your school can be invited by the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation
3. A limited number of school earn entrance by having faculty submit applicable quiz questions for the scholarship topics

Today, the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation (CKSF) ventured to the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation office in Davie, Florida to award the first place winner of the Marine Biology Scholarship, Patience Hall. Along with a $250 scholarship, Patience had the opportunity to meet Guy Harvey and receive an original piece of his artwork as well as an autographed Guy Harvey book. 

The Marine Biology Scholarship was designed to reward students for simply learning about marine animals. Patience, and other participants, prepared for the scholarship by studying the Marine Biology Challenge Database at namethatfish.net. 

The scholarship, in the form of an online quiz, invited all high school and college students in Florida to participate between February 17-23, 2013. Other top scorers also won Guy Harvey autographed prizes.