2023 NAFWS Scholarship Online Application

DETAILS:

The Native American Fish and Wildlife Society (NAFWS) received funds to allocate for the NAFWS’ Scholarship. Our goal is to help Native American and/or Alaskan Native students pursue their career and educational goals in the field of natural resources, by providing financial assistance. The NAFWS National Scholarship amount is $1500.00 to $2500.00 and will be given to recipients for the Fall of 2023.

DEADLINE:      Post-marked by OR received by email by July 7, 2023 by 10 pm Mountain Time.

ELIGIBILITY:

  1. Must be an enrolled member of a U.S. federally recognized Tribe.
  2. Must be an enrolled full-time student in good standing at an accredited institution of higher learning pursuing a degree in a field of natural resources (no online students) for the award year.
  3. Must be an incoming college freshman, undergraduate, graduate or PhD student.
  4. Previous recipients of a NAFWS Regional Scholarship may be considered and awarded, depending on the number of applicants received.
  5. Scholarship recipients are encouraged to volunteer their time to participate at a Summer Youth Practicum to assist, present, chaperone and be an inspirational role model for our youth.

TO APPLY THROUGH THIS ONLINE FORM, fill and submit the following:

  • Complete 2023 NAFWS Scholarship Online Application (scroll down for the online application form)
  • Up-to-date resume or CV, no need for a cover letter due to the essay requirement (document upload)
  • Enrollment Verification to a College and/or University for Fall 2023 (document upload)
    1. You can download this from your college student account, if not you may need to contact your registrar’s office, for incoming college freshman or graduate student submit a copy of your official acceptance letter. Class schedules, on-campus housing documents or acceptance to on-campus student programs are not acceptable.
  • Copy of most recent high school, undergraduate or graduate transcripts (unofficial are accepted) (document upload)
  • Proof of Tribal Enrollment or submission of completed BIA Form 4432 (document upload)

ADDITIONALLY, you must have two recommenders submit a letter of recommendation to the NAFWS education coordinator:

  • 2 signed Letters of Recommendation with a letterhead or at least in letter format:
    1. One of the two letters must be from a high school teacher or counselor (high schoolers only) OR college faculty or advisor (college students)
    2. One of the two letters must be from a person who has worked with or knows of Tribal relations (i.e. appointed or elected Tribal leader, professor in Native American studies, director of the university’s Native cultural center, US Forest Service Tribal liaison, Council delegate, Chapter official, Village or Pueblo leader, etc.)

Letters of Recommendations should be postmarked, received by email, or received through the website form by the SAME deadline as application and submitted by the recommender, not the applicant. Recommenders should not include family members (i.e guardians, parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins). Also, one letter cannot serve for both of the A and B requirements, you need one A letter, and one B letter.

***Only completed applications will be considered this includes all letters of recommendation. The NAFWS Education Coordinator is not responsible for notifying students of missing application materials. You may email the NAFWS Education Coordinator to ask if they have received all your documents, but be sure to do so in advance of the deadline date to receive a reply in adequate time. ***

MORE INFORMATION:

To determine which NAFWS region you will apply for, you can access a map of our regions is on our website.

Students will be notified through email and phone call if they are selected as a recipient of the scholarship, students will also be notified if they were not selected for the scholarship through email.

The scholarship check will be sent to the students’ institution and not to the student.

Scholarship applications will be evaluated and selected based on a rubric and point allocation system by a selection committee to ensure efficient and equal opportunity. If you would like to know the rubric in which the scholarship selection will be based on, you can see the rubric on our website (nafws.org) on the scholarship page.

AFTER RECEIVING SCHOLARSHIP, RECIPIENTS ARE REQUIRED TO:

  • Submit required tax documents (Form W9)
  • Submit a short bio with a profile picture of yourself for the NAFWS website, this must be done before the NAFWS sends your scholarship award to your institution.