Attention undergrad or graduate students! To celebrate one year since the release of her award-winning album "Lemonade," the Queen B herself has a hot-off-the-press scholarship for you!
That is, if you are female, studying in one of four majors (creative arts, music, literature or African-American studies) and attending one of four institutions (Berklee College of Music, Howard University, Parsons School of Design or Spelman College).
Does that exclude you from applying? Don't worry, you're in good company.
Let me be clear: I absolutely love that Beyoncé is offering scholarships as a way to give back, and I have no doubt that the four ladies who will be awarded the Formation Scholars award will be deserving young women. I am in full support of increasing academic scholarships, and I understand why scholarships are becoming institution — and major-specific, as a way to filter applicants and make sure the money is going exactly where the sponsors want it to go.
No one is complaining that there is more money being funneled into the humanities and arts; I am simply using this as a springboard for discussion on what scholarships today indicate about the way we view education.
Shouldn't we be encouraging students to pursue whatever major and career they feel most called to, most gifted in and most passionate about, rather than awarding those who study in specific fields? Actually, I love that Beyoncé chose the four majors that she did, because from personal experience I can say that the humanities are severely underrepresented in the scholarship field.
In my junior and senior years of high school, I applied to nearly every general scholarship out there, from random monthly drawings to 200-word responses to full-fledged, letter-of-recommendation-with-four-essays-and-demonstrated-financial-need-and-transcript scholarships. Knowing that, as a future humanities major, it would be more difficult to find a high-paying job out of college than as STEM or business major, I naïvely assumed that there would be additional scholarships available for humanities students.
I was wrong.
The majority of scholarships I found actually awarded those students pursuing the higher-paying careers. I understand the great need for students in those majors, but I honestly believe that we need students to be where they are the most passionate, dedicated and in love with their studies. Education is supposed to be about educating the entire person, not merely job preparation.
We cannot encourage right-brain people to pursue left-brain careers, because any fellow right-brainers know that that will only decrease productivity and happiness. I would rather be working at a low-paying job that I love and am successful at, than a high-paying job that my brain is not wired for.
Humanities majors are already at a disadvantage with potentDial salaries after college, so why does scholarship money continue to pour into future business gurus and engineers who are already predisposed to find a big-bucks job shortly after graduation?
Let us encourage education, not one specific career choice. Let us encourage students to follow their talents and passions, rather than the biggest potential salary. If you are truly passionate about business or science, then all power to you! We should all be so lucky. But to all scholarship sponsors out there, please give us humanities majors a chance as well.
We don't want pity or special privileges. We just want an equal chance.
You champion the idea of education for all, then you favor those in the major you personally support.
Hats off to you, Beyoncé, for giving back, and for encouraging the humanities, arts and women's education. We genuinely thank you. I only hope that we consider the implications of institution — and major-specific scholarships as they become more and more the trend.
Let us join together to celebrate and support education, not just students at specific schools; to encourage the pursuit of passion and purpose in life, not just specific fields.
