Below is a sample scholarship application received from the University of Arizona that addresses each of the university and student criteria.  If you are planning to submit an application, please feel free to follow this model.

September 2, 2009

Josh Greene

VP, Member Services

Ray M. Greenly Scholarship Fund

c/o Shop.org

325 7th Street, NW, Suite 1100

Washington, DC 20004

Dear Josh,

The Terry J Lundgren Center for Retailing, established in 1993, supports a top-notch retailing curriculum at the University of in Tucson, Arizona.  We provide several scholarships to our retailing students currently, and would like to add the Shop.org scholarships to our pool for qualifying candidates.In developing this scholarship program with Shop.org.   I have two goals:

• For the 20010 – 11 academic year, the allocation of two $2500 Shop.org scholarships - $5000 total.

• Long term, establishment of a scholarship endowment that will recognize in perpetuity eligible students at the University of Arizona. Only the interest earned on the corpus will be awarded to students. The endowment will continue to grow, and the scholarship amount awarded will also grow over time.

After reviewing the requirements for the Shop.org scholarships, I believe that we meet all criteria for universities to receive the scholarship funds and would like to establish Shop.org Scholarship in 2010. The Retailing and Consumer Sciences major offers students the opportunity to pursue careers in a multitude of career tracks from store operations and buying to supply chain management and ecommerce. The Lundgren Center provides an important bridge from the classroom to career and makes the industry come alive for students through guest speakers, field trips, internships and national conferences.  With our outstanding research and teaching faculty and fifteen unique courses in the major, we are one of the top retailing programs in the country.

For many years we have offered our students three courses in the area of retail technology: ecommerce, database management and supply chain management. In addition, this year we launched the Lundgren Center Certificate in Ecommerce. Although this is still a growing focus within our program, we have placed graduates at Amazon.com, Google and Macys.com.  We can discuss the possibility of naming the certificate the Shop.org Certificate in Ecommerce depending on the funding level of a Shop.org scholarship endowment.  This would provide excellent visibility for the certificate and careers in ecommerce.

We have an on line application system in place for student interested in applying for scholarship and all students are require to submit a resume and answer specific questions with regard to their career goals. Our scholarship application process begins January 1, awards are announced in April and the funds are distributed to the students by the university in May/June. We do not currently require personal interviews of the candidates, but this will be added to the process for the Shop.org scholarship. We will also publicize the Shop.org recipients through our website and on line newsletter, The RetailLink.

Please let me know what additional information you need regarding our ability to meet the Shop.org scholarship criteria. You can also find more information about our center at our website: Terryjlundgrencenter.org.  I hope you will consider us an institution eligible to award the prestigious Shop.org scholarships.

Sincerely,

Melinda Burke

PETSMART Professor of Practice

Director

Criteria for Universities to Receive Scholarship Funds:

Must be a potential research partner for Shop.org

As a Research I university, the tenured and tenure-track professors in Retailing and Consumer Sciences are active researchers, many with a focus on ecommerce and consumer behavior. For example:

• Dr. Anita Bhappu studies a variety of issues pertaining to the performance of diverse work teams, as well as service delivery and E-Commerce.
• Dr. Mary Ann Eastlick focuses on consumer shopping behaviors and attitudes toward store-based retail firms, shopping malls, and direct marketing firm (i.e., catalogs, Internet, etc.).
• Dr. Sabrina Helm focuses customer bonding strategies and, specifically,the value of customer relationships from the supplier’s perspective. She also conducts research studies on customers’ referral behavior and referral campaigns. She is interested in corporate reputation, its measurement, management, and its impact on diverse stakeholder groups.
• Dr. Ying Huang's research interests focus on three areas: 1) retail channel relationships, 2) international retailing, and 3) retail innovation and new product development.
• Dr. Sherry Lotz focuses on attitudinal models in the context of cross-cultural consumers and multi-channel (e.g., Internet, traditional s tore format) shopping formats.
• Dr. Soyeon Shim’s research focuses on consumer attitudes and purchasing behaviors in the context of a variety of settings (e.g., ecommerce, traditional shopping malls, agricultural sector).

Must be willing to comply with the student criteria Yes, this will not be a problem. We plan to offer the scholarships to worthy students in the certificate program and/or enrolled in the ecommerce classes.

Must award scholarships to students within one month of receiving funds, and within two months, report back to Shop.org background (profile of who was chosen and their merits) on the selected students

We have a defined process in place for awarding scholarships (usually spring semester) but we will work with Shop.org to tailor the scholarship schedule to meet your expectations.

Universities must have a formal online retail or e-commerce curriculum 

We currently offer two courses for our students that focus on ecommerce. We also have several courses offered in an on line environment.

Universities should have a track record of its students being hired into the online retail industry

We can track the student using our existing outreach tools

Scholarship selection must be made by a university selection committee through in-person interviews intended to assess the individual's motivation, character, ability, interest in online retail or e-commerce and potential

We have a selection committee made up of the RCSC Undergraduate Committee who will select the recipients o fthe scholarships.

Criteria for Undergraduate Students to Receive Tuition Scholarships

• The scholarship should be given  to undergraduate students who have earned at least half of the total number of credits needed for graduation
• The scholarships should be awarded to students who demonstrate a strong interest in e-commerce or online retailing demonstrated through coursework and/or work experience
• The student should show high levels of prior academic performance (minimum 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale)
• Students should receive recommendations from instructors
• Students should demonstrate leadership in the community or on campus
• The criteria for students will be clearly defined for students.