The Riviera Beach City Council established the City of Riviera Beach Education Scholarship Program in 1998 to encourage City residents to further their education. It initially provided ten (10) $500 scholarships that were funded out of the Police Department’s Law Enforcement Trust Fund (Fines & Forfeiture Fund). Subsequently, in 2001 the scholarship award amount was increased from $500 to $1,000 per person.
The scholarship program is administered by the City’s Education Advisory Committee. Each year, applications are accepted during an announced period of time generally between February and April. The Scholarship Application Review Committee is staffed by members of the Riviera Beach Education Advisory Committee and school district personnel. The review committee begins meeting in May and each application is reviewed and scored by three (3) committee members. Qualifying applicants are ranked based upon academic accomplishments, community service and need.
Many organizations only award scholarships to incoming freshmen. Uniquely, the City of Riviera is one of the few organizations that awards at all classification levels. Qualifying criteria is as follows:
· Permanent City resident
· Minimum of 2.0 cumulative grade point average
· Complete all sections of the application
· Full Time enrollment status (minimum of 12 hours)
· Include required attachments
o Official high school, college, or trade school transcript
o Resume listing high school and/or college achievements, organizations, activities, and recent community service activities
o Three (3) letters of recommendation dated within the last six (6) months
o A typed one (1) page single spaced essay
In continuing this particular service to our City’s college students, for scholarship year 2017-2018, a total of 47 applications were received and reviewed for consideration of scholarship awards. After inspecting the application packets received, it was determined that 39 of those applications were deemed eligible for awards. To this end, please find attached as Exhibit “A”, a listing of the college students who have qualified for receipt of scholarships for this fiscal year. Accordingly, an award of $1,000 will be made available to each recipient.
Delineated below, please find the sources of the funds to be used to cover the costs of the awards for this year.
FUNDS:
- Budget Appropriation $20,000
- 2016 Carry-over $ 3,500
- Law Enforcement Trust Fund $ 3,000
- West Palm Beach Fishing Club $ 2,000
- Brown Funeral Home $ 1,000
- Community Development Dept. $ 250
- Salary Savings $ 9,250
________________________________________________________
- Total Available Funds $39,000
=====================================================
The proposed scheduled to be adhered to for issuing the awards is as follows:
- Notifications Emailed July 26, 2017
- Presentation to Mayor & City Council August 2, 2017
- Recipient Response Deadline September 30, 2017
- Checks Issued October 2 – 13, 2017
As a part of the notification process, each student who receives an award, is also given instructions on how to utilize the established process to facilitate the transmission of the awards to pay for their educational expenses. Mainly, the scholarship monies will be made payable to each recipient’s respective college/university once the City receives formal documentation evidencing enrollment.
For historical purposes, it is noted that to date, scholarships have been awarded as follows:
YEAR NUMBER AWARD TOTAL
1998 10 $ 500 $ 5,000
1999 10 $ 500 $ 5,000
2000 10 $ 500 $ 5.000
2001 10 $1,000 $10,000
2002 10 $1,000 $10,000
2003 11 $1,000 $11,000
2004 14 $1,000 $14,000
2005 15 $1,000 $15,000
2006 24 $1,000 $24,000
2007 26 $1,000 $26,000
2008 29 $1,000 $29,000
2009 29 $1,000 $29,000
2010 19 $1,000 $19,000
2011 28 $1,000 $28,000
2012 24 $1,000 $24,000
2013 28 $1,000 $28,000
2014 30 $1,000 $30,000
2015 23 $1,000 $23,000
2016 28 $1,000 $28,000
TOTAL 378 $363,000
Thereby, the provision of these additional 39 scholarships, will represent a record number of awards for the Program’s 20th year!