Potential Magazine March 2015 | Page 20

pay the way heritage scholarships COULD YOUR PAST HELP SHAPE YOUR FUTURE? Hundreds of organizations across the nation are offering financial assistance to students interested in pursuing higher education. Some organizations specifically assist students of certain nationalities or lineages, like the scholarship funds showcased in the chart below. GERMAN German-American Heritage Foundation FILIPINO Asian Pacific Fund NATIONALITY AFRICAN Black Community Scholarship Fund IRISH Irish American Home Society, Inc. CHINESE Institute of China Studies ITALIAN National Italian-American Foundation POLISH American Institute of Polish Culture, Inc. KOREAN US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce JAPANESE Japanese-American Citizens League PUERTO RICAN Hispanic Scholarship Fund ARABIAN The Arab American Institute RUSSIAN Russian American Foundation NATIVE AMERICAN United South & Eastern Tribes Scholarship Fund GREEK The AHEPA Educational Foundation “I have won several awards given by Greek heritage organizations, including winning the Bob Costas Scholarship for Broadcast Journalism,” said Callie Corley, a TV news producer at WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama. “Getting plugged in with a church group or heritage association is a great way to learn about opportunities.” LINEAGE MAYFLOWER General Society of Mayflower Descendants JEWISH Jewish Community Foundation CONFEDERATE United Daughters of the Confederacy AMISH Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund AMERICAN REVOLUTION Daughters of the American Revolution U.S ARMED FORCES American Legion Legacy Scholarship KOREAN WAR Descendants Of Korean War Foundation 20 www.potentialmagazine.com WHERE DO I COME FROM? A number of resources are available on the web and through various local government agencies designed to help people trace their roots through extensive searches or DNA tests to discover what ancestry is in their bloodlines. Check out these sites to get a head start on your search: • RootsForReal.com: Provides you  with a map to estimate the location of your ancestral origins. • Ancestry.com: Offers ethnicity testing, a list of ancestral names and a map to determine which ethnicities run in your bloodline. • FamilySearch.org: Lists who is in your genealogy or personal ancestry by comparing your results to others from the same lineage or to different ethnic groups, both current and historic. Think you’re part Native American? Indians.org is sponsored through the American Indian Heritage Foundation to help people prove if they are of Native American descent. The requirements to obtain tribal benefits vary from tribe to tribe and can range from having any percentage of Indian within one’s bloodline to being at least ½ part native to qualify. To view a full chart of the lineage requirements for each tribe, visit native-american-online.org.