Indiana Minority Teacher/Special Services Scholarship Hidden Requirement

Here you can find a list of what Indiana requires to get up to a $1,000 a year scholarship for being a minority pursuing a teaching degree or for anyone studying to be a special education teacher. As long as the scholarships granted for minorities preparing to become regular or special education teachers are below the allotted funds, they all gets $1,000 a year for up to four years (the amount of time depends of course on when during college they get the scholarship). If all minorities get the maximum amount, then the rest of the allotted funds (up to a $1,000 per person) are divided among non-minorities pursuing special education. If the scholarships granted for minorities are above the allotted funds, minorities divide all of the allotted funds and get less than $1,000, while non-minorities seeking special education get nothing.

I was informed this year (right before the deadline to apply) that I qualified for this possible $1,000 award and despite not believing that such an award should use ethnicity as a qualifier, I decided to apply for it, since it did require that I teach in Indiana for 3 years, and thus seemed to be quid pro quo (given, it was one that should be available to all teachers). I had been mistaken about being qualified apparently, however. Based on the letter I received after applying, the fact that I was a dependent of a Floridian disqualified me even though this was never mentioned in any paper or website I visited on the scholarship. There is a requirement that you be an Indiana resident, but I am as is proven by my Indiana voter registration card, which I have had for over a year and used to vote in the 2008 Presidential Election. I understand Indiana's desire to keep taxpayer funds directed towards citizens (even though if they are really serious about minority teachers they should open the award to other States), but at least mention the dependency requirement on the application, if nowhere else. I wasn't even counting on the award (it was a nice surprise for me), and it wouldn't have been that much for the rest of the time I am at Taylor, so it is not a big deal for me, but please save others like me the hassle in the future Indiana.