Scholarships

Traverse City West Choir Organization

Student/Family Scholarship Recipient Document

Dear Scholarship Recipient,

Congratulations on being selected to receive one of the scholarships awarded by the Traverse City West Choir Parent Organization.  (The TCWCPO.)   The knowledge you will gain and the skills you will obtain should inspire you to become a vocal leader in your section and in the choir.  Please take your lessons or your vocal music camp experience seriously and do your best to practice and be well prepared for your vocal music experiences. 

Students who plan to use the scholarship for voice lessons should plan to study privately for the entire year.  They should also plan to participate in District and (hopefully) State Solo & Ensemble Assessments.  Opportunities like S&E, as well as the Verdi Opera Competition, the Grand Traverse Musicale Scholarship Program, and the TCAPS Music Boosters Scholarship Program, are wonderful ways to measure your growth and also help pay for your continuing private music education. 

As a reminder, it is expected you will stay in TC West Choir throughout the remainder of this year, and that you will do your best to continue your music education in choir throughout your high school years.  Remember as well that you may only use scholarship money to pay a TCAPS recommended voice teacher or a camp that has been pre-approved by your director.   

The TCWCPO Scholarship you are receiving is worth $1000.00.  While this seems like a lofty chunk of money it will not pay for an entire year of lessons.  For this reason you will have to think carefully about how to use the scholarship wisely.  Some options are:

1. A student uses the scholarship to pay for lessons until the scholarship runs out.  After that the student’s family assumes responsibility for the cost of lessons.   

2. A student uses the scholarship to pay for a portion of each lesson and the student’s family assumes the responsibility of paying the remainder of the balance each time.

3. A student takes fewer lessons.  Rather than weekly, students might make arrangements to take lessons every two weeks, thus spreading out the amount of time the scholarship money used.  (This can only happen if the student practices diligently and the voice teacher agrees.)

4. A student pays for ⅓ of the cost, the family pays for ⅓ of the cost, and the TCWCPO Scholarship pays for ⅓ of the cost of each weekly lesson.  

It is important to note that, for legal reasons, the TCWCPO can not directly pay voice teachers for lessons.  This means that students and their families must select a payment plan and communicate with their voice teacher, their choir director, and the TCWCPO about their choice. 

If a student misses a lesson the voice teacher’s absence policy should be followed.  In most cases the lesson can be made up when canceled in an appropriate amount of time or when a legitimate absence occurs. When the teacher deems the reason for a missed lesson unexcused the TCWCPO Scholarship will not cover the expense.  This should rarely (if ever) happen but in the event that it does the student and/or their family should pay the fee for a missed lesson.

At the end of each marking period (or at the end of the summer) students must go to tcwestchoirs.com to retrieve the “Lesson Reimbursement Form” from the “Scholarships” page.  After they have filled out the form they should have the voice teacher acknowledge the number of lessons given and the cost of each lesson.  

Any questions regarding scholarship reimbursement can be made to Mr. Wangeman or Mrs. Wolf-Schlarf.  We are happy to ensure this is a successful endeavor for the recipients of the TCWCOP Scholarship.  

Erich Wangeman

wangemaner@tcaps.net

Wendee Wolf-Schlarf

Wolfschlwe@tcaps.net

Heather Hoxsie &

Tom Hoxsie

Chair@tcwchoirs.com

Heather Leman

Treasurer@tcwchoirs.com