Upcoming Events

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What's New

  • "Honor An Educator" See who's made the honor roll!
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  • Marian Colbert Memorial Scholarship, deadline May 31, 2013
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  • Honor an Educator by playing in DEF golf tourney at Deer Run June 8
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  • Like us on Facebook!
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    Archive

    Delmarva Education Foundation is a proud member of

      
     

    Programs and Services

    The link between enabling residents access to a better education and providing resident businesses access to a better workforce is crucial for our region to thrive. DEF programs and services will continue to assist and support the people of our communities, businesses, and schools so that the value and importance of education in our region will grow and all will benefit.

     

    Financial Aid Clearinghouse and DEF-CAP

    The Financial Aid Clearinghouse provides information on financial aid resources and local scholarship opportunities. DEF staff and volunteers are continually updating and compiling data on local scholarships, where local students have a priority as opposed to national scholarships where one competes with students all over the country. Our online, searchable database of local scholarships is for students of all ages. In the "Financial Aid" section of this website you can "Find A Scholarship" using our scholarship database and also use the links to "Federal and State Resources" for financial aid. This project began thanks to grant monies from the Lower Shore Workforce Alliance and our partnership with the Wicomico Public Library. 

     

    DEF-CAP, our College Access Program aims to boost the college-going potential and career preparation of young people on the lower Delmarva Peninsula. This program, which began in 2006, provides information and one-on-one assistance to local students, primarily by providing services directly in our region's schools. Funding has been through grants from the Rural Maryland Council (RMC) Maryland Agricultural Education and Rural Development Assistance Fund (MAERDAF), the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, and by support from local educational institutions, businesses, and individuals. Since 2007 (and through 2011) even more students have been helped by DEF-CAP advisors, in part thanks to GEAR UP grants from the Maryland Higher Education Commission via the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

     

    DEF developed the DEF Delmarva Common Scholarship Application to facilitate the scholarship application process for local students and organizations. If you administer a scholarship for which local students would be eligible and you would like them to be able to use this application to apply for your scholarship please Contact Us.
     

     

    Regional Education Information Center (REIC)

    The Shirley B. Harting Regional Education Information Center (REIC) is complementary to our college/career access program. This online, searchable inventory about local programs that further education and/or skills for local residents is the newest addition to DEF services. With this resource, our aim is to be able to tell anyone where he or she can get the education and training in our region for most careers or jobs.

    DEF can also provide general information about our local schools (private and public, academic and technical, pre-elementary to post-secondary), home schooling groups, libraries, tutoring services, GED classes and other resources that provide the opportunity to gain more knowledge or skills.
     

     

    Educator Networking: a source of new ideas, a place to meet

    DEF provides a forum for developing and sharing ideas that relate to improving educational opportunities for the region, particularly regarding access and quality.

    DEF convenes the High School Principals Network.                                                                                                 Local public high school principals meet to share concerns, challenges, and best practices. The genesis of this important initiative took place in 2007, with a subsequent meeting in 2009.

    DEF held a Financial Aid Forum in 2005 for area high school guidance counselors, college financial aid officers, and representatives from organizations that provide scholarships to local students to discuss ideas for streamlining the scholarship application process in general and to look at the pros and cons of a regional common scholarship application. The group looked at samples and offered suggestions for DEF to design the DEF Delmarva Common Scholarship Application and ways to promote awareness of such a resource to local scholarship sponsors for which it would be useful. DEF received grants in 2007 from the Rural Development Center at UMES, an EDA University Center, to initiate and follow through on this project.

    DEF hosted a Rural Education Symposium in 2003 to bring together active members of the national rural education and policy research community with our regional educational leadership to share what is known about rural education policy and research across the United States. By following up in 2004 with a Forum on Place-Based Education, an instructional strategy with a background of proven success in rural areas similar to ours, we have kept our commitment to provide more information about this learning method and its potential benefits to our region. DEF will find passageways for exploring and sharing the special nature of our region with others and thus bring to our communities whatever benefits that research makes possible.