Congratulations on taking these steps to further your education and develop your career skills. Upakar was founded to support the educational and career aspirations of the Indian-American community.
Upakar provides $8,000 over four years for each scholarship recipient. For an illustration of how much a student may save in principal and interest payments, click here. Each year, we will renew the annual scholarship if the scholar maintains a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.3 (out of 4.0).
New in 2011 was the Geeta Rastogi Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship has the same requirements as a regular Upakar Scholarship but would only be awarded to a student entering a Fine Arts (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) undergraduate program. Shobhit Jain is the current GRMS recipient.
New in 2013 was the Community College Scholarships. These scholarships are targeted to top performing high school students that have made the decision to attend a two year community college and then transfer to a four year degree program. The scholarship awards are $500 for the first two years and then $2,000 for the following two years. The same GPA and AGI requirements as the traditional Upakar scholarship apply.
New in 2014 was the Virgina for Education scholarship. This scholarship was fully funded by Virginia residents and became the 6th Upakar scholarship.
New in 2015 was the Ajay Ojha Memorial scholarship. This scholarship was fully funded by family and friends of Ajay Ojha, a former board member that passed away in 2014.
New in 2017 was the Upakar Textbook scholarship. This scholarship helped 3 students defray their textbook costs for the upcoming school year.
Mentorship
In addition to the financial award, Upakar provides a mentoring program for our scholarship recipients. This is an outstanding opportunity to seek the advice of and network with successful professionals across the United States from the Indian-American community.
Privacy and Confidentiality
Your application will be held in the strictest confidence and scholar specific information contained within will not, under any circumstances, be shared outside of our scholarship committee.
General Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible for any Upakar scholarship, you must:
- Have either been born or have one parent born in the Republic of India
- Be either a U.S. citizen or a U.S. ‘Green Card’ holder (no exceptions)
- Be actively seeking enrollment in a 2 year community college or an undergraduate 4-year degree program at a college or university in the United States for the 2016-2017 academic year
- Have a 2015 Family Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) on the IRS form 1040, 1040EZ or 1040A of less than $75,000
- Currently be a graduating high school senior living in the USA with a cumulative unweighted GPA of 3.6 or higher (on a 4.0 scale)
Our scholarship process is competitive, so we ask that you take your time to fill out the application completely and accurately. Please pay significant attention to the essays, as they will tell us the most about you and your background, your education and career aspirations. Generally we received between 40-60 applications every year for the 5 scholarships.
We wish you all the best as you complete the application. Please be sure to submit the application before the deadline. Good luck!