Announcements

2021 Texas AFL-CIO Scholarship Program

December 2, 2020

The deadline for eligible high school seniors to apply for the 2021 Texas AFL-CIO Scholarship Program has been postponed to Feb. 16, 2021.
 The postmark deadline is normally Jan. 31 or the next business day, but the state labor federation reset the timeline this year because of circumstances related to the pandemic. 
 Everything else is expected to proceed as it did last year. Students compete for one-time grants of $1,500, based on academic achievement, extracurricular activities, financial need, a a test on basic labor union concepts and history, and interviews with local scholarship committees. Local scholarship panels are set up by Central Labor Councils and Labor Assemblies across the state. Awards based on the CLC/Assembly recommendations, along with a limited number of continuing scholarships for past winners who apply in a separate process, are finalized by the Texas AFL-CIO Scholarship Committee.
 To be eligible to apply, a student’s parent or legal guardian (or the student himself or herself) must be a member of a union that is affiliated with both the Central Labor Council and Texas AFL-CIO.
 The spread of COVID-19 earlier this year required CLCs to drop in-person meetings and set up online or phone interviews with applicants, a process that is expected to continue in 2021. As always, the local scholarship committees made certain the program’s educational goal of introducing students to the labor movement went forward.
  Funding for the scholarship program comes from the Texas AFL-CIO Scholarship Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization. Contributions to the charitable organization are tax-deductible to the full extent of federal law.
  For more information and the application, go to: https://www.texasaflcio.org/scholarship.