Scholarship Opportunities for Locksmithing! Up Your Game

Have you been wanting to up your game in the locksmithing industry? Maybe you've always wanted to come to one of these ALOA shows and learn some new skills. Well, I have something great that you should know about!

 ALOA SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION

PJ: Hey everybody, so I am here with John Trumpy. John, how are you?

John: I'm good.

PJ: You know, you're a familiar face.

John: I am, but I'm not sitting in my living room this time.

PJ: That is true. So, John, you are ahead of the ASF?

John: Yes, I am the president of the ALOA Scholarship Foundation which is not part of ALOA, it is a separate charitable organization that just happens to share the same name and much of the funding that we do goes to ALOA.

PJ: Goes to ALOA. And so you guys are separate, but you work together.

John: They provide us backbones, support like on the website, they host our website for us and those kinds of things.

PJ: Okay.

John: Their staff prepares the applications, which we then review.

PJ: Okay. And so when it comes to this scholarship, this foundation, if someone were wanting some support and some help to come in, join to like ALOA show and get trained, how would they apply?

John: So, they would need an application. And you can locate this at any show that ALOA was attending, there'll be applications, paper applications or if you go to ALOA.org and click on a button on the top of the screen, there's a button that says ASF. Select that, it has all the rules and regulations of what is required to qualify or what you must submit to get into getting a scholarship. And on there is a PDF copy of the application, you fill it out and then send it in. There are other requirements you have to write an essay; you have to get a letter of recommendation. One must be from a locksmith or a locksmith supplier, someone in the industry.

PJ: Someone. And then that way, and at that point, once they want to fill it out, and they want to submit it, and then it goes before a board.

John: There's a board of directors, they're hiding off in the corner currently. There was aboard.

PJ: And you vote essentially?

John:  We vote, we go through, we read them. And it's you know; how well did you structure your essay sometimes or-

PJ: Like, what's your story? what's your background?

John: What's your story? What's your background? What's your interest? Are you doing automotive and do you want to expand into safes?

John: Those kinds of things, we want to know about it. Because we want the whole purpose of this is to expand people's careers in the industry.

PJ: Yes. And that's something that they can get a full scholarship or sometimes just

John: Wanting here so they can select if they need help with transportation, or they need help with the hotel. It is not automatic. We consider all that, you may only get approved for classes or you may qualify for transportation. We will purchase your airfare and we will pay for your hotel during the event.

PJ: It's cool. So, I mean, what you guys are after at the end of the day is to help people who want to continue their education, get trained in something new - you want to help support them to do that. Very cool. So, the next question I have for you, so anyone who's watching, if that's something you've wanted to come to like maybe next year's Orlando ALOA and you -

John: - or any industry event. It can also be your local association. If you want to take a package, we give out scholarships and not just to ALOA.

PJ: So if there's an event you want to go to that, in your current situation where you would like to maybe apply for a scholarship, definitely go to the ALOA website, click in the top right and-

John: It has to be education; we won't pay for you to just go to a shop.

PJ: Okay. Yeah, it has to be education.

John: - for education.

HOW TO DONATE

PJ: Yeah, it was awesome. So if that's something that you're interested in, definitely go to the ALOA website, go to the top corner, click on that ASF and check it out and see if that's something that you want to apply for. So, John, it's awesome. One more quick question for you, though, of people who are watching and they're like, ‘You know what, that's awesome. The industry has been good to me. And I would like to support what you're doing.’ How could they donate?

John: ASF is 100% funded strictly from donations from the industry itself. So we do fundraising here, such as for a safe, and some have donated but other than that, our major funding is from locksmiths.

PJ: It is

John: Many of our former applicants, recipients and become successful.

PJ: Okay

John: Jim Wiedemann, has been president of ALOA, was a past recipient of our scholarship, has started him in his career, he's moved up. Bernie Kelly is a recipient, former recipient. So many of them get back but it's also one of the best ways to support the industry that we all love is to support the next generation or someone who's trying to expand.

PJ: Yes

John: If you want to expand from doing cars, or you're just starting, you want to learn how to do safe, we'll learn how to do investigative work. You took a starter course, but it didn't teach you how to program cars, you can come here and apply for a scholarship.

PJ: Very cool. And so they can also do that-

John: So that's our thing. But with all the donations coming from people, so the same thing, you can send a check to attention ASF at the ALOA headquarters. Any ALOA member can also just add it on your application, there's a little line at the bottom that simply says, I'd like to donate to ASF, it's one of the ways that ALOA supports us and we support that, or go to the same website, and just simply like, donate, there's a donation button.

PJ: That goes deep. Okay, very cool, John, well, hey, thank you for taking the time to talk to us about it. So if any of you are interested, please go ahead and apply or if this is something you want to contribute to, definitely feel free to do that as well because at the end of the day, John, all of us together, we can continue to support the industry, continue to move forward and we want people to get more skills. We want them to get into the industry.

John: We're hoping to build other Locksmiths.

PJ: Yes

John: Education is the route, to learning how to make more money and move further in your career.

PJ: Absolutely. All right, John, thank you.

John: Help with the cause.

PJ: Everybody, let us know what you think. Comment on our YouTube video and make sure you include the #LockBoss to automatically get entered to win one of five free prizes that we give away each week on YouTube. Thank you, and I'll see you next time.