University of Arkansas at Little Rock

The Orientation and Mobility and Rehabilitation Teaching programs currently offer a special online tuition rate with no fees. Contact the Program Coordinator for the current tuition rate. Beginning fall semester, 2010, UALR’s tuition and fee costs for online courses for rehabilitation counseling, orientation & mobility, rehabilitation teaching, interpreter education, counselor education, and counseling licensure will be the regular rate for in-state or out-of-state students.  Since the total costs are dependent upon the number of credit hours taken per semester, use the Tuition and Fee Estimator at http://boss.ualr.edu/ to determine future costs. We are currently exploring special rates for academic common market students in nearby states and more will be posted shortly.
Be sure to select the correct variables:�
Graduate or Undergraduate, In-state or Out-of-State, College of Education, Web-based or Online classes.

The Rehabilitation Teaching and Orientation and Mobility programs currently have a federal Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) grant. The grant provides some financial assistance to a limited number of qualified students enrolled in one of these degree programs. The current grant will end the summer of 2010. RSA scholars are required to work in non-profit rehabilitation facilities with adults with impaired vision for the equivalent of two years for every year in receipt of the grant, or they must pay back the loan.

Eligibility Criteria for RSA Scholarship through UALR:

• Must be a U.S. citizen
• Must be admitted to the RT or O&M degree program as a student in good standing [regular admission].
• Must have already successfully completed a minimum of six [6] credit hours of online coursework through UALR, of which three [3] credit hours must be from the program area.

Funding Priorities:

• Likelihood of working as an RT or O&M instructor.
• Prior experience in the field.
• Continuing students will receive priority over new applicants.

Eligibility Criteria for Continuation of Scholarship:

• Must have successfully completed all prior coursework.
• Continuous enrollment.
• Funding only guaranteed through July 31 of each year, based on grant fiscal year.

Amount of Scholarship per semester: Tuition for one course taken at UALR and a total stipend of $400.00 per semester (total stipend will be paid at the beginning of the semester). This may change after summer 2010. See program coordinator for up-to-date information.

Applications for scholarships may be submitted in the semester in which students will have completed at least six credit hours online. Scholarships will be awarded for the following semester as soon as grades are posted for the current semester. Students who know they will be successfully completing coursework for the current semester can expect continuation of scholarship funding pending enrollment in the next semester’s coursework, unless grant funding has ended. Future availability of grant funding and out-of-state tuition scholarships is not possible to predict.

Application process to apply for a UALR-RSA Scholarship:

N.B. Since original signatures are required on the RSA forms, hard copies must be mailed to the program coordinators: Dr. Bill Jacobson OR Dr. Pat Smith

• Complete application forms for UALR-RSA Scholarship: http://www.ualr.edu/rehdept/finaid.shtml/
• Sign and date Scholarship Agreement form
• Sign and date Certification for Eligibility form
• Mail (no faxes) hard copies of all three forms to the appropriate program coordinator:

Rehabilitation Teaching majors to Dr. Pat Smith
Orientation & Mobility majors to Dr. Bill Jacobson
University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR)
Dept. of CARE
2801 S. University Ave.
Little Rock, AR 72204

[To download copies of the required applications forms: Highlight document(s); Edit>>select all>>copy; open new word processing document; edit>>paste; add personal information needed to complete document(s); save copy of document(s) on disk/hard drive for own records; print document(s); send hard copies to appropriate program coordinator.]

Additional information regarding Federal Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) and Personnel Preparation Long-term Training grants may be found in the RSA Scholarship

Information Handbook.

Link to RSA Handbook: [http://www.rcep7.org/projects/cspddocs/rsamanual.pdf].

Other Resources for Financial Aid:
Other resources for financial assistance may include the following: local libraries have books listing scholarships potentially available to graduate students; UALR’s Ottenheimer library also contains reference materials listing financial resources for graduate school scholarship funds. Link to Ottenheimer Library: [http://library.ualr.edu/]

Link to general Information regarding graduate Financial Aid opportunities via UALR graduate school web-site: [http://www.ualr.edu/graddept/gbtn/front.html#aid]

N.B. Some financial aid resources require a student to be enrolled as a full-time student. At UALR, full-time status is a minimum of nine credit hours for graduate students for the academic year semesters and six credit hours for summers.

The UALR Trebing Scholarship: A special scholarship fund has been established for the Rehabilitation of the Blind students that was initiated through a small endowment fund from the Trebing estate. Presently the Trebing fund is very limited pursuant to an increase in the principal. Tax deductible donations to the Rehabilitation of the Blind scholarship fund may be sent to the UALR Development Office, 2801 South University, Little Rock, AR 72204; Attention: Trebing Scholarship Fund.

For additional information on how you can support the programs through online giving, planned giving, etc., visit the Office of Development website. [Web address will be added in the near future].

The Carl Foley Graduate Student Continuing Education Scholarship: Sponsored by the Council of Citizens with Low Vision International. The scholarship fund awards annually a special $1,000 graduate scholarship. The purpose of the award is to help the recipients to increase their qualifications for employment in occupations where they would work effectively with low vision persons (applicants do not have to be visually impaired to apply). Contact information to inquire about the scholarship:
By Email: Graduate Scholarship Committee carlfoley@earthlink.net
By mail:Mr. Carl E. Foley, 1357 East David Road, Kettering, OH 45429-5703