Thank You Letter and Picture
| Content | Submission | Deadline | Donor Event |
If you have accepted a scholarship, grant and/or tuition discount offer (not applicable to loans) you will be required to submit a thank you letter and picture to the Financial Aid Office. Your funds cannot be disbursed to your student account until this requirement is fulfilled.
Submission of this thank you letter and picture is required each academic year that a scholarship offer is accepted (with exception to the Kern Family Foundation Scholarship, for which this requirement only applies to the first year).
Content Requirements
Letter
The letter should be about 1 page in length (1/2 page minimum, 2 pages maximum). Please address the letter, "Dear Friend of Denver Seminary," and include the following content in the body of the letter:
- Say thank you
- List your name, degree, year in school, and the name/amount of the award you are receiving*
- Tell the donor about yourself. Try to include details about your family, current ministry involvement, other areas of interest, etc.
- Describe where you feel God is leading you upon graduation.
- Describe how you anticipate your degree will assist you in your post-graduation plans.
- If your accompanying picture contains more people than just yourself, include a description of yourself so that the donor can identify you on the picture.
* To review the details of your award(s), please view your student account on MyDenSem. Your award(s) will be listed on your Course and Fee Statement, which is located on the "MyDenSem" tab.
Picture
Please submit an electronic photo of yourself and, if desired, immediate family members. It is preferred that this picture is placed somewhere in the content of the letter, however a separate file is also acceptable. If sending a separate file, please rename the file to include your own name (first and last). If the photo contains more people than just yourself, include a description of yourself within the body of the the letter so that the donor can identify you.
Submission Procedures
Submit your proofread letter (in either Word or RTF format) and photo electronically to .
Your letter and picture will be reviewed by both the Financial Aid Office and the Advancement Department, and then will be given to the donor(s) of your award. Our generous donors greatly appreciate being able to "get to know" the students who benefit from their gifts through these letters and pictures.
Note: You may be required to re-write the letter if any of the content requirements listed above are missing.
Deadline
The submission deadline is typically 3 weeks before the start of the semester (specific up-to-date deadlines are posted on the Important Dates page). The specific deadline will be communicated to each student via email after the award has been made, at least 1 week prior to the actual deadline.
If your thank you letter and picture are not submitted by the deadline you will become ineligible to receive the award. The award will then be withdrawn from your student account and you will no longer be financially cleared for that amount.
Donor Event
Recipients of institutional aid may be invited to attend an event with scholarship donors during the upcoming academic year. If applicable, details will follow via email and invitees will be required to attend.
Students may not contact donors directly to request funds. All donor communication must be filtered through the Advancement Department, which will be authorized to obtain student information necessary to facilitate donor communication.
Application Process Complete?
There are no further application steps required to obtain your grant/scholarship/discount once the following steps have all been completed:
- Awards have been accepted through the Award Letter
- Thank You Letter and picture submitted
Once all these steps are complete your award(s) will appear on your student account as "pending aid." You are financially cleared for all pending aid. Awards will be actually disbursed to your account no earlier than the drop/add deadline (2 weeks after the start of the semester) to ensure an adequate amount of registered credits. Refund checks are mailed from the the Friday after a credit balance has been created.
