Ardent Scholarship

Eligible applicants must:

• Have an Ardent Credit Union membership in their own name.
• Not be employees, board members, volunteers or related to an employee/board member.
• Have a minimum cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 (B average). If grades are not determined on a 4.0 scale, grading equivalency will be used to determine eligibility.
• Be a student who has been formally accepted into a full-time program at an accredited two- or four-year college, university, trade, technical, or business school for the 2025-2026 school year.
• Demonstrate involvement in their community, participation in school activities and/or maintain a part-time job.
• Complete all items on the scholarship eligibility checklist.

Your video entry and scholarship application form must be received by Ardent no later than March 31, 2025.

Create your own original video using your smartphone camera following these guidelines:

• The video length should be at least 30 seconds and no longer than 2 minutes. 
• Make sure your video is engaging, creative, and fun. Be clever and enthusiastic. Show us your personality.
• Make sure audio is clear if you’re speaking in the video. Feel free to add on-screen text or other effects in place of or addition to audio if needed.
• Your video should not include any offensive, inappropriate, illegal, images or sounds or depict drug use, violence or contain any sexual content and should be appropriate for children to view.
• No copyrighted materials (music, images, etc.) may be used for this scholarship video unless you own the copyright or have a license to use the material for this contest. Written permission must be obtained and provided upon request for all copyrighted materials.
• Avoid including identifiable logos. You may use Ardent’s logo, but this is not required.

See the official rules for more details.

1. Visit ardentcu.wetransfer.com
2. On the left side of the screen, click Upload Files to add your video (Preferred file type: .mp4).
   1. Make sure your first initial and last name are in the video file name.
3. Make sure marketing@ardentcu.org is in the Email to box.
4. Enter your email address in the Your email box.
5. Type “Ardent Scholarship Video” in the Title box.
6. In the Message box, include your full name, video file name and acknowledge that you completed the Scholarship Application eForm.
7. Click the Transfer button to send us your video.
8. You will be asked to verify your email. Just type in the verification code sent to you and click Verify.

Ardent is committed to social responsibility, and we take pride in helping our members achieve their goals. Scholarships are awarded based on the criteria provided, school activities, volunteer activities/employment, and original video. Life experience will be a contributing factor. Scholarship recipients are selected without regard to race, color, religion, marital status, national origin, veteran status, gender, or handicap. Scholarship finalists may be interviewed by members of the scholarship committee. All decisions by the scholarship committee are final and not open to contest.

Judging will be conducted by a scholarship committee consisting of selected volunteers from the Ardent Credit Union community. The primary intent of the Committee is to discover well-rounded and education-oriented individuals and assist them in advancing their education. 

All winners will be notified via email by the end of May. At that time, we will verify to which school the scholarship will be sent.  Awards are sent directly to the candidates matriculating school.

Video Editing Software

• iMovie
• Vimeo Create
• WeVideo
• PowerDirector
• InShot
• Splice
   

Royalty Free Music

• YouTube Audio Library (click on Audio Library on the left)
• Free Music Archive
   

Royalty Free Images

• Pexels
• Unsplash
• Burst
• Canva