Athletic scholarships have benefited from online recruitment platforms and national signing days for years. Now performing arts scholarships are getting the same treatment.
For almost 20 years, collegiate athletic departments have used online platforms to recruit and monitor athlete progression to maximize efforts in the years before their signing days. These efforts have transformed the face of athletic recruitment giving athletes the exposure they need to receive scholarship offers.
While there are seven dollars in performing arts scholarships for every one dollar in athletic scholarships, until now, there has never been a platform for performing arts students.
ScholarshipAuditions.com enables students to showcase their musical repertoire, accomplishments, and performance videos with collegiate faculties nationwide. The platform helps recruiters discover a wider range of student talent and streamlines the process of finding the right fit for students. Student and parent members have exclusive unlimited access to resources, including a database of over 14,000 non-institutional scholarships.
Additionally, the National Presenters Association is announcing its inaugural Performers National Signing Day, a national collegiate recruitment and audition experience for high school performing arts students. The four-day event will be in January 2021 during the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, and is designed for students to showcase their talents before hundreds of colleges, universities, and conservatories. The last day of the event will feature a star-studded concert held in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium.
Dr. Randall Bayne, CEO and Founder of ScholarshipAuditions.com, has been an advocate and mentor for expanding performing arts students’ access to collegiate opportunities for years. He has extensive experience working with underserved communities and strongly advocates for students, regardless of background and financial status.
“My first experience teaching was in a small community in South Carolina. My students were from an underserved area, and most of the students had not been out of the county, let alone the state,” Bayne says. “My mission was to not only provide them the opportunity to compete at performing arts events for the first time but also travel to see performances. What remained with me and drives my passion for continuing to create opportunities is finding ways for those students to get into college through scholarships. That is the fundamental reason I founded ScholarshipAuditions.com.”
Bayne is passionate about facilitating students’ ability to find scholarship opportunities.
“For years, performing arts students have missed opportunities because there was not a service designed for them. Over $1 billion of performing arts scholarships go unused every year. This is because students either cannot find scholarship opportunities or do not know they even exist. ScholarshipAuditions.com is connecting students with the right fit for college and assisting students to acquire scholarships.”
Bayne is extremely proud of the platform’s great success in its short two-year existence.
“Our first success story involved a student from Georgia and was on every level a blessing. As a startup then, it was great to see our platform accomplish what it was designed to do. But even more exciting, it resulted in this student being able to afford to attend college. Not only did he receive a scholarship to his optimal collegiate fit, he can receive an education in his desired interest while he’s doing what he loves—performing.”
National Presenters Association, the sponsor and producer of Performers National Signing Day, has a storied history of presenting high school and collegiate performing artists in some of America’s most renowned concert and recital halls. Today, it is the goal of National Presenters Association to be a strategic partner in the advancement of these student performing artists by recognizing and presenting America’s most promising talent.
David Campbell, Executive Producer for National Presenters Association, believes the event, and newly created partnership with ScholarshipAuditions.com, will highlight the hard work and success of both students and music educators nationwide.
“For years, international attention has been given to National Signing Days for athletes. It is amazing the opportunities that result from such recognizable platforms. But it is also truly remarkable that there has never been such an event for performing arts students. We are thrilled to change that next year. It would not be happening without the partnership of the remarkable team at ScholarshipAuditions.com.”