When I was in high school, I made it a point to give blood whenever my school hosted a blood drive. Its something easy that you can do, to make a difference in another person’s life.

Did you know that…  

Every two seconds, someone in the US needs blood?

More than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day?

The blood type most often requested by hospitals is Type O?

A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 units of blood?

Donating blood is one of the easiest things you can do to help someone out in a time of need. Please take a look here to see if you are eligible to donate. Also, if they don’t already, please encourage your school to host a blood drive!

* All information is from the American Red Cross.

You’re a Zinch participant, so we already know that you know your way around the Web pretty well. But finding real, useful information about the realities of college – what it takes to pay for it, what life on campus really feels like, and more – isn’t always easy, even for the savviest surfer.

Scholarship America’s online student resources provide a wealth of places to explore; to get a handle on where to start, check out these sites – just a few of the many on the list.

• KnowHow2Go.com: The site put together by the American Council on Education and Lumina Foundation for Education is a pretty great one-stop source for questions about college preparation. They’ve got sections for everyone from middle-school students to seniors, and advice from students on campuses nationwide.

• Students.gov and College.gov: You’ve got questions? The U.S. Department of Education has answers. Find out everything you need to know about government aid and college prep with Students.gov, and head over to College.gov for video, discussions and networking centered on how and why to get to college.

• CollegeGoalSundayUSA.org: Every winter and spring, across the nation, volunteers share a Sunday of their time with students, helping them fill out the all-important Federal Application for Student Aid as well as develop plans for college. This is the national site for the event, and you can check out local Sunday events in each of the 43 states that offer them.

There are plenty more where those came from, and we’d love to know your go-to sources too.

One of the fun aspects of researching colleges is to get to see the variety and creativity of different schools catalogs. When you request more information from a school what you get back in the mail could come in a customized zip lock bag or could be wrapped in astronaut shinning packaging.

Some of the more creative catalogs are those from the schools that specialize in art and computer science. I have taken the liberty to pull some images from these schools catalogs so you can get a feel for what they’re like.

If you find yourself wanting a catalog yourself and want more information from one of these schools, click on the link and Shout Out to the school to get your own catalog with further information about the school.

 Acadmey of Art University

University of Advancing Technology

Neumont University

Expression College of Digital Arts

LA Film School

LA Recording School

College is one of the best times in a student’s life.   It is a time to discover your interests, make new friends, go to football games, and spend long nights studying.  However, the economy is at a low, the cost of tuition keeps rising every year, and students have to pay for textbooks at ridiculously high prices.  The average college student at a four year college spent $1,077 in 2008-09 for textbooks according to the College Board. Textbook expenses have become a great burden for students in today’s world; textbook authors are constantly developing new editions to their books, and this makes it impossible for students to sell their books back at the end of the term.  After buying their textbooks, students often find themselves stuck with the textbooks after realizing they can’t sell it back or that the sell-back amount is too little.

With these textbook problems in mind, Chegg.com came up with a revolutionary way to help student save money on textbooks. Chegg.com has saved students over $80 million dollars to date. Since 2005 students on over 6,400 campuses have been saving over $500 a year by renting their textbooks. Not only does Chegg.com save students on their textbooks, we also help the environment by planting a tree every time you rent, buy, or sell a book. Chegg offers great prices, free return shipping, over 2.4 million titles, and flexible rental periods - all without long lines at the register! You can order books from home or college, have them delivered to your door, and not have to worry about storing or selling them when your class is over.

As a part of their ongoing commitment to help college students, Chegg.com launched the Chegg Scholars Program–a scholarship program that rewards student achievers by alleviating them from the high cost of textbooks by awarding them textbook scholarships.

Chegg.com has partnered with Zinch to bring you these textbook scholarships live from the Zinch site.  To learn more and apply, college freshman can go here, and college upperclassmen can go here.

Upperclassman Scholarship

Freshman Scholarship

We have some of the most talented and creative students out there, on Zinch. I am constantly blown away by the artwork that is submitted for scholarships or is posted on student’s pages in the z-folio. I was born without the “art gene” and am always in awe of people who can create masterpieces.

If you were blessed with the creative gene, you may be looking for a school that will help you grow into the artist you were meant to be. Take a look at the schools below and Shout Out to them, to receive more information about their programs. Also, make sure you keep uploading your artwork to your Zinch page – schools are looking at you too!

Watkins College of Art & Design - Watkins knows that it takes focus, commitment and discipline to become a professional artist. Having talent is just the beginning of the journey. Watkins promises a community of students and faculty devoted to artistic and academic excellence. The creative mind is a powerful tool.

Columbia College Hollywood – At Columbia College Hollywood, you learn from Emmy and Oscar winners, with emphases in Directing, Producing, Screenwriting, Cinematography and Editing/Visual Effects. You learn the whole art and the whole business, and then put your art to work in the business.

Savannah College of Art & Design - SCAD provides the learning environment creative students need to flourish. Full-time SCAD students take three classes per quarter. This tightly focused schedule enables students to acquire the knowledge and master the skills required to advance in their chosen field. All classes are small—with a student/faculty ratio of 16:1.

Are you considering a faith based school? If so, Zinch would like to highlight a few for you to take a look at. Whether you’re looking to go into ministry or would just like a Christian environment, one of these schools may be the place for you!

These private schools offer financial assistance and scholarship opportunities. Shout Out to connect to these schools and learn more about what they offer.

Southern Adventist – Based in Southern Tennessee, near the Smokey Mountains, Southern believes its most important aspect is its students, who are always going a step further than just the requirements,connecting in spontaneous groups for prayer and Bible study and leading out in community service events.

Kuyper College - Based in Grand Rapids, MI, Kuyper offers the best of academic and spiritual education, combined with a passion for awakening students to the need of possessing a solid biblical worldview, and preparing them to share it with an embattled world. Within a community that welcomes a diversity of races, nationalities and denominations, Kuyper students develop lifetime bonds, gain professional skills, and acquire experience.

Baptist Bible College & Seminary – Based in Clarks Summit, PA, BBC&S’s mission is to provide excellence in biblical education for effectiveness in ministry leadership. As a comprehensive educational institution, the school offers 38 degree programs from the one-year Bible certificate to the Doctor of Ministry and Doctor of Philosophy degrees, including the Bachelor of Science in Bible and several master’s degrees.

The game design position is one that carries significantly more responsibility than most people would expect.  It’s not just about having a gameplay idea or storyline.  The designer has the responsibility for the entire gaming experience - to take the myriad of technical and creative elements and combining them to create an engaging experience that players yearn for (and hopefully will want to pay for). 

As was mentioned earlier, just because a game has a character moving around does not mean that it is fun.  While the designer ultimately works with production personnel such as programmers and artists, a successful designer must have a good understanding of how the various game elements are actually implemented so they can discuss specifics to achieve their vision with the team.  Consider some of the following game elements that many designers have to deal with:

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Have you ever heard the phrase “always thinking with your stomach” and wondered what that meant? Hormel foods has partnered up with The Hispanic Scholarship Fund to create a scholarship where students can do just that! Up to $2500 will be given to  students hailing from the Midwest states who plan to major in Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Business Administration, Accounting, Industrial Engineering, Management, Agricultural Science, Manufacturing Engineering, Agricultural Science/Agronomy, Computer Science, Information Technology (IT/MIS) Marketing, Hospitality Administration or related fields. Applicants must be Hispanic and currently a High School Junior with a minimum 3.0 GPA.

This is a great opportunity–you can not only apply for this great scholarship, but interested applicants can also apply for a paid internship as well! Hungry hopefuls should go here to learn more. Let your stomach do the talking and enjoy feasting on this great scholarship opportunity!

Better hurry, deadline’s coming up quick so be sure to apply before December 15! Best of luck to you all!!

Gaming continues to grow in popularity and the ways in which they are played keeps growing as well. More online gaming is taking place and it is happening within social networks. Facebook just happens to be one of more popular social networks and also offers some great games to be played.

If you think that boredom just might take over your body during Christmas break, try out some of these cool online games to ward off the boredom.

Biotronic: Features easy mouse controls, exploding combos and artful animations.

Restaurant City: Combines elements of time management games and virtual sims, in which you start your own food joint and compete against others to be the favorite grub spot in town.

MindJolt Games: Includes a number of arcade, puzzle, strategy and sports games to play solo or in challenges with friends.

Know-It-All: Pits you against your Facebook friends to test your knowledge and show off the size of that big brain of yours.

Yoville: Bascially a virtual world on Facebook. You do virtual work to earn money to support your virtual life. You can also visit your friends and chat in real-time.

There are number of other games you can check out on Facebook. If you want to see some additional games read this article that highlights five other great games to play.

Meet Arpan Prabhu Winner of the Easy as Pi III Scholarship! Arpan is a business/science enthusiast. He hopes to be able to pursue a career that uses both to create new innovations. We wish Arpan success in this pursuit and also in accomplishing his goals.

Here is more about Arpan:

When/where did you hear about Zinch and the “Easy as Pi Scholarship”?

I was referred to Zinch through a good friend. The scholarship finder on the site listed out my matches, and I followed through.

What was your reaction when you found out that you had won the “Easy as Pi Zinch Scholarship”?

I was flabbergasted. At first, I thought it was junk mail, but the “winner” in the subject aroused my curiosity. After reading the message, I smiled and had a Reese’s to celebrate the occasion. It was perfect.

What was your parents’ reaction?

Well, I told them the news as I played ping-pong with my dad. He was surprised and let his guard down, and I ended up winning the point.

What college do you want to go to and why?

Ah, college. I’m still applying to a good number of schools and trudging away on those essays. However, I have a soft spot for the University of Pittsburgh—it has great programs in science; but more important to me, the opportunities it offers in terms of undergraduate research are magnificent. Its foreign language department is also superb, as I’m trying to master Spanish and become trilingual. The diverse city environment is exciting, too!

How are you more than a test score?

I have a personality—that cannot be represented or inferred from a plain, often dull number on a dreary, uninteresting piece of simple paper.

How would you move Mount Fuji?

“Ctrl + c” and “ctrl + v.” Presto.

Thanks to everyone that participated and keep checking back to read about our scholars winning experiences!