MassMutual Financial group is offering the MassMutual Scholars Program for students who are pursuing careers in the financial services and insurance industry. Enrollment and Student Services Vice President Marion Paden said students of any major can apply.

“It really is a generous scholarship. It can be for two-year schools or for four-year schools,” Paden said.

Students will be awarded $2,500 for a two-year school and $5,000 for a four-year school.

“It requires full-time enrollment. It requires a 3.0 GPA, and it requires leadership and participation in extracurricular activities,” she said.

In order to be eligible, students must also be entering their sophomore, junior, senior, or fifth year senior year while pursuing an undergraduate degree, a completed Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA,) and proof of U.S. citizenship.

According to MassMutual, preference will be given to those who show an interest in a career in the insurance and financial services industry.

The application is due at 4:30 p.m. on March 31.

“Short-term pain for long-term gain” is a phrase Paden lives by and encourages students to do the same. Although filling out the application may not be fun, it can be rewarding in the end.

“If you’ll just take the time, there could be a great financial reward for spending an hour or so filling out your scholarship materials.

“The thing about it too… is once you’ve done it once, you can kind of cut and paste and fill out lots of different scholarships,” she said.

Paden encourages students to take advantage of all scholarships, not just the one offered by MassMutual.

“At Oklahoma City Community College, we’re committed to trying to make sure that education is high quality and affordable, but we know even with assistance from federal financial aid, from jobs that people have, it’s hard to be a full-time college student and to make sure you can not go into debt.

“We really prefer students not to have any sort of loan debt, and I think this scholarship and a number of scholarships, students are eligible for if they’ll just take the time,” Paden said.

To apply for the MassMutual Scholars Program, visit https://massmutual.scholarsapply.org.

For more information about MassMutual, visit https://www.massmutual.com.