August 2013 update: in May 2013 we sent Greg, Julie, and Alex Taylor to the Life Is Good Unschooling Conference in Vancouver, WA, choosing their family from a total of sixteen family applicants. Blog readers funded a total of $375 out of $700. You can watch the Taylor interview before and after the Conference here.

Original announcement, January 20, 2013:

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This year, we four Hogabooms along with our blog readers are so pleased to announce we are putting together a full scholarship to the Life is Good Unschooling Conference in Vancouver, WA, held on Thursday May 23 through Sunday May 26th, 2013. As many of you know, we four attended the conference last year via support through this blog. We would like to pay the experience forward.

We need a few things to make this work. We need donors (people who can support the scholarship financially), we need supporters (people who tweet, post on FB, share, and offer any kind of assistance in getting the word out), and we need applicants (people who apply to receive the scholarship).

If you’d like to be a donor, to support this scholarship in any way, or to be the recipient of this scholarship, please read on:

Mission Statement:
Our journey in radical unschooling has been one of the most amazing, life-affirming experiences of our lives. The benefits of attending a conference are too numerous to list here and now (but I wrote a bit about it last summer). Due to high conference costs, many families are not able to participate; many conference populations are not truly indicative of the socioeconomic diversity in unschooling. We’d like to offer the conference experience to a family who might otherwise not be able to attend.

Who can apply?
Anyone can apply, including schooling families, provided they plan on attending the conference for the full duration. The recipient family, at their preference, can be afforded full anonymity and privacy, or they may want to blog or journal their experience for public viewing – these are decisions up to the recipient family alone. Our selection will be made by February 14th, 2013.

What is the conference like?
If you are a first-time attendee, reading the conference regulations may be helpful. Again, our family attended last year if you have any questions. Questions can also be addressed by joining the LIG Yahoo email group.

How will the scholarship be administrated?
Our family will be paying for A. conference registration and B. Hilton accommodations for the nights of the 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 26th. Transportation, food, room service, and any other amenities will be the responsibility of the scholarship recipients.

Potential donors and supporters:
I am willing to hustle some, for donor support. In the past, support here has largely been in response to my writings and activist work, so I’d like to offer some of that work here. The following is a list of scheduled writings I will be publishing gratis; note, some of these are working titles and will be updated as these works are made public:

February 1st, at Underbellie: “Film Feministe: Four Upsetting Films I Adored”
February 15th, at Underbellie: “what you could stand to learn about addiction”
March 7th, at kelly.hogaboom.org: “DIY: Sewing An Awesome Fucking Blazer“
March 15th, at underbellie: “a tightrope or a feather bed: recovering from addiction”
April 1st, at kelly.hogaboom.org (sewing blog): “quick and personal: my recovery story, at least as of today“

In addition, any donation over $40 will receive the lastest issue of my paperzine Tumblehome; the next issue begins shipping February 15th.

Please email me (kelly AT hogaboom DOT org) if you would to be on the list for scholarship news.This means you will get a handful of emails regarding the administration of the scholarship. Should the recipient family choose to blog or write about their experience, you will also receive these communications.  If you donate funds, you will automatically be added to this list, unless you opt out at the time of donation.

Potential recipients:
Please fill out this form at the bottom of this page. A family will be selected by February 14th, Valentine’s Day. We will transfer your registration to the conference as well as accommodations at the Vancouver Hilton, where the conference is held. The reservation will include one room with two double beds.

If you are not selected for this scholarship, there are also conference-sponsored scholarships available through Life is Good site.

How can the Hogabooms afford this?
We can’t. Therefore, we are offering up our own yearly vacation on the chopping block as a security. We feel that strongly about offering this experience to another family. However, I have some experience that tells me my readers may help us in this regard. I hope I’m right, but if I’m wrong, we’re cool!

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Form for potential recipients: