TRCF Mission:

The Ruth Cheatham Foundation champions adolescent cancer survivors by providing the financial aid, education, and most importantly hope that survivors need to excel throughout their lifetime.

Scoring process:

All applications have been verified by staff to ensure all eligibility requirements have been satisfied. Every application receives the same number of blind reviews. TRCF uses the application platform Community Force for our scholarship applications and scoring. You will receive your Community Force account info via email from TRCF. We strive to keep the scoring process simplified for our reviewers, and user-friendly. To help onboard you to the scoring process, please take a moment to watch the video instructions below.

You may complete and submit all reviews at once or score a few, save the status, and begin again later.

TRCF is here to support you in any way. We are more than happy to meet with you individually to walk you through the process in real time or answer any comments or questions regarding the scoring process. Please contact holly@ruthcheathamfoundation.org or (405)863-9099.

Scoring Deadline:

The deadline to complete your scoring is May 10, 2025.

The ideal TRCF Scholar:

Education is key to long-term success, yet out of reach for many financially devastated young cancer patients. TRCF provides 4 years of support to scholars in the form of recurring college scholarships. We target teen cancer survivors from low-income families that have been disproportionately affected by their cancer diagnosis. 

Our ideal candidate is a student who has been greatly impacted by their cancer, someone who, without our support, would not have the capacity to attain higher education, and who has a passion and drive to do more with their life.

Scoring is mixed between automated scoring (for things like GPA, income, and the cost of schooling) and subjective scoring. You are participating in our subjective scoring to rank applicants based on:

• Criteria 1: Activities, Awards, and Extracurricular Activities - Is the applicant active within their community? (exceptions are made for those recently diagnosed or who are currently in active cancer treatment). We are looking for applicants that are driven to change the world and do something to better their lives and the lives of those around them.

• Criteria 2: Applicant Essay- How impactful is their essay, is the applicant driven to succeed and accomplish their goals? Do they have extenuating circumstances that would cause a greater need for educational and financial support? Without our support will this applicant be able to achieve those goals? We are looking for an applicant that has the drive and passion but due to the impacts of cancer, higher education is out of reach. We are looking to provide that make-or-break support that gets them to that end goal of a degree and a substantial change in their livelihood.

  • NOTE:

    • You can score in increments of 0.5; so if you are torn between scoring an applicant a 2 and a 3…. you have the ability to score them as a 2.5

    • The last scoring criteria (“Please type any notes or comments for this applicant”) is NOT mandatory. We added this field to allow you to provide additional insight regarding the applicant, but you are not required to complete this field for each application review.

Interested in understanding more about how we score applicants and decide which scholars TRCF will support? Feel free to check out the link below to our full scoring rubric and see where your feedback and scoring fit in.

Thank you again for making an impact on the lives of the teens and young adults supported by TRCF. If you are interested in recording a brief video announcement congratulating our incoming 2023 scholars, we can facilitate that! We have included a video and a book featuring our graduates below.

We truly appreciate your investment in TRCF!