3Rivers Scholarship Contest

I. These Rules & Regulations are specific to the 3Rivers Scholarship Contest. The Contest is governed by the rules set forth below. By entering the 3Rivers Scholarship (The Contest) you agree that you have read and will abide by these Rules & Regulations and the decisions of The Contest Sponsor. You also agree to comply with all applicable laws. The Contest is void in whole or in part where prohibited by law. Participation in The Contest constitutes full and unconditional agreement and acceptance of these Rules & Regulations.

Contest Sponsor:
The Contest Sponsor is 3Rivers Federal Credit Union (3Rivers).

Contest Dates:
The Contest begins on Monday, April 27, 2026, and closes on Monday, June 1, 2026, at 12:00 PM EST. Entries must be received by The Contest Sponsor via the entry form located at 3riversfcu.org/scholarship within this period to be eligible to be entered into The Contest. Entries submitted after 12:00 PM EST on June 1 will not be accepted. No exceptions.

II. Entrant Eligibility:
The Contest is open to students who, at the time of their entry:

• are accepted at and/or enrolled full time, typically twelve (12) or more credit hours for undergrad and six (6) credit hours for graduate students (can vary by school), in a program at an accredited college, university, trade school, or graduate school for the 2026-2027 school year (or are willing to provide proof of enrollment at a later date);
•  have a cumulative GPA of 2.75 (or equivalent) or higher;
• and are a current 3Rivers Federal Credit Union member. Enter online today!
  Dependent and independent undergraduate, graduate, foreign exchange, and returning adult students are eligible to enter, so long as they are eligible to be a member of 3Rivers. This includes 2026 high school seniors entering their first year of college in the fall of 2026.
  

Current 3Rivers employees and board members are NOT eligible to enter, however, their dependents ARE eligible to participate in the contest.

Past employees, retirees and representatives of the Contest Sponsor and their respective affiliates, subsidiaries, related companies, agents, associates, dealers, representatives, advertising, and promotional agencies are eligible to participate in The Contest. 

Any entrants who are under eighteen (18) years of age or younger at the time of their entry may be asked to obtain signed permission from a parent to submit an entry into the 3Rivers Scholarship Program Contest and must provide this documentation to The Contest Sponsor (3Rivers) if asked.

The Contest Sponsor shall have the right at any time to require proof of identity and/or eligibility to participate in The Contest. Failure to provide such proof may result in disqualification.

All personal and other information requested by and supplied to The Contest Sponsor for the purpose of The Contest must be truthful, complete, accurate and in no way misleading.

The Contest Sponsor may, at any time in their sole discretion, disqualify any entrant who: does not meet The Contest eligibility criteria, fails to comply with these rules, attempts to disrupt The Contest, or attempts to circumvent any of these rules.

How to Enter the Scholarship Contest: 

Entrants who meet the conditions as outlined in the section above are eligible to enter The Contest during The Contest period by visiting www.3riversfcu.org/scholarship and completing the entry form (which includes uploading all required supporting documents and the 750-1,000 word essay or the visual art piece, painted or drawn, along with a maximum 350-word summary).

Required supporting documents include: proof of enrollment (if not yet enrolled, this can be provided at a later date) at an accredited post-secondary institution for the 2026-2027 academic year, and a recent photograph.

The supporting documents will be viewed by The Contest Sponsor, and will be kept confidential. Only your photo, essay or art piece, name, and school may be posted at www.3riversfcu.org/scholarship and on 3Rivers’ social media pages for the public to view. 

Entrants who complete a 30-minute financial aid review with the 3Rivers Youth & College Team by June 1, 2026, will receive an entry into the random drawing pool. Entrants will only be eligible for the randomly drawn award if they aren’t selected as a winner for the essay/art contest. Financial aid reviews may be done in-person, over the phone, or virtually, and may be completed before or after submitting a scholarship contest entry. Reviews can be scheduled by emailing college@trfcu.org or calling 260.399.8265. 

See below for detailed submission instructions:

You are solely responsible for ensuring that all information you submit is up-to-date and accurate.

Only one entry per person will be accepted (cannot enter multiple times and cannot enter both essay and art contest). If entrant applies multiple times, only the first-received entry will be considered. Entries made with multiple addresses, under multiple identities, or through the use of any device or artifice to enter multiple times or entries that are in excess of the permitted number of entries during The Contest are automatically void.

No purchase or entry fees are required to enter The Contest or to be a recipient of a scholarship from 3Rivers Federal Credit Union.

Visit www.3riversfcu.org/scholarship and follow the instructions to enter.

III. Essay Submission Eligibility:
Essay submissions must meet all the following criteria to be eligible for The Contest:

The essay must be between seven hundred and fifty (750) and one thousand (1,000) words in length. If your essay is less than 750 words or more than 1,000 words, 3Rivers reserves the right to ask that you amend it to be eligible. While 3Rivers does not discourage AI-usage to assist with the research and editing process, entrants should consider the ethics of submitting work that is not their own. 3Rivers reserves the right to request entrants amend any essay or part of an entry they believe not to be the entrant’s original work. 

Use only the English language. 

Be intended for a family audience and therefore not contain, depict, or refer to any crude, vulgar, obscene, sexually, explicit, disparaging, discriminatory, offensive, illegal, or otherwise unsuitable language, activity, or other content (all as determined by The Contest Sponsor in their sole discretion).

Not contain, depict, or refer to any content which disparages or refers negatively to The Contest Sponsor, The Contest, or any other person or entity (all as determined by The Contest Sponsor in their sole discretion).

Not conflict with any of 3Rivers’ core value or otherwise be objectionable to The Contest Sponsor (as determined by The Contest Sponsor in their sole discretion).

Not contain any content that violates any law or any third party's rights (including privacy, personality, and intellectual property rights).

Not contain material that infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to privacy or intellectual property rights.

Art Submission Eligibility:
Art submissions must meet all the following criteria to be eligible for The Contest:

Must submit a high-quality photo of an original hand painted or hand drawn piece. No restrictions on the type of paint, drawing utensil, or canvas/surface used. Digitally designed or printed artworks will be excluded from consideration.

Along with the artwork submission, must include before, during and after photos OR a timelapse video showing creation process start to finish.

Must include a maximum 350-word summary describing why you chose to draw/paint the subject, the relevancy to the prompt, the impact the business or organization has had on you or your community, and why you chose to use the medium you did.

Be intended for a family audience and therefore not contain, depict, or refer to any crude, vulgar, obscene, sexually, explicit, disparaging, discriminatory, offensive, illegal, or otherwise unsuitable language, activity, or other content (all as determined by The Contest Sponsor in their sole discretion).

Not contain, depict, or refer to any content which disparages or refers negatively to The Contest Sponsor, The Contest, or any other person or entity (all as determined by The Contest Sponsor in their sole discretion).

Not conflict with any of 3Rivers’ core values or otherwise be objectionable to The Contest Sponsor (as determined by The Contest Sponsor in their sole discretion).

Not contain any content that violates any law or any third party's rights (including privacy, personality, and intellectual property rights).

Not contain material that infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to privacy or intellectual property rights.

IV. Subject and Participant Releases

The Contest Sponsor may disqualify any entry if they determine (in their sole discretion) that the submission does not comply with these eligibility requirements or otherwise with these rules.

Each entry that meets the criteria above and that is submitted in accordance with The Contest Rules is eligible for inclusion in the final winner selection wherein a scholarship panel will judge and select winners to receive a $2,000 scholarship.

Any non-winners who complete a 30-minute financial aid review with a 3Rivers Youth & College advisor by June 1, 2026, will be entered into a random selection pool in which ten (10) entrants will be electronically selected at random to receive a $1,000 scholarship. 

All scholarship awards will be in the amounts of $2,000 or $1,000 in the form of a check made out to the winners.

How to Enter:

1. Write your 750-1,000-word essay or your 350-word art summary and save it on your computer or tablet.
2. Complete an entry form including all required elements and supporting documents.
   Visit www.3riversfcu.org/scholarship  and follow the directions to complete the online entry form.
   You will be required to answer a series of questions, upload your supporting documents and photos (for art submission), and copy and paste your essay or summary.
   Supporting documents include: copy of 2026-2027 school registration at an accredited post-secondary institution showing full-time enrollment (if you do not have proof of enrollment yet, please upload a Word document containing the line, “Proof of enrollment forthcoming”—should you be selected a winner, your award will be held until you can provide proof of enrollment) and a recent photograph of yourself.
3. To receive an entry into the random drawing contest, schedule and complete a 30-minute financial aid review with the 3Rivers Youth & College Team by Monday, June 1, 2026. Financial aid reviews may be done in-person, over the phone, or virtually. Schedule your 30-minute session by email at college@trfcu.org or by phone at 260.399.8265.
   

Entry and all supporting documents MUST be submitted digitally. Entries will not be considered complete if documentation is physically mailed, faxed, or hand delivered. 

You are solely responsible for ensuring that all information is up-to-date and accurate.

A 3Rivers representative will contact entrants if any required information is missing.

V. Scholarships to Be Awarded at Close of Contest

Ninety thousand dollars ($90,000) in scholarships will be awarded to fifty (50) eligible recipients. 

• A panel of judges from 3Rivers will select a total of forty (40) recipients from the essay-based and art-based submissions to receive a $2,000 scholarship each. 
  
• Entrants who complete a 30-minute financial aid review with the Youth & College Team between April 27 and June 1, 2026, and who are NOT selected as winners by the scholarship panel, will be entered into a random drawing in which ten (10) additional winners will be electronically selected at random to receive a $1,000 scholarship each.

A check will be sent to each winning entrant via USPS, made out in their name. Should scholarship recipients want to enter these funds directly to their university student account to go toward tuition expenses, the recipients are responsible for reporting these funds to their university’s bursar office.

NOTE: Some universities may void any existing grants or scholarships they have granted students should students receive scholarship funds from an outside organization. Please check with your university’s financial aid office to confirm whether receiving a scholarship like this one may void any existing financial assistance they have already granted you. 3Rivers has no control over the way in which universities may alter a student’s funding upon receiving one of our scholarships.

Winner Selection Process

All entry forms, supporting documents, essays, art submissions, and art summaries, will be thoroughly screened to ensure all eligibility requirements (listed in Section II and Section III above) are met by the 3Rivers Scholarship Committee, comprised of 3Rivers employees, before being moved forward for inclusion in the final selection process. Submissions may also be subject to being processed through AI detection software, at the discretion of The Contest Sponsor.

Following the entry deadline and vetting of each entry, all eligible entries will be judged by the scholarship panel.
Recipients will be contacted by 3Rivers Federal Credit Union by email and/or telephone on or by Friday, June 26, 2026. Potential recipients who cannot be contacted between 9:00 AM EST on Friday, June 26 and 5:00 PM EST on Friday, July 24, 2026, despite customary diligent efforts, may be disqualified and forfeit their scholarship to another entrant, and will have no recourse toward the Contest Sponsor. If a recipient cannot accept the scholarship as awarded for any reason, their entry will be forfeited, and another eligible entrant may be selected. 

Selected scholarship recipients will be announced at the discretion of The Contest Sponsor. Such announcements may include, but are not limited to, print and online press releases, posts on social media, and publication on the 3Rivers website.

Any costs associated with accepting the scholarship shall be the sole responsibility of the winner.

To be eligible to be awarded the scholarship, each recipient may be required to:

Sign a Declaration of Compliance with Rules & Regulations and an Assignment, Release and Indemnity Form,
assigning all rights to their essay or art submission to the Contest Sponsor, including all copyrights and moral rights and releasing The Contest Sponsor, their affiliates, and respective advertising and promotions agencies from any liability in connection with The Contest or the scholarships awarded.

Produce valid identification and, if requested by The Contest Sponsor, proof of age and photo identification.

If the above requirements are not met, the recipient will be disqualified and another recipient will be selected in their place.

VI. License

By entering 3Rivers Scholarship Contest, you irrevocably and exclusively assign all copyright, without limitation of time, place, medium, support or language, in the essay or art piece to The Contest Sponsor and waive all legal and moral rights to the essay and art piece in favor of The Contest Sponsor. Accordingly, you acknowledge that The Contest Sponsor will have the unrestricted and exclusive right to use the essay or art piece for any purpose, including but not limited to, publishing it in an electronic form on the 3Rivers website for promotional purposes without further compensation. The Contest Sponsor also has the right to (but is not required to) use your name, image, likeness, and school name in credit along with the essay or art piece. You confirm that you are the sole author of the essay or art piece and that you own all rights to it and can fully assign all rights to The Contest Sponsor as contemplated above. You agree to compensate The Contest Sponsor should any claims arise out of the use of the essay by The Contest Sponsor.

Conduct

By participating in The Contest, each entrant agrees to be bound by The Contest Rules & Regulations, which will be posted and available at 3riversfcu.org/scholarship. Entrants further agree to be bound by the decisions of The Contest Sponsor, which shall be final and binding in all respects. The Contest Sponsor reserves the right, in their sole discretion, to disqualify any entrant found to be: (a) violating The Contest Rules & Regulations; (b) tampering or attempting to tamper with the entry process or the operation of The Contest; (c) violating the terms of service, conditions of use and/or general rules or guidelines of 3Rivers Federal Credit Union; and/or (d) acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person. Any attempt to deliberately damage any website or interfere with the legitimate operation of The Contest may be a violation of criminal and civil laws, and The Contest Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages and/or other relief from all responsible persons to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Disclaimers, Liability, and Indemnification

By participating in The Contest, you release and agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Contest Sponsor and their employees, directors, officers, affiliates, agents, judges and advertising and promotional agencies from any and all damages, injuries, claims, causes of actions, or losses of any kind resulting from your participation in The Contest or receipt or use of any scholarship or prize. By participating in The Contest, you further agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Contest Sponsor and their employees, directors, officers, members, affiliates, agents, judges, and advertising and promotional agencies from any and all damages, injuries, claims, causes of actions or losses of any kind (including actual legal fees and expenses) arising from or related to: (a) your failure to comply with any of these Rules and Regulations, (b) any misrepresentation you make under these Rules and Regulations or otherwise to The Contest Sponsor, or (c) your participation in The Contest. The Contest Sponsor shall have no liability for any loss or damage of any essays entered in The Contest or for any other loss or damage resulting directly or indirectly from your participation in The Contest. The Contest Sponsor is not responsible for: (1) incorrect or inaccurate transcription of entry information or late, lost, incomplete, or misdirected entries, or entries received through impermissible or illegitimate channels; (2) technical failures of any kind, including without limitation the malfunctioning of any telephone, computer, network, hardware, or software; (3) the unavailability or inaccessibility of any service; (4) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or The Contest; (5) electronic or human error which may occur in the administration of The Contest or the processing of entries; or (6) any injury or damage to persons or property, including without limitation your computer, which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from your participation in The Contest or from downloading any material. The Contest Sponsor will not be liable to you for any indirect, special, consequential, or punitive damages in connection with The Contest or these Rules and Regulations.

VII. Privacy / Use of Personal Information

By participating in The Contest, entrants (a) grant to The Contest Sponsor the right to use their name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address (“Personal Information”) for the purpose of administering The Contest and (b) grant to The Contest Sponsor the right to use their headshot, essay or art submission, name, and school name for publicity and promotional purposes relating to The Contest, in any and all media now known or hereafter devised, without further compensation unless prohibited by law. The Contest Sponsor will use the entrant’s Personal Information only for identified purposes, and protect the entrant’s Personal Information in a manner that is consistent with The Contest Sponsor’s Privacy Policy as outlined at 3riversfcu.org/privacy.

Intellectual Property
All intellectual property, including but not limited to trademarks, trade names, logos, designs, promotional materials, web pages, source code, drawings, illustrations, slogans, and representations are owned by The Contest Sponsor and/or their affiliates. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized copying or use of any copyrighted material or intellectual property without the express written consent of its owner is strictly prohibited.

Termination
If for any reason The Contest Sponsor cannot run The Contest as planned (including as a result of bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, infection by computer virus, or any other cause that corrupts, impairs or affects the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of The Contest), The Contest Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, modify, extend or suspend The Contest. In that event, The Contest Sponsor may determine the winner from among the eligible entries received up to the time of the impairment or cancel The Contest. The Contest Sponsor may also disqualify any individual who tampers with or in any way corrupts the entry process or who attempts to undermine the legitimate operation of The Contest by cheating, hacking, deception, or other unfair practices, or by attempting to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any other entrants or representatives of The Contest Sponsor. The Contest Sponsor reserves the right to modify or cancel The Contest at any time including, without limitation, in the event of technical corruption, virus, bugs, non-authorized human intervention, or any other technical problems, which may arise from time to time beyond the control of The Contest Sponsor, destroying the integrity of The Contest. No liability or responsibility is assumed by The Contest Sponsor resulting from user attempts to participate in The Contest or, if required, to download any information necessary to participate in The Contest.

Law
These Rules & Regulations constitute the complete rules and regulations associated with The Contest. The Contest is subject to applicable, state and municipal laws and regulations. These Rules and Regulations are subject to change without notice in order to comply with any applicable, provincial, and municipal laws or the policy of any other entity having jurisdiction over The Contest Sponsor. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of the Rules and Regulations or the rights and obligations as between the entrants and The Contest Sponsor in connection with The Contest shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the state of Indiana.

Disputes
All disputes, claims, and causes of action arising out of or connected with The Contest or these rules and regulations will be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by the appropriate court.

Language Discrepancy
In the event of any discrepancy or inconsistency between the terms and conditions of The Contest rules and regulations and disclosures or other statements contained in any Contest-related materials, including but not limited to The Contest entry form, or point of sale, print, or online advertising, the terms and conditions of these rules and regulations shall prevail, govern, and control.

VIII. General:

The decisions of The Contest Sponsor in relation to The Contest will be final and binding.

The Contest Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify entrants and/or entries that do not comply with these Contest Rules & Regulations.

Any inquiries or concerns relating to The Contest should be emailed to college@trfcu.org.