Morehead Planetarium and Science Center is committed to equity of access to its programs and has established scholarship programs to assist eligible schools with admission and other field trip costs.
The Jupiter Ball Scholarship Program
About
Using proceeds from Morehead's annual fundraiser, The Jupiter Ball Scholarship Program provides field trip and outreach scholarships to schools that meet certain deadlines and criteria.
Scholarships covering the cost of admission and a transportation stipend ($150 for every 40 students) are awarded to schools that are in the 76th percentile and above for free and reduced lunches.
For visits from outreach programs, the scholarship will cover the standard travel fee of $200 for one day of outreach program visits to a school. This scholarship amount will be awarded even if your school falls within 90 miles of Chapel Hill and would not normally be charged the full travel fee.
Eligibility
Morehead uses data from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to make determinations regarding free and reduced lunch eligibility. Please see the latest source for "Free and Reduced Meals Application Data" for your school at the NC DPI web-page here. In the excel sheet available for download, your free and reduced lunch enrollment is indicated by the %EDS column. If your reported %EDS is "Between 75% and 80%" or better, your school is eligible for the Jupiter Ball Scholarship.
Programming
Morehead offers exciting fulldome planetarium shows, Discovery Classes, Science LIVE! demonstrations and exhibits that will capture your students’ imaginations and illustrate key science concepts.
Application
Priority Deadline: Monday, 9/16/19 @ 5:00PM.
For on-site field trips to the Planetarium, go to our Field Trips page, and fill out a reservation request form. For outreach visits to your school, complete the request form for whichever outreach program you're interested in. On the form, choose "yes" when asked if you would like to apply to a scholarship, and answer the questions about your free/reduced lunch percentage. The due date to be considered for a scholarship is by 5PM, Monday 9/16/19. Requests received prior to this date will be evaluated at the same time based on level of need, geographic area, date of visit, and date the scholarship was requested. Requests received after the deadline will be reviewed on a first-come, first-serve basis and will be added to wait-lists after those who requested prior to the deadline but did not receive an award.
When our reservations staff reviews your request, they evaluate your school for scholarship eligibility and inform you if you've been added to the wait lists. Then, starting on the week of September 16, schools will be informed of their updated scholarship status. If your school is not awarded a scholarship due to insufficient funding, your request will remain on the waitlist should additional funds become available as other schools either cancel or don't use their entire awards - but since this is rare, we advise schools still on the waitlist after the priority deadline to plan as though no scholarship awards will be available for their visit.
Please note that there is never a penalty for canceling because a scholarship application can't be fulfilled. If you have already confirmed a reservation, and will no longer be able to visit due to a lack of scholarship funding, please contact the reservations office to cancel the visit.
If you've already filled out a request, please email mpsc_reservations@unc.edu and ask about applying for a scholarship to your school.
Region-specific scholarship programs
About
Morehead donors have established scholarships that benefit specific schools and school districts. See below for a list of counties or regions that have eligible scholarships.
Programming
Morehead offers exciting fulldome planetarium shows, Discovery Classes, Science LIVE! demonstrations and exhibits that will capture your students’ imaginations and illustrate key science concepts.
Application
Priority Deadline: Monday, 9/16/19 @ 5:00PM.
For on-site field trips to the Planetarium, go to our Field Trips page, and fill out a reservation request form. For outreach visits to your school, complete the request form for whichever outreach program you're interested in. On the form, choose "yes" when asked if you would like to apply to a scholarship, and answer the questions about your free/reduced lunch percentage. The due date to be considered for a scholarship is by 5PM, Monday 9/16/19. Requests received prior to this date will be evaluated at the same time based on level of need, geographic area, date of visit, and date the scholarship was requested. Requests received after the deadline will be reviewed on a first-come, first-serve basis and will be added to wait-lists after those who requested prior to the deadline but did not receive an award.
When our reservations staff reviews your request, they evaluate your school for scholarship eligibility and inform you if you've been added to the wait lists. Then, starting on the week of September 16, schools will be informed of their updated scholarship status. If your school is not awarded a scholarship due to insufficient funding, your request will remain on the waitlist should additional funds become available as other schools either cancel or don't use their entire awards - but since this is rare, we advise schools still on the waitlist after the priority deadline to plan as though no scholarship awards will be available for their visit.
Please note that there is never a penalty for canceling because a scholarship application can't be fulfilled. If you have already confirmed a reservation, and will no longer be able to visit due to a lack of scholarship funding, please contact the reservations office to cancel the visit.
If you've already filled out a request, please email mpsc_reservations@unc.edu and ask about applying for a scholarship to your school.