Financial  Aid - 3 levels

Level 1.  No application is required for this level.

• Funds will be applied to your total bill.  In no case will financial aid pay more than your total ZLO bill.
• Work exchanges - ask our bookkeeper about availability. We often have to ask folks to do these who don't need the assistance in order to get everything done.  These include (but might not be limited to) supervising a study hall and/or lunch times, janitorial help at the end of each day, student leadership advisor.
• Fund raising coordinator.  Got a great idea for fundraising?  If you're the person who makes it happen and your project feeds our financial aid fund, then you get 10% of profits, but not more than the value of one ZLO class.

Level 2.  Application for financial aid.  If you need more than what might be available above, then you may apply for additional financial aid.  The application is simple, but requires some record keeping on your part.

• You may apply for up to 3/4 of a class fee (not including materials fees or registration), up to a maximum of three classes for any one student.  Students new to ZLO may apply for a single class fee during their first semester with ZLO.
• To continue with this level of financial aid, the student must maintain a 2.5 GPA for all ZLO classes taken, and must request and provide a recommendation from the instructor of any failed class or a class dropped for any reason.
• Your family will participate in all fund raising efforts during each semester that aid is requested.  It is your responsibility to read emailings from ZLO to find out what these are and to contact fundraising coordinators to find out how you can participate.
• Your financial aid request (click here for the form) must be delivered by August 15 for Fall semester, and January 15 for Spring semester.  It must be accompanied by your GPA record (click here).  Since spring aid requests are due before grades are awarded for fall, you will need to ask each instructor for a grade-to-date to accompany your application for Spring semester. Please be kind to instructors, and do this before the day the financial aid request is due.
• Financial Aid will be distributed according to funds available.  If the aid fund can cover 100% of requests, then you will receive all of your request.  If the aid fund contains 70% of all funds requested, then each request will be fulfilled to that amount.

Level 3.  If you need financial aid, but are unable to participate in work exchanges and/or all fund raising efforts, then please mark this on your financial aid application.

A ZLO board member will contact you and help you explore every option for financial relief.  This level of aid is granted when a family disaster prevents participation in fundraising efforts.  These might include a major illness or death in the family, or loss of a job.

If you have an emergency need, or have an idea for fundraising, please ask our bookkeeper, administrator, or an instructor. We cannot help you unless we know your need, and we are always open to new ideas.

Link to GPA calculator page

Link to Financial Aid Application (a .pdf document for printing)