Teacher training is freaking expensive. I’m just barely starting to pay back my fiance for the loan he provided me for my own teacher training. And while I would love additional training, it’s currently out of the question for me. But for all the amazing yoga teachers working with underserved communities, The Yoga Alliance Foundation and prAna will be awarding 2 scholarships of $2,225 to teachers interested in attending a 300-hour training in 2014.
In order to qualify for the scholarship, applicants need:
- To be teaching yoga to underserved communities and populations
- To demonstrate financial need, which means you can’t make more than 2.5 times the federal poverty level (and the federal poverty level is pretty low)
- To be an active member of Yoga Alliance for the past 6 years
Check out prAna for more details. Applications are due December 2 so get on it!
For those that don’t meet the qualifications, there are other opportunities out there if you are interested in furthering your education/work with at-risk and underserved communities, even if you are not a yoga teacher. You should have a good foundation with your own personal practice but these trainings teach you how to incorporate the healing benefits of yoga and enhance the work you are already doing. I took a weekend training with Hala Khouri through YogaWorks and was able to get close to 50% off the workshop fees. I also looked into Street Yoga‘s training and applied for their scholarship (for all my fellow social workers out there, it’s NASW approved and you can get CEUs). Unfortunately with so many people applying, they were only able to offer a $50 discount. Hey, a discount is still a discount! It just wasn’t enough to make it affordable for me. I haven’t looked into Prison Yoga Project but I imagine there might be some opportunities there. Niroga Institute in Berkeley, CA offers various workshops and trainings but I didn’t easily find any options for scholarships/discounts. If it’s not listed, it never hurts to ask. They do offer a fellowship for their yoga teacher training program if you are willing to commit to teaching 100 hours to underserved communities after finishing the program. There is probably a ton more out there – these are just a few of the resources I came across when I was looking to expand my education. On my to-blog list, I’ll get around to researching other scholarships and financial assistance resources for yoga teacher training so stay tuned. Have a great week!
Broke-Ass Yogi 