This workshop will offer a brief overview of the notion of authenticity and its motivational value for language learning in higher education environment. Workshop participants will get a hands-on experience of working on a set of authentic tasks that were once generated for St Petersburg State University students. The workshop is intended to be both informative and useful for practicing teachers of English and every participant will get a set of handouts ready for university classroom use. The planned activities focus on the process of scholarship search, scholarship application and personal statement writing. Therefore, each task will employ a collection of language skills and sub-skills, all relevant to both EAP and ESP context. On top of the above mentioned language skills, those tasks can powerfully contribute to the development of the following real life competencies: information search, a small-scale research, making an inquiry, self-presentation in an interview and motivation letter writing. The overall aim of this workshop is to offer a convincing demonstration of how authentic tasks can motivate university students in a language classroom.