Is There A Scholarship For Me?

Regarding scholarships, many people immediately write themselves off. “Oh, there aren’t any scholarships out there for me,” they tell themselves. Well, nonsense, I say. Through comprehensive scholarship databases like FastWeb, scholarship search engines help every student find ones that match their personal profile.

However, if you’re really ambitious like I was during my senior year in high school, you can go beyond these scholarship search engines. How? One word:

That’s right. Google.com, as the premier Internet search engine, holds the key to plenty of scholarship opportunities. All you have to do is search for scholarships with keywords like disability, employee, church member, etc. Search with a keyword that is specific to your profile. Once, I was helping a student search for scholarships. He was a first generation Asian American high school senior. I googled first generation minority high school senior scholarships. The results included solid scholarships that did not show up in FastWeb results.

Other opportunities can be found through your church, your employer, or your volunteer organization. For example, the Presbyterian Church has scholarships for high school seniors attending private universities, employers like Safeway and Walgreens offer scholarships for students who are also employees, and volunteer organizations like the Red Cross offer scholarships for students who volunteer their time to help others. Whatever your activities and interests there are scholarships for you. It’s just a matter of exercising a little self-motivation and time to search for them.

I’ve been through this process before, both with FastWeb and with Google. If you have any questions, just send me an email. I’d be glad to help. Happy scholarship searching.