Look At These Resources
How To Graduate Completely Debt-Free
How To Find Scholarships
How To Create a Winning Application
Graduating debt-free is not impossible, but it gets harder to achieve the longer you wait to get started. So make sure you get started today!
There are many sites that advertise scholarships, but there are 3 types of sites that will serve different purposes in your scholarship journey.
Let's go over how you should write, compose, and submit your application to ensure you actually win a scholarship.
The GraduATE A.I.D Podcast
I created a podcast specializing in discussing issues that are relevant to academia. Students whether they are still in middle or high school, studying at the undergraduate or graduate level, at a community college or 4-year institution, in the US or another country can certainly benefit from taking the time to tune in and listen to an episode.
It is called The GraduATE A.I.D Podcast because my intention is to help every academic in distress graduate with finesse.
The GraduATE A.I.D Podcast
Helping Academics In Distress Graduate With Finesse
Here are some guides I've created to make composing your scholarship applications and tracking them easier. These guides pertain to written essays, video submissions, and project-based scholarships.
Application Development Guides
Thesaurus.com allows users to look up a given word's synonyms and antonyms. This is a great tool to use to avoid repetition, awkward wording, and tonal discrepancies within your writing.
Dictionary.com provides definitions, origins, and pronunciations to an extensive list of words. It's great when you need to check your spelling, pronunciation, or look up a word's etymology or history.
Conceptual Academic Pathways
My Conceptual Academic Pathways or C.A.Ps, are a great resource for students in middle, high school, and college. Their purpose is to help students visualize how they can divide coursework, combine it with non-traditional, college credit-granting opportunities, and apply earned gift aid to drastically minimize their future or current higher education expenses.
If you've ever asked yourself, "What do I do now?" or "What could I be doing?", the C.A.Ps will help you figure things out. No cap.
Find Your Writing Style Quiz
Discover your writing style by answering these questions. Completing this quiz will identify which writing style you exhibit, while offering strategies to build a more diversified style and understanding of the 4 core writing styles.
Organizations Fighting Against Student Debt
Non-Traditional Pathways 🤝Gift Aid
The key to winning the fight against student debt and graduating debt-free is to combine non-traditional pathways to higher education with gift aid.
Listed below are organizations that help students access higher education through various ways, with some providing opportunities to complete discounted coursework and win scholarships. Links to the organization or program's website are in their title and photos.
Bold.org (BoldDotOrg) and Going Merry are two of my favorite scholarship application platforms. They have very intuitive, user-friendly UIs, great customer service, and a variety of scholarships for all kinds of students.
Bold.org and Going Merry also offer writing tips and resources so students are well-equipped to submit an error-free scholarship application that is sure to win some money.
Modern States is a non-profit organization that provides free, online courses that prepare students to take the course's CLEP exam counterpart.
CLEP stands for College Level Examination Program. Students can complete CLEP exams with specific scores and earn college credit. By eliminating the need to take many pre-requisite courses at the school itself, these exams save students a significant amount of money.
The best part is that Modern States will issue a voucher after students complete the self-paced course. Effectively, making the exams completely free.
Community College Smart or CC Smart, is an incredible resource that aims to educate students about the benefits of getting involved in community colleges.
CC Smart advocates for student-led leadership positions within academia, provides ways to make paying for college easier, and offers information on both transferring to a 4-year institution and breaking into the workforce.
Dual Enrollment, QuestBridge,
AP, IB, & AICE
These are several programs that offer tremendous value to determined, hard-working high school students. Dual Enrollment (DE) allows students to enroll in college early while still in high school. DE policies vary based on the high school, so students must reach out to the school personnel in charge of their DE program. QuestBridge is a college-matching program that connects high-achieving, low income high school Juniors with top universities and awards them full-ride scholarships.
Advanced Placement (AP) lets high school students study in college-level courses throughout the year in preparation for the AP exams that happen in the Spring. Depending on what score the student gets and if the college they want to attend accepts the score, they get awarded college-credit.
IB (International Baccalaureate) is similar to AP, but IB is often said to be more challenging due to its holistic focus as opposed to AP's individual subject mastery. IB may be better suited for international students. IB students must enroll or transfer to specific high schools that offer the IB curriculum.
AICE is another program that offers college-level work and the opportunity to earn college credit. Similar to the IB program, AICE has a more holistic curriculum and is only offered from specific high schools. AICE is a much newer program and is not as universally recognized as AP and IB. However, if students live in a state like Florida, that invests heavily into AICE graduates, it may be a more "lucrative" option to pursue instead of AP or IB.
Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society is an international, non-profit organization that provides community college students with the opportunity to win scholarships, ascend into student leadership positions, participate in extensive research at the undergraduate level, prepare for their future careers through soft-skill improvement courses, and foster meaningful relationships with teams of like-minded scholars.
Typically, students need a GPA of 3.5 and to have completed at least 12 hours of coursework toward an Associates degree or 6 hours of coursework toward a technical certificate. Different chapters may have different requirements, so it never hurts to email the advisor(s) and ask.
Even if students have not yet reached those requirements, many chapters are absolutely still willing to invite interested students to their fellowship activities, include them in their research process, and offer travel opportunities to regional and national leadership events.
While some students are happy with being a general member, there are also many leadership positions within chapters. Each chapter has their own officer team, usually comprised of at least the President, VP of Scholarship, VP of Leadership, VP of Service, and VP of Fellowship.
These four VP positions mirror PTK's four Hallmarks (Service, Leadership, Scholarship, and Fellowship). These hallmarks form the foundation on which the organization is established and motivate them to continue their mission of recognizing the impactful achievement of college students by providing ways for them to grow as not only scholars, but also community leaders.
"A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work"
- Colin Powell
Watch This Video If Your Dream Relies on Education of Some Kind
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