Each year tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship money goes unclaimed. Last year $2.9 billion dollars of federal Pell Grant money, which does not need to be repaid, was unused. It was unused because people just did not fill out their forms (FAFSA). This unused money can help out hundreds of incoming college students but no one told them about the chances that they had.

Naviance, an online database, has provided people with a list of scholarships but the more peculiar ones are the ones that need more digging. Ones like Jif peanut butter offers a Most Creative Sandwich Contest that awards money. The Create-A-Greeting-Card scholarship gives $10,000 to the winner of the challenge. Those might sound silly but there are more practical ones. In New Jersey, Nordstrom offers a scholarship  that makes the students volunteer service or extracurricular activities. The only catch is that the students have to have a minimum GPA of 2.7 and have to be planning to apply for financial aid. The scholarship is up for $10,000.

Most commonly at Wayne Valley High School ,  students will receive scholarships from the colleges that they are attending.  Some students are also eligible for community scholarships. These scholarships grant money and other financial aids that fits the applications needs. There are hundreds of students around the globe that have applied for scholarships. Athletic and Academic scholarships are the most common ones that are found at Valley. According to Ms. Miller, a guidance counselor at Valley, there has not been any cases of weird scholarships and she said, “ if you’re looking for one specifically you have to do some searching online.” The odds of someone receiving one of these scholarships is not that high as not a single person at Wayne Valley has received one in the last few years.

Scholarships can be the most important part of getting to college. They can guide you to a certain college and determine your future. Scholarships such as the duct tape , Prom Guide’s Cutest Couple Contest and many others like this have given teenagers a chance to exceed in their life.  These scholarships have given students a better chance at going to college. If you want to find out more about these scholarships check out Naviance or ask your guidance counselor.