Student Nets $100,000 in Scholarships

Photo credit: Irving Johnson III/Xavier University of Louisiana "Every time I got tired, I would just think of my dream to go to college," Shayla Price said.

By Scot Kirk
Black College Wire

Two years ago, when Shayla Price was a high school junior, she realized that her goal of attending college would not be realized without financial resources that her parents couldn't then provide.

So she began searching and applying for minority- and academic-based scholarships. What made Price's search unusual was the amount of scholarship money she ultimately received: $100,000.

Now a freshman at Xavier University of Louisiana, Price, 19, said that her goal was to totally pay for her college education.

"I knew that if I wasn't able to pay for school with grants or scholarships, I was not going to be able to go to college," said Price, who is majoring in business administration at the New Orleans institution.

She began by looking on Internet search engines for minority scholarships, and then clicking on almost all results that came up. She went to her guidance counselor for local scholarship listings, and conducted her national search online.

Price laughed out loud when she thought about the hours and energy she put into her search.

"Every time I got tired, I would just think of my dream to go to college and that this was my way to fund my education," said Price.

Each scholarship had its own requirements, so Price had to read each application carefully. Some asked for references and letters of recommendation. She wrote essays for most of them.

Price had plenty of material to write about: During her senior year at Thibodeaux High School in Thibodeaux, La., Price was valedictorian. She served as sophomore and junior class president. She was also a member of the National Honor Society.

Price didn't stop with academics. She was active in community and service organizations, including several that help youth. Price was named a 2004 Louisiana Young Hero in a program co-sponsored by Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

A citation from the state Legislature said she "was a witness to severe domestic violence and nursed her mother back to health after her mother was scalded with boiling water, yet she is class valedictorian, has served as sophomore and junior class president, is a member of the National Honor Society, helped organize the Bayou Interfaith Service Community Organization to help the youth in her area, and volunteers at St. Luke�s Catholic Church as a religion teacher."

Price would rely on the honors she earned to complete her many essays. She applied for at least 60 scholarships, often sending in material a month in advance of the due date.

The rejection letters came first. She felt discouraged and a little worried while she waited for the first acceptance notice. It took nearly a year to arrive. Her mother told her that once the first award letter came, the rest would soon follow, and she was right.

"One came and then another and then another, and after a while I started adding them up," Price said, "and I began to think, OK, I'm going to be able to go to college for free, almost."

The Internet has revolutionized the scholarship- and grant search, giving students the unprecedented ability to research and apply for scholarships by specific criteria, and even obtain daily e-mail updates. The Internet was Price's primary resource, and she used free search services, including Google, FastWeb.com and Yahoo.

If she had to, she would have done her search the old-fashioned way, with scholarship books and printed listings, she said. But she said she believes the process would have been much harder.

Price's success is definitely above the norm, said Linda Peckham, a spokeswoman for the College Board, which conducts annual studies of college tuition costs and student financial aid. According to Peckham, the average amount of financial aid awarded to full-time students nationally is $9,000. Most individual scholarships range from $500 to $5,000.

"One hundred thousand dollars is extraordinary," said Peckham. "I've never seen anything like that."

The College Board recommends that students do what Price did and begin the process early, even in the freshman year of high school.

Start with a wide search using Internet search engines.

"The beauty of the Internet is that it is so much easier for students to use, and they're able to access it 24 hours a day," Peckham said. "They can do it according to their schedule."

Nationally, the average cost of college tuition in 2004 at a public institution was $11,354. It was $27,516 for a private school. At the private Xavier University of Louisiana, tuition is about $23,700 a year.

In all, Price received $100,000 in scholarship money, but some of the funds can be used only for specific expenses such as books or food. Some of Price's scholarships have expired, or will soon.

Nevertheless, Price was successful in her initial goal, which was to attend to college without paying a dime. Because she isn't forced to work to pay for school, she can focus more on her studies and her future, unlike many of her peers.

Speaking of her future, Price said that her next goal was to secure a summer internship in the marketing or sales field. There is even talk of producing a book, which Price hopes will help students get scholarships.

One thing that she did not expect was all the attention.

"It's a very good thing, though," she said. "I want to spread my knowledge and help other students."

Scot Kirk is a student at Central State University in Ohio.

Posted Dec. 20, 2004