<p>Students on the board are awaiting news about USC merit scholarships. Thousands of highly qualified individuals have applied for these. I am writing this to urge applicants to investigate and apply for local merit scholarships. </p>
<p>This week I was reading about merit scholarships that are never used. Why? Not one person applied for the funds. You all know about the well known scholarships such as Coca Cola, but there are hundreds of funding sources if a person makes the effort to find them. Scholarship opportunities are churches, synagogues, ethnic groups, veteran’s groups, civic groups, corporations, arts groups, music groups, political and service organizations. I spoke with a new freshman from Georgia who had received four local merit scholarships before she ever entered SC.</p>
<p>I read on a high school website some of the scholarships available. One was given by the Tall Clubs. The main qualification was to be quite tall! Many are given for unique community service or leadership achievements. Some of the requirements limit the application pool. YOU may be one of the fortunate ones to fit the criteria. </p>
<p>When it is time to enroll it is a good feeling to know every effort has been made to take advantage of all funding sources available.</p>