Lesser-known scholarships

Hi, I am Destra Capers, director of Outreach at South Carolina Student Loan. Let's talk about scholarships. A lot of students like to look for those big dollar scholarships, thousands and thousands of dollars. I encourage you to look locally, look at your civic organizations, your community organizations, because a lot of them have scholarships and a lot of people don't pay attention to them because they may not come with the big bucks, but they may be renewable and they may be easier to navigate that process because they are local. 

If you're working or your parents are employed, ask your employers what type of educational benefits are available to me? Just because your parent works there, you may have access to funding that other people don't have access to. So I encourage you to look at your employers as well. I would encourage you to look every spring at your financial aid website. They will have a list of in institutional scholarships that are available just to you because you attend that school that have separate criteria.

Other scholarships would include need space or merit-based scholarships. Those can be local or national scholarships as well. And then you can also consider your lemons. I call lemons, those hardships that you've encountered over the years as you've been in school. Turn those into money. Turn those into lemonade. So you may have a disability. Google that disability, see if there are any scholarships available to you because of that hardship.