According to Education Data Initiative, roughly 42.7 million American adults live in student loan debt. One way for highschoolers to get ahead of the money game is to apply for scholarships. Luckily for students in the Rapid City area there many opportunities for financial support.
Stevens, 11th grade Students, Jadyn Scheure, Zoe Wick, and Makinley Holec all agreed that applying for scholarships is important for college finances. Zoe said that “I feel that the price of college is extremely expensive. I believe that scholarships can help provide aid in paying for college.” Also, Jadyn stated, “Applying for scholarships is very important for college because there are so many out there and if it helps with paying for college why wouldn’t I at least try.” Then Makinley explained “I know that I need to start applying for scholarships in order to make college more affordable.”
Steven’s students have a great way to access scholarship opportunities. On the Rapid City Area Schools website if you choose “Stevens High School” and go to “Our School”; “School Counseling and Advising”, and scroll down, you will find “Scholarship Resources”.
The first link Local Scholarships Spreadsheet, contains many scholarships with their name, link, description, amount, and deadlines. It has statewide scholarships, local scholarships, and more.
The second link takes you to the Dakota Dreams website where you can find a spreadsheet to help you track which scholarships you have applied for. It also has a “SD Scholarship Bulletin Board”, where it has South Dakota scholarships, their descriptions, deadlines, eligibility, applicable institutions, and more. You can filter the bulletin board to your student type, scholarship focuses, institution preference, and academic requirements. It even gives you someone to contact for each scholarship if there are any questions you may have.
Dakota Dreams even has a place for people to submit requests if they would like a scholarship opportunity posted on the page that they don’t already have available. There is a submission form under the “Post Scholarships” headline. They also have more opportunities on their website like; college prep checklists, career exploration, high school graduation requirements, college readiness, dual credit information, pre-college testing and more.
The third link on the School Counseling and Advising page is, Scholarship Link List, takes you to word document that has more than 20 links to scholarships. But watch out, it hasn’t been updated since 2023, so you would most likely want to use the Local Scholarships Spreadsheet instead of the link list.
The last URL will bring you to studentscholarships.org, and you have to fill out a form to get the Scholarship Newsletter PDF. This is said to be the “largest collection of scholarships on the web” stated on their website. So the opportunities with this Newsletter are vast, offering scholarships by state and scholarships specifically for women.
Scholarships are a great way to find financial support, but the spots for them can fill up fast. Jadyn Scheure said, “I think it is better to start looking for scholarships earlier in high school because so many scholarships can be given to juniors and seniors so if you start earlier there is a chance of getting more money for college.” Zoe Wick expressed that, “I think that it would be in the best interest if a person applying for scholarships starts looking in the second semester of their junior year.” Makinley also added, “I think it’s a good to be looking for scholarships early in your high school career because I know a lot of them fill up very quickly and colleges may run out of their allocated money.”
By taking advantage of these resources, high school students in the Rapid City area can gain access to many great scholarship opportunities, making it reduce the financial burden of going to college, and leaving with debt to pay. By utilizing the Rapid City Area Schools website and links, students can potentially decrease their cost of college. So, start exploring the scholarship world today, and remember that even the little scholarships count!
