Application Deadline Extension for Debra Van Horn College Scholarship

When you’re struggling to pay for college, every little bit counts.

You can cobble together FAFSA, loans, a wide variety of grants, and scholarships in order to cover your needs during the school year. With tuition and fees constantly going up, and textbooks and supplies averaging $1200 a year for a full-time student at a four-year public college students need all the help that they can get – including tax breaks – to graduate without a crippling load of debt. Low income students and students from single parent households often have the deck stacked against them in terms of financing their college educationandexpenses while they are undergraduates. My mother pushed me and sacrificed a great deal so that I could be where I am today, so I have established the Debra Van Horn College Scholarship.

This scholarship is for high school seniors accepted for enrollment for the 2016 – 2017 academic year and enrolled college undergraduates from a single-parent household. One winner will be awarded $1000 to be used towards educational expenses such as books and supplies, and tuition or other fees. You will need to be a United States citizen or national, or permanent resident, and either be enrolled or accepted for enrollment as a full-time student at an accredited institution of higher learning. You must also be an active participant in your community and at your school, and plan to pursue a career in helping others. Other qualifications and instructions for applying are available here on the scholarship’s landing page. We have extended our deadline until June 15, with the award to be given out before the start of the 2016 – 2017 academic year.

We see a lot of people come into our office in dire straits from student debt, even years or sometimes decades after graduation, and we believe in reaching out to help people improve their lives. The cost of an education should not be a career oriented to paying off loans for the education you were told to acquire in the first place. We also understand that not everyone can navigate the channels needed to reduce student debt, or even get it into something a reasonable person could understand. We can even help you to vet the student loans that you are being offered, make sure that there are no “gotchas” hidden in the boilerplate, and make sure that you are being given the best deal possible. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth several thousand dollars’ worth of cure.

I hope that as you continue your college career, you will be able to access the full benefits of the breadth of education that an institution of higher learning has to offer. The object of college is to learn skills for the future, but also the lessons of the past, and appreciation of beauty and culture. I urge you to bring that back to your community and use it to create a love of learning in others who may be facing the same hardships as the ones you will conquer.