How to Build a Scholarship Culture in Your High School

As a high school counselor, you probably don’t need another person reminding you how much is already on your plate.

You are helping students with schedules, college choices, career plans, personal challenges, applications, financial aid, and about a hundred other things that seem to find their way to your office.

So why add scholarships to the list?

Because helping students find scholarship money doesn’t have to become another huge program. In fact, it can become part of the everyday culture of your school with a few simple, consistent steps.

Walk into almost any high school and you’ll find a small group of students who are already hunting for scholarships. They are motivated, organized, and probably have parents helping them along the way.

Then there are the rest of the students.

Many of them assume scholarships are only for straight-A students, athletes, or the few students who win the big national awards. Some simply don’t know where to start.

That is where you can make a tremendous difference.

A strong scholarship culture helps students see scholarships as something that they can pursue, not something reserved for someone else.

Here are some simple ways to make that happen.

Start Talking About Scholarships Before Senior Year

By the time many students hear about scholarships, they are seniors staring at deadlines.

That’s a tough time to start.

Instead, introduce the idea early. Freshmen and sophomores don’t need a 45-minute scholarship presentation. Sometimes five minutes is enough.

Mention a scholarship during a freshman seminar. Share an opportunity in a sophomore homeroom. Put a scholarship reminder in the school newsletter.

The message is simple:

“Scholarships are something you can start thinking about now.”

When students hear that message year after year, it becomes familiar. By the time they reach junior and senior year, applying for scholarships doesn’t seem quite so intimidating.

Put Scholarship Information Where Students Will Actually See It

You may already have scholarship information available.

The problem may be that students don’t know where to find it.

A scholarship list hidden on a webpage isn’t much help if students never visit the page. An email sent once in October can disappear in an inbox before lunch.

Find a place students already look.

It might be a bulletin board, weekly announcements, a school newsletter, a counseling office webpage, or the school’s social media.

Then keep it current.

You don’t need a fancy display. You just need something students can count on.

A simple scholarship announcement every week can do more than a beautifully designed webpage that nobody remembers to visit.

Celebrate the $500 Scholarship

When a student wins a $50,000 national scholarship, everyone notices.

And they should. That’s a tremendous accomplishment.

But don’t overlook the student who wins $500 from the local Rotary Club.

That $500 scholarship may be much more encouraging to the average student.

Why?

Because they can see themselves doing it.

If students only hear about the superstar who earned a massive scholarship, they may think, “That’s great for them, but I’m not that kind of student.”

Celebrate all scholarship winners.

Put their names in the announcements. Share their stories in the newsletter. Recognize them on your scholarship bulletin board.

A $500 scholarship is still $500 that doesn’t have to be borrowed.

And when students see their classmates winning scholarships, they begin to think, “Maybe I could do that, too.”

Let Students Tell the Story

Sometimes the best person to encourage a student is another student.

A counselor telling a sophomore, “You should apply for scholarships,” can sound like one more assignment.

A senior saying, “I applied for this scholarship and won $1,000,” is different.

Invite scholarship winners to share their experiences.

It doesn’t have to be a formal presentation. Give a student five minutes in a classroom. Record a short video. Ask them to write a few sentences about what they did and what they learned. Even a short video of a graduate from your high school who won a scholarship can go a long way in motivating other students to apply for the same scholarship.

Students want to know things like:

• Where did you find the scholarship?
• How much time did it take?
• What did you write about?
• Did you think you would win?
• What would you do differently?

Those real-life answers can take some of the mystery out of the process.

Don’t Make the Counseling Office Do It All

This is especially important.

If every scholarship question, announcement, essay, and deadline must go through the counseling office, you’re going to run out of hours long before you run out of students.

Instead, get other adults involved.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated.

An English teacher can spend one class helping students work on a scholarship essay.

A homeroom teacher can read a 30-second scholarship announcement.

A teacher can mention a local scholarship that fits students in a particular class or activity.

You don’t need to train the entire faculty to become scholarship experts.

You simply need more adults helping students realize that scholarship opportunities exist.

When students hear the message from several people in several places, it becomes part of the school’s culture rather than just another counseling-office announcement.

Look for Scholarships Right in Your Community

National scholarship websites can be helpful, but don’t overlook the opportunities sitting in your own backyard.

Local businesses, civic clubs, churches, foundations, professional organizations, and community groups often want to help students.

Sometimes they simply haven’t been asked.

As a counselor, you may be in a unique position to connect those organizations with deserving students.

A local business might be willing to offer a $1,000 scholarship to a graduating senior. A civic club may want to help students from your community attend college. An organization may even be interested in creating a scholarship specifically for students at your school.

These scholarships can feel different to students.

They’re local. They’re personal. And students aren’t competing with thousands of applicants from across the country.

Sometimes the best scholarship opportunity is the one that’s right down the road.

Give Parents a Way to Help

Don’t forget about the parents.

Many parents want to help their children pay for college but aren’t sure where to begin. Some may have never gone through the college process themselves.

They may not know when to start looking for scholarships. They may not understand the difference between a scholarship, grant, loan, and work-study program.

You don’t have to teach a college-financing course to help them.

Give them small pieces of useful information.

Put a scholarship reminder in the school newsletter. Highlight one scholarship in a monthly email. Mention scholarship planning during a parent meeting or back-to-school night.

The goal is to get parents talking about scholarships at home.

A short message from you may turn into a conversation around the kitchen table:

“Have you looked at scholarships yet?”

That’s a pretty good conversation to have before senior year.

Keep Track of What Works

If you find something that works, write it down.

It sounds simple, but this can make a big difference.

Keep a shared record of scholarships students have received. Note how students found the opportunities. Keep track of which announcements, events, or strategies resulted in students applying.

That information becomes valuable over time.

If you leave, another counselor can pick up where you left off. If a new counselor joins the staff, they won’t have to start from scratch.

And when you ask your administration for more time or support, you’ll have something much better than, “I think this is helping.”

You’ll be able to say, “Our students earned this much scholarship money, and here’s what helped make it happen.”

Numbers get people’s attention.

You Don’t Have to Build a Huge Program

Building a scholarship culture doesn’t require a new department, a big budget, or another complicated program.

It starts with small things.

1. Talk about scholarships earlier.
2. Keep opportunities where students can see them.
3. Celebrate every scholarship, not just the impressive ones.
4. Let students hear from other students.
5. Get teachers involved.
6. Connect with local organizations.
7. Keep parents informed.
8. And keep track of what works.

None of these things has to take a tremendous amount of your time.

But when you do them consistently, something begins to change.

Students stop thinking, “Scholarships are for other people.”

They start thinking, “Maybe there’s one out there for me.”

And that’s when you’ve built more than a scholarship program.

You’ve built a scholarship culture.

For a counselor, there may be no better reward than watching a student walk across the graduation stage knowing that a little less of their college education will have to be paid for with borrowed money.

Sometimes a $500 scholarship doesn’t look like much on paper.

To a student and family trying to pay for college, it can mean a lot.