Turn Your Badges into Big Bucks
Boy and Girl Scout Scholarships
Remember when you were young and joined the boy or girl scouts? Perhaps your first introduction into the world of scouting was as a cub scout or brownie; maybe you decided to become part of the organization later as a preteen.
Regardless, once you have an affiliation with the Boy or Girl Scouts of America, you have an opportunity to parlay that relationship into money to help pay for your higher education costs.
Regional and National Scout Scholarships
Depending upon the area of the country in which you live, you may be eligible for a number of scouting scholarships. If you are a boy scout residing in the northeast, consider applying for the Carter Scholarship Grant for New England Scouts. Applicants need to be seniors in high school and they receive $1,500 per year for their first two years of college.
On the other hand, if your home is northwest, you could try for the Cascade Pacific Council Eagle Scout Association College Scholarship, open to boy scouts of the Cascade Pacific Council who are currently juniors or seniors in high school.
There are also National Scout Scholarships granted annually of anywhere from $3,000-$40,000. These are for Eagle Scouts who are currently high school seniors, and the basis for awards is a combination of financial need, accomplishments, scouting involvement, and community activities. A more extensive list can be found here. Your local scout centers should also have applications and other information.
Nonprofit-Based Scout Scholarships
Some privately run organizations offer monies for boy and girl scouts.
If you're an Eagle Scout, you can apply for the $1,000 Frank D. Visceglia Memorial Scholarship, which is underwritten by the Association for Commercial Real Estate and the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks.
Similarly, there is an $8,000 scholarship offered by The American Legion for scouts who are part of a team sponsored by an American Legion Post or Auxiliary Unit. Their "Scout of the Year" scholarship is only given to one Eagle Scout, though three runners-up for the scholarship dollars each receive $2,000 scholarships. The Legion also offers a Girl Scout Achievement Award for female scouts who have received the Girl Scout Gold Award.
The Corinne Jeannine Schillings Foundation Scholarship offers scholarships to Girl Scout Gold or Silver Award winners who plan on majoring in a foreign language. And the Elks Foundation provides an annual scholarship to eight girl scouts of up to $6,000 (over a four-year period).
As a final example, The Order of the Arrow has the E. Urner Goodman Scholarship. Up to $4,000 is given to boy scouts who are Arrowmen and are planning a career with the Boy Scouts of America.
Religion and Ethnicity-Based Scout Scholarships
If you're involved in a particular religion or of a particular ethnic group, there are some scholarships out there you might not have heard about.
For instance, the Freeport, New York, based Eastern Orthodox Committee on Scouting offers a $1,000 scholarship as well as a $500 one to an Eagle Scout or Gold Award Girl Scout who is an active member of the Eastern Orthodox Church and has received the Alpha Omega Religious Award. They also offer one $1,000 scholarship for one scout (male or female) who is of Russian descent and involved with his or her Greek Orthodox church.
The Frank L. Weil Memorial Eagle Scout Scholarship administrated by the National Jewish Committee on Scouting is along the same vein. Eagle Scouts who have earned the Ner Tamid emblem can apply to be awarded one of three available scholarships (top prize is $1,000; the two other recipients each collect $500.)
College and University Scout Scholarships
Many higher education institutions have their own scholarships devoted to scouts. Thus, if you agree to attend their schools, you might be eligible to receive some bucks to underwrite your stay there.
- Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, is a good example, as they offer an unlimited number of $500 scholarships (renewable up to four years) for a boy scout; additionally, they provide one $500 scholarship (again, renewable for four years) to a girl scout who has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award.
- Lebanon Valley College, also in Pennsylvania, offers a similar Girl Scout Gold Reward of up to $2,000 over a four-year period.
- At Texas A&M University in College Station, TX, the University's Corps of Cadets Scholarships for Scouts are given each semester for 20 scouts who enter the Corps. Monies wind up being $500 each semester for up to four semesters.
- Syracuse University has a United Radio Service Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship Fund in Engineering which is awarded to Girl Scouts or Eagle Scouts.
- In Missouri, Columbia College offers Eagle Scouts $500 scholarships. And prestigious Stanford University offers Eagle Scouts Dofflemyer Honors Scholarships which are based only on financial need.
