You know how I’m always telling you that you need to apply for as many scholarships as possible, because it’s a numbers game? And the more you apply for, the more you will win? Well, Zachary Freeman is a living, breathing example of this. I just read a great profile piece on him in the Tennessean.
Zachary had been banking on an athletic scholarship when he got injured playing football in high school. He needed to change his game plan, so he got busy applying for academic and other leadership-type scholarships. In less than a year, he put together over $70,000 to help pay for his undergraduate degree in finance at the University of Tennessee. Pretty impressive, huh?
And, while he is only a college freshmen, he is already searching for scholarships now to pay for his graduate degree. Now that’s what I call planning ahead!
If you want to learn about Zachary’s awesome success story with college scholarships, check out his new website Free Money Please (love that title!). He’s written a book, called the Ten Step Guide to College Financial Aid (sounds like a winner) and he also has a blog on his website, where he regularly shares his ideas and inspirations for scholarship seekers.
I especially enjoyed his half-rant, half-motivational speech about finding scholarships in an economic downturn.
Okay, so I am fed up hearing about people who think that there isn’t free money to be had. I can’t tell you how many times people have told me that they can’t get any money because ”Nobody is giving any away right now”. To those people I say “The heck they aren’t!”
I love this story that Zachary tells about a Nashville, Tennessee foundation that gave out 81 scholarships this year. I don’t know which one it is, but according to Zachary, “every single one of them was $10,000 [and] 70% of their applicants got scholarships.”
Now those are some pretty impressive stats! I think this young man’s heart is really in the right place, when he says:
It makes me sad to think about people running their financial future into the ground, which is why I really want to encourage you to just look around for the free money. It’s not incredibly difficult to find, and it never costs you more than a postage stamp to apply for.
I completely agree, and that’s why we post our bimonthly Scholarship Friday scholarship announcements – to show you that, YES! There are lots of scholarships out there that don’t require you to be a star football player, a violin virtuoso, or even an academic powerhouse. Regular people like you and me – and Zachary Freeman – can win scholarships to pay for school, so we don’t have to get buried under the weight of student loans.
Do you have a scholarship success story you would like to share with Financial Aid Finder readers? Whether you have won $700 or $70,000 like Zachary, your hard work and success are an inspiration to all! Please submit your success stories to us via email and we will consider featuring them on the blog.