LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Parents, your college-bound students can apply for scholarships to help cut down the cost of college year-round.
Shelby Benzing, 19, of Reno is super excited to be part of the Nevada Wolf Pack.
“I always had the dream of going to UNR, since I was a little girl,” Benzing said.
Benzing is resilient and does not let cerebral palsy stop her from pursuing her dreams. She won the Overcoming Disability Scholarship listed on the ScholarshipOwl platform, to help pay for tuition.
The platform’s director of student advocacy, Jennifer Finetti said more students need to be resourceful like Benzing.
“We just did a survey with over 9,300 students, 92% of them say they won’t have enough funds to go to college this term,” Finetti said.
She also said that the first thing every college-bound student should do is fill out a FAFSA, Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Finetti said students may qualify for federal and student grants that they don’t have to pay back.
Scholarships can help cut down on tuition as well. You can apply for them year-round and do it for free just by searching them on Google. However, Finetti said the ScholarshipOwl platform matches students with scholarships, and every time a student applies for one the platform automatically looks for other scholarships that are similar.
“You can repurpose documents, or rewrite an essay on a similar topic where you might just be able to make minor changes with the essay. There is a lot of interesting things with technology tools to make it faster and easier for students to apply for scholarships,” Finetti said.
Benzing is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in graphic design at UNR. She secured $3,000 worth of scholarships for the fall.
