Senior Sidney Grimm will be heading to Purdue University in the fall, with a full ride,  $180,000 in scholarships to date. Motivated students like Grimm have a shot at thousands of dollars in scholarships every year, partly by taking advantage of the resources offered here at SHS

Located down the hall from the main office, near the media center, is the office of student liaison Joe Huber. Being a student liaison means that Huber is a middleman of sorts between students and community resources.

Huber has been helping students apply for and receive scholarships for many years now, making him one of SHS’ most valuable resources for financial aid.

“Do the ones you feel you have a chance of winning,” Huber suggested. “Don’t do every one, and talk to somebody like me.”  

Fastweb.com, a website highly recommended by Huber, is another resource for students looking for ways to pay for college. It allows students to enter information about themselves, and find scholarships that match their information. Students might have to write essays and fill out forms to apply for these Fastweb scholarships.

Another scholarship resource offered here can be found on the school website, here. It takes students to a list of links to local websites offering scholarships of varying amounts of money. Some organizations listed include the PTA, the Streetsboro Alumni Association, and even Family Days.

A former student who took advantage of these local scholarship opportunities is Alex Hahn, current sophomore at Miami University.  

“Basically, I made a spreadsheet of all the essay requirements after making a masterlist of my credentials, achievements, etc.,” Hahn explained. “Then, I found the scholarships which had similar essays [that] I qualified for, and wrote the longest first, trimming later on for the one-page or half-page submissions. In the end, I submitted to about four scholarships, with basically the same well-written essay, and got two of them.”

Many students who apply for scholarships start by outlining their qualifications: all of their volunteer work and achievements, dating all the way back to freshman year. This makes writing essays — as well as listing information — much easier.

It would benefit underclassmen to start planning and recording these things now, for when they start filling out scholarships, and even college applications.

Huber’s advice to underclassmen is: “Get your grades up.” He said selection committees are “looking for people who set themselves apart.”

Grimm and Hahn are examples of students who sought help from the right people, and used the right resources, to then be rewarded for their time in the end.

Grimm applied for the ISR-NROTC scholarship, which pays for all of his schooling.  This is offered to students with high merit who meet all of the requirements. Grimm had to search for this opportunity and went through both physical and academic training. He also had to write an essay, which he said was a very important part of the scholarship process.  

While writing his essay, he figured out a couple things that could benefit other students as well.  

“People don’t care about what you’ve done,” he said. “They don’t care about that stuff. They want to hear about personal stories. Always give a why.”  

What matters most is telling a story about a lesson you have learned, he added.

The sooner students start working their way toward receiving scholarships, the more likely they will be to receive them. This applies to freshmen as well as seniors.