November is National Scholarship Month and many students have already started looking for Spring semester scholarships.

Some students shared how important scholarships and financial aid are to them and offered some advice for finding some.

Trevor Huffman, a sophomore music performance major, talked about how his scholarships have helped him the past two years.

“Scholarships have affected my access to education significantly,” Huffman said. “As someone who comes from a family with a relatively low income, they have provided me the ability to still pursue my dreams without worrying about if I will be able to afford college.”

He also said why he believes scholarships are important because “I think scholarships, no matter what type of financial situation you or your family are in, are super beneficial for allowing everyone across all spectrums to have access to higher education. I am not going to lie; college is quite expensive nowadays. We need all of the support we can get.”

Breonna Ritchey, a freshman early education major, explained her scholarships had a big role to play in deciding which college she should attend.

“Scholarships can help decide which college you can afford to go to. They have allowed me to attend college debt free so far. I even received quite a bit of money back,” Ritchey said. “They make it so you don’t have as much debt in the long run.”

Payton Ade, a freshman double major in math secondary education and history secondary education, said scholarships help him stay on top of his grades.

“Scholarships are the best way to help pay for school and they are incentives for keeping a good grade,” Ade said. “It was not difficult to find scholarships.”

Scholarships are everywhere, students just need to know where to find them.

Ritchey said to try different ways of scholarship searching.

“Look everywhere. Many jobs have scholarships they give out. Eastern has the scholarship search page. When searching for scholarships, I found that some nonprofits also have scholarships you can apply for,” Ritchey said, “It’s not too hard to find scholarships. I applied for some with the school site as well as any scholarships that teachers told me I might qualify for. So many scholarships go unused so look everywhere.”

Huffman said that his biggest recommendation would be to do lots of researching.

“Oftentimes, I notice that there are a ton of scholarships available other than what is offered through the university that people do not know about,” Huffman said. “Just do a simple Google search and you will be surprised with what you find.”

Hannah Wallace, a freshman computer science major recommended using Eastern’s scholarship search, Academic Works.

“Apply to everything you can, even if you don’t believe you qualify for it one hundred percent,” Wallace said. “You might be surprised.”

Scholarships play a vital role in the academic success and future of many students. Searching as soon as possible can limit the amount of stress the process may cause while also ensuring you’ll be able to pay for college.

Emilee Tosh can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].