by Jack Roviere

Created on: October 21, 2007

As a minority student, I am particularly thankful that there are so many options for minority students to finance their education. However, as the saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch, and this is still true when finding sources of scholarships, grants, and the like..

Firstly, the PSAT with its National Merit Scholarship program is the number one examination for anyone, minority or not, hoping to finance their university expenses. By scoring highly enough on this exam in junior year of high school, a student essentially can earn a free ride to most public schools and some private schools for this national achievement. For minority students, there are similar opportunities straight from the PSAT exam. Both the National Achievement Scholarship program (targeted towards black students) and the National Hispanic Scholarship program are specific programs for minorities to distinguish themselves to corporate donors or to colleges directly for funds.

However, there are other scholarships not tied directly to the PSAT that are available. For example, many corporate entities are very interesting in the best minority students studying their related fields, so they offer scholarship programs to entice these students to consider these majors. For example, one of the major partners of the United Negro College Fund is the Bill and Melinda Gates, who specifically target NOT ONLY African Americans but also American Indians, Asian Americans, and Hispanic American students who are interested in education, public health, the science, and especially engineering-fields where minorities are currently underrepresented. The United Negro College Fund, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, and the American Indian Graduate Center each offer portals to many different groups that are each offering scholarships to those target demographics.

Furthermore, consider that historically minority-founded or minority-driven sororities and fraternities may offer scholarships, either to the family of its members or simply to its historic demographic.

In short, today there are more resources than ever to help minority students. All that it takes is a student willing to put the time and effort willing to be competitive. Performance will be rewarded.

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