Scholarships are a great help when it comes to paying for college. But when it comes to finding the right one, many students are lost. With all of the options out there, it is hard to sort through them all.

Sometimes students can sort through scholarships with the help of the guidance counselors. The guidance office offers limitless resources to juniors and seniors preparing for college.

Mrs. Katie Lenart, the college and career readiness coordinator, says, “There are lots of different scholarships that are available. There are scholarships that come from colleges or universities. Other scholarships such as local scholarships come from your bank or place of employment. And lastly, there are the national scholarships.”

Mrs. Danielle Lensen, the student assistant coordinator, recommends students look for scholarships “on the online scholarship e-bulletin board on our website, it is broken down by different topics and different types of scholarships that students can apply for. We organize it here for the students into different categories. We also have different scholarship search databases, like ICAN, where students can do different searches for scholarships they have in mind.” (Find the e-bulletin board here.)

Mrs. Lenart also suggests that students “start small. Look at local scholarships or Wahlert scholarships first. The pool of people that apply to those is a lot smaller than a national scholarship where you’re going to have a pool of applicants that are nationwide and so you’re going to have many more applicants than you would for just a Wahlert or a local Dubuque scholarship.”

Seniors also have extra information available to them: “We feature a scholarship every Friday on the support hub,” says Mrs. Lensen.

While finding and applying for a scholarship can be difficult, there are some things that can help. Mrs. Lenart suggests that students “dedicate some time to work on scholarships. There are so many different scholarships available, and sometimes it’s just a matter of sitting down and taking the time to complete the essay or complete the application. Keep looking and keep your eyes open for ones that seem to really fit you and then apply to as many as you can.”

Mrs. Lensen agrees.  “Just keep looking and always come in here and ask questions.”