As an art student, more scholarships and contest opportunities are available than the average high school student. In the Creative Writing department the directors Mr. Capley and Mrs. Austin introduce Creative Communications, a writing competition that offers the opportunity of being published and winning money, to their students.

The arts is popularly considered to be an unsure path. Student scholarships help students economically in colleges. Scholarships targeted toward the arts can include, music, creative writing, drawing, and dancing. The Terry Crews “Creative Courage” Scholarship offers a prize of $20,000 to a talented student that submits a link of an original art piece. The art piece can be anything, from paintings to photography, with an explanation of 75- 320 words.

The deadline is on January 12, 2022. Artists can find this scholarship on bold.org. Another website that can aid student artists in looking for scholarships is Scholarships360.org. Once signed in, the website will allow the student to search by category and and give a brief run down of each scholarship. It also provides the links to each place you can find the scholarship, which can sometimes be on their same page.

Schools also provide resources to find scholarships. In OCSA, the college counselor, Ms. Gill, has provided valuable scholarship information for kids of all ages and high school grade levels, especially upperclassmen. “Juniors and Seniors can check on Xello under College planning section, which is our college and career platform.”

According to Ms. Gill, the most popular scholarship for the Arts is the Young arts Scholarship program. The program is very competitive, for more information, check out their website, Apply to the National Arts Competition | YoungArts.  A place that students can check regularly for scholarship opportunities is Unigo.com.

Some advice Ms. Gill thought to be important was “Keep a portfolio/recording of your work in the event the scholarship requires samples of your previous work. The bigger the scholarship amount, the more requirements there will be.” Ms. Gill will always be available for scholarship information. Students can scan the QR code, found in most classrooms to schedule a meeting with her.

Scholarships change lives. It is important to stay informed of the opportunities around.