Are you a special needs student? Do you have a special needs parent? What about a special needs sibling or child? If any of this applies to you, you may be eligible for some of the unknown special needs scholarships available today. Scholarships for special needs are designed for people who have disabilities, their parents, their children, or their siblings.
One example of special needs scholarships is the Minnie Pearl Scholarship Program. This is available to a high school senior who has significant or total hearing loss, holding a GPA of at least 3.0. You must be planning to attend college as a full time student and currently be a mainstreamed student. This disability scholarship awards $2500 per year, for four years. The deadline for applying occurs in March.
If you have a learning disability, there are numerous scholarships for special needs that you can apply for. One of these is the Anne Ford Scholarship, which awards $10,000 to a high school senior who will be pursuing an undergraduate degree. The deadline for applying occurs in August of each year.
If you have a severe physical disability that requires you to use a wheelchair, you need to check out the Chair Scholars Foundation. This special needs scholarship can provide you with funds between $1000 and $5000 each year for college, and there are only about 150 applicants each year, with fifteen to twenty winning scholarships. The deadline for applying occurs in February of each year.
If you are partially or totally blind, you may be eligible for a special needs scholarship through the American Foundation for the Blind. This organization offers numerous different scholarship opportunities with different award amounts. The deadline for applying occurs in April of each year.
Regardless of what your disability is, you can find special needs scholarships that fit your situation through a variety of organizations. There are even unknown scholarships available to those who have a certain disease, such as the diabetes scholarship offered through the Diabetes Scholars Foundation, for students who have diabetes. This program awards about seventeen diabetic scholarships each year, in the amount of $5000 each. The deadline for applying occurs in May of each year.
While you will be eligible for multiple special needs scholarships that are geared directly towards your disability, you also need to apply for other types of scholarships, such as those that are awarded based on academic merit, talent, skill, minority status, or heritage. Do not assume, however, that because you are disabled you have a better chance of winning these disability scholarships. Your talents as they relate to the selection criteria will be the only thing that is considered, which is why you need to apply for the little known special needs scholarships as well. If you have more than one disability, make sure that you seek out unknown scholarship opportunities for each disability that you have. For example, if you are hearing impaired and wheelchair bound, you qualify for scholarships designed for both groups.
If you or your parents are diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) which is a desease effecting the central nervous system limiting the ability to move around normally; the National MS Society Multiple Sclerosis Scholarships will help students who have high educational college aspirations.
Google has the Google Lime Scholarship for students with a disability. Goggle and LIME want to ‘increase the number of people with disabilities in the workforce’ so by offering their little known disability scholarships to the disabled they can essentially accomplish their goal.
As you can see there are numerous unknown scholarships for special needs students offered by many places you wouldn’t think to apply to for student aid. Above are just a few examples but there are hundreds more. By contacting the organization of your disability you can best find where the special needs scholarships normally are.