17 bizarre scholarships: YOU may qualify
By Paul
Bannister • Bankrate.com
Calling all Klingon speakers, duct-tape fashion designers,
duck callers, ghost hunters and woolen garment makers: Thick wads
of scholarship money are waiting for you.
Endowment funds are waiting to be claimed by everyone
from golf caddies to pagans. There's cash for the tall, the short,
the fat and the determinedly nonathletic.
Would-be college kids with extremely specific skills,
talents or qualifications can find scholar dollars, and it seems
that the crazier your interest, the better chance you have!
Here's a look at some of the quirky, odd and specialized
virtues that will be rewarded with college cash, chosen by publisher
Dr. Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.com,
and Baird Johnson, vice president of FastWeb.com,
two leading Web sites free to students looking for ways to finance
their educations.
You can cash in if you:
Look Ducky at the Prom.
The makers of Duck Tape brand duct tape hand
out cash to the best-dressed couple at a high school prom -- if
they're wearing duct tape costumes or accessories. Originality and
workmanship are taken into account, and even the students' school
can pocket a $2,500 prize. Send a picture.
Communicate with the other side.
Ghost hunters and others with interest in the paranormal
can spirit one of several scholarships away from the sponsors, the
New York-based Parapsychology Foundation. The authors of the right
study of the spooky or the creator of a paper on anything from life
after death to telepathic spying can qualify.
Want to go where no man has
gone before. You might need to speak Klingon. "Star
Trek" fans know the warrior Klingon aliens speak in a guttural,
spitting and barking manner, but the Klingon Language Institute's
scholarship was not claimed last year despite the fact that the
institute's motto is "Language opens worlds." (In Klingon
that's: "qo'mey poSmoH Hol." You need not even speak Klingon,
but you must be a language student and be creative. Value: $500,
in Earth money.
Are short, tall or obese.
The Little People of America (4-feet, 10-inches or shorter); Tall
Clubs International (women 5-feet, 10-inches or better, men over
6-feet, 2-inches) and the New England chapter of the National Association
to Advance Fat Acceptance all offer college funds for suitably-qualified
candidates. A short essay on being tall can pick up a fat check
of $1,000.
Are artistically spaced-out.
The SPAACSE (Society of Performers, Artists, Athletes and Celebrities
for Space Exploration) Scholarships offer $1,000 cash to high school
seniors interested in space music and space art works. You must
keep the art three-dimensional, though.
Wear milk mustaches. Got
milk money? Twenty-five SAMMY (Scholar Athlete Milk Mustache of
the Year) awards of $7,500 go to graduating high school seniors
who are the cream of their class. Skim the whymilk.com
site to see winners with their milk mustaches.
Throw southpaw. On
the other hand, left-handed students enrolled at Pennsylvania's
Juniata College can apply for the Frederick and Mary F. Beckley
Scholarship, to palm a $1,000 handout.
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