There's money out there for seniors and underclassmen ... you just gotta apply!

The seniors at my school constantly complain about the lack of viable scholarships as they get ready to move on to college. Yet many scholarship givers lament the lack of qualified applicants for their money.

What gives?

Well, the biggest thing is that many seniors eliminate themselves from consideration for scholarships simply because they never apply for ones that they figure they will never get. Additionally, many students avoid smaller scholarships, assuming their time is better spent going after the ones that are worth more money. The problem with that, of course, is that everybody else is thinking that, too, so oftentimes very few people apply for a scholarship.

Sounds like an opportunity to me! Below you will find links to a number of scholarship opportunities for student journalists in the state of Washington. Many of them receive very few applicants, and would be well worth your time to apply for. Take it from someone who has student loans -- four or five scholarships between $500 and $1,000 add up very quickly!

Take note: Some of them have deadlines that are fast approaching ...

• Lu Flannery Outstanding Journalist Award
  Amount: $750
  Deadline: Feb. 15
  Description: One journalism senior (newspaper, yearbook or broadcast) is awarded this honor, plus $750 is applied to tuition at the college of his/her choice. Advisers of all applicants must be WJEA members.
• Future Journalist of the Year
  Amount: $750
  Deadline: Feb. 15
  Description: One journalism senior (newspaper, yearbook or broadcast) is awarded this honor, plus $750 is applied to tuition at the college of his/her choice. The winner is Washington's entry into the JEA National High School Journalist of the Year competition. Advisers of all applicants must be WJEA members.
• NSPA Honor Roll
  Amount: $1,000
  Deadline: Feb. 15
  Description: The NSPA Journalism Honor Roll honors student journalists who have achieved a 3.75 or higher grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) and have worked in student media for two or more years. Additionally, seniors who qualify for the Honor Roll and submit additional information requested on the entry form are entered into a competition for one or more $1,000 scholarships. All Honor Roll inductees will receive a certificate of recognition, and a listing of all inductees into the Honor Roll will be published in NSPA's Best of the High School Press.
• Wikoff Scholarship for Editorial Leadership
  Amount: $1,000
  Deadline: Feb. 15
  Description: The $1,000 award will be given to a high school senior on the staff of an NSPA member newspaper with a minimum 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale or equivalent. In addition to the entry form, applicants must submit three published editorials and a brief recommendation from the paper's adviser.
• Seattle Foundation/Patricia Fisher Endowed Scholarship
  Amount: Varies
  Deadline: March 31
  Description: The scholarship program is open to African-American students with a serious career interest in print, photo or broadcast journalism. Awards will be made based on scholastic achievement, financial need, and commitment to journalism and to minorities. To be eligible, you must be a high school senior living in Washington State. To apply, you will need to submit a completed application, two reference letters and a school transcript. Work samples are optional, but recommended. Applicants must ask their school to send an official grade transcript directly to the scholarship committee.
• Northwest Journalists of Color Awards
  Amount: Up to $1,000
  Deadline: May 1
  Description: The Northwest Journalists of Color scholarship program provides five financial grants of up to $1,000 to Washington state high school and college students seeking careers in journalism. NJC's goal is to help motivated Asian American, African American, Native American and Latino students become journalists. Applicants must be enrolled in accredited colleges or universities(not necessarily in Washington state) or in their senior year at a Washington state high school. Past winners are eligible to reapply. This scholarship is aimed at Any Minority students.
• There also are a number of other national scholarships, which you can find here. The next deadline for any of those awards is Feb. 27; most of the deadlines are in March.

What's that? You say you're not a senior? There are other awards out there for you, too ...

• WJEA Summer Workshop Study Grants
  Amount: $250
  Deadline: To be determined.
  Description: Two or more $250 WJEA Summer Workshop study grants in journalism are awarded to students in grades eight through 11.
• Journalism Summer Workshop at Seattle University
  Amount: Tuition, room and board for the workshop
  Deadline: April 3
  Description: A hands-on camp for 14 high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors of color. Usually 10 to 12 students are selected to report/write articles and 2 to 4 for a photojournalism component. All expenses are paid. Students receive intensive instruction from journalists and university professionals. During the workshop students will interview and photograph newsmakers. After the workshop professional journalists will assist students in getting their stories or photographs published by news organizations. Students have seen their work published by Associated Press, MSNBC, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Seattle Times, Tri-City Herald, The Wenatchee World, Yakima
  Herald-Republic, the Everett Herald, and The News Tribune. College scholarships are awarded to outstanding workshop participants.
• Courage in Student Journalism Award
  Amount: Two awards of $5,000
  Deadline: July 1
  Description: The Newseum, the interactive museum of news in Arlington, Va., joins forces with the Student Press Law Center and the National Scholastic Press Association to present the Courage in Student Journalism Award. Two awards of $5,000 each will be presented. The first award is presented to a deserving middle- or high school journalist who has shown determination, despite difficulty and resistance, in lawfully exercising his or her First Amendment press rights. A second $5,000 award is presented to a school administrator who has demonstrated support, under difficult circumstances, for the First Amendment press rights of his or her school's student media. (The student journalist and administrator need not be from the same school.)

There are other awards out there too. If you happen to run across one, send it along to wjeablog@comcast.net, and we'll get it posted here.