Shayla Price: The $100,000 Scholarship Queen
Shayla Price
Earning money for college has become an art form for Shayla Price who began her journey at the age of 18 searching for a way to pay for college, and ended up as a college and career prep adviser helping students across the country make their dreams come true.
Though her quest for scholarship money began with a goal of raising enough money to attend Xavier University in New Orleans, she enrolled there initially and is now a student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. She is studying marketing with a concentration in sales. Price is also earning a certificate in nonprofit administration from Louisiana State University in Shreveport.
“At the time, Xavier University was $20,000 a year,” Price says. “I began in my junior year of high school looking for scholarship sources, including the internet.”
While other students were out having fun, Price took the initiative and started looking for ways to pay for her postsecondary education through the internet. After many nights of staying up late and filling out applications, she managed to receive more than $100,000 in scholarships.
“I spent four to five hours a day looking for scholarships that applied to me,” she says. “Even though it took much of my time, I dedicated myself to scanning through hundreds of web sites. It became a part-time job for me. After school, I would do my homework, and then search for money on the internet until I was sleepy. The next day, I would do it all over again. I knew my work was going to pay off in the future.”
Price won scholarships ranging from $100 to $40,000 – receiving 80 percent of the scholarships she applied for. However, the biggest challenge was composing essays about extracurricular activities. Price said one of her secrets was making sure her scholarship applications included the types of details organizations and companies were looking for.
“You have to really capture your audience,” she says. “If you’re involved in an organization you have to do more than just list it. You have to tell them the causes it supported, and what you did to benefit someone else. You have to tell them how much money you raised. Tell the whole story.”
Her efforts have not gone unnoticed. Students and parents alike want to know her secret. She has written a book titled, “The Scholarship Search: A Guide to Winning Free Money for College and More” to help other students achieve success.
She is dedicated to getting students out of debt, and helping them to consider scholarships and grants instead of student loans. Even on campus, she is involved in guiding fellow classmates in search of funds and advice.
Her scholarships pay for her tuition, books and off-campus housing for her college career. Price has goals of working in communications and public relations. She has interned at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Children’s Defense Fund. She said her goal is to merge her enjoyment of educating people with entrepreneurship.
Uncovering the secrets of winning scholarships has its own rewards. They include being featured in 10 national magazines, including Teen People, Seventeen, Black Enterprise and Better Homes and Gardens, before she was even 21-years-old!
Price appeared on BET’s “The Center,” a national television show targeting teens and young adults, and was a speaker at the 2006 Essence Music Festival. She was interviewed by talk-show host Tavis Smiley and was featured in the book, “Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur’s Guide to Launching a Multimillion Dollar Business” written by Randal Pinkett, Ph.D., Donald Trump’s Season 4 The Apprentice winner. She has also been proclaimed a Louisiana Young Hero by Governor Kathleen Blanco.
Her recent accomplishments include leading a scholarship workshop with Tavis Smiley’s Leadership Institute for middle and high school students, as well as writing a column for universitychic.com.
Price has committed herself to helping other students accomplish their goals of a college education. “It is very important for students to know that they can attend college, despite financial hardships,” Price says. “My goal is to provide students with the necessary tools to make their dreams of attending college possible.”
Shayla Price is a resident of Thibodaux, La., who started her quest for scholarships through searches on Google. Now, her name is among those well searched as other students attempt to capture dollars for college.
Price offers the following advice to maximize your chances of securing scholarship options:
*Apply for every scholarship possible. The more you apply, the better the odds are of winning.
*Get help. No one can do everything alone. Get advice.
*Dedicate yourself. Make it a habit to work on your search for scholarships.
*Never give up. Believe in yourself. If you believe, you will achieve.
For more information, visit www.shaylaprice.com.