48 Receive a Combined $628,000 in Scholarships

On Friday, May 16, the Business Education and Community Alliance along with multiple St. Mary’s County Businesses and Non-Profits awarded 48 deserving St. Mary’s County high school seniors with the largest total scholarship amount ever. Out of more than 160 applicants, 48 seniors had the required skills and academic achievements to be eligible to make their trip to college a little easier on the coin purse.

In a one-on-one interview with Bob Schaller, Ph.D., Director of St. Mary’s County Department of Economic and Community Development, and BECA President talked with The Bay Net about the scholarship program.

“In addition to the ten, $1,000 scholarships BECA hands out each year, we act as a clearinghouse for many organizations with smaller scholarships to award,” stated Schaller. He went on to say that non-profits and other charitable organizations have hundreds of thousands of dollars in smaller scholarships to award each year; many of which, in the past, were not even applied for by students.

“Students concentrate on applications for the bigger scholarships,” Schaller said. “We started this program based upon one in Charles County.” Schaller stated that BECA created a common scholarship application that listed many small scholarships available from many different organizations.

“Students need to only apply once we distribute the applications to each sponsoring organization.”

In the program, each scholarship awarding organization uses the common application to determine which students deserve to receive their money and then all are invited to the breakfast to be recognized.

Schaller also stated that each fall, BECA holds its annual scholarship fair, held in November after the College fair in September. He encouraged all high school seniors and parents to attend both to help defray the rising cost of college.

This year, 48 students captured in excess of $628,000 in one-time and renewable scholarships. Students and parents interested in learning more about the program should explore the opportunities by visiting the www.smcbeca.org website.