Creative scholarships are merit based awards that tend to reward talents rather than grades. So, if you like to express your creativity, they can be a useful way to pay for college.
Many creative scholarships are for fine arts students with gifts in the visual arts. Visual arts majors are photography or design based arts like painting, graphic design or animation.
But you do not have to be a visual arts student to apply for a creative scholarship. Your artistic interests may lie in music, creative writing, dance, theater or film. It may be a hobby for you rather than your college major.
Either way, applying for a creative scholarship may be quick and simple. In fact, all you might need to do is upload a portfolio, project, photo, short video or essay.
What Creative Scholarships Can Students Apply for?
High school and college students may find many creative scholarships to show off their imagination. These types of awards are really fun to get your creative juices flowing in order to help pay for college.
Dixie Belle Paint Company Scholarship wants to help students succeed and graduate. To do this they offer a new award called the Creativity Leads to Success Scholarship. It is open to all high school, college and grad students who are also US citizens.
To apply, you fill out a quick form and write a 500 word essay that answers the question, “How does individual creativity lead to success?” There will be three winners. One grand prize of $2,500 and two prizes of $1,250 each.
Each year Arts for Life! awards $1,000 creative scholarships to 25 graduating high school seniors in Florida. Winners show their excellence in creative writing, dance, drama, music or visual art. Launched by former First Lady Columba Bush in 1999, the program has awarded scholarships to more than 500 gifted high school seniors.
To apply, you must submit a completed application, a brief essay explaining “How the arts have positively influenced my life” and a portfolio of work in one of five areas. Creative writing, dance, drama, music or visual art.
How a Creativity Scholarship Helps Pay for College?
Scholarships could cover the high costs of pursuing a college degree. Tuition, fees, housing, and other expenses may be paid for by a creative scholarship. Also, scholarships are a better alternative to a student loan.
According to the NCES, the average student loan amount for undergraduates was $7,200 for one academic year. Within the last decade, college tuition has increased by 19% on average. Public institutions tuition and fees went up by 18% compared to private nonprofit schools increased by 15%.
Since college is getting more expensive every year, you should start applying for creative scholarships today! Many creative scholarships tend to be renewable so it may help pay for college until you graduate. That means you might not have to pay out of pocket or borrow more student loans!
List of Creative Scholarships
To help you in your search, here is a list of creative scholarships to apply for. Follow the application guidelines, be mindful of deadlines and let your originality and creativity shine through!
In May of 2019, the HIV/AIDS world lost its most promising poet, advocate, author, singer and young person living with AIDS, Mary Bowman. Mary was 30 years old. Born with HIV, she lived out her experiences of growing up and living with HIV (and losing a mother to AIDS) through her art. As a young, out woman of color, she was a dynamic, vital voice for the next generation of individuals living with HIV—proud, willing to speak of her own challenges with not just her own health needs (mental health, social support) —but also a fierce advocate for other young people with HIV for whom a voice was lacking. For Mary, the arts gave her the platform and voice to channel her creative energy, her passion, her truth.
The We Art Corporation was established during the development of Jaiko Magazine, a platform for new public figures from aspects of fashion and beauty, in 2019. As the founder, Jasper. M-Jones continued the journey of discovering her purpose she sparked an idea to start a career discussion panel to educate students on the reality of the fashion and beauty industry. This idea was influenced by a contract scam she encountered at the age of 17 in exchange for her resignation.
While on Jaiko’s first magazine tour from 2019 to early 2020 she connected with the creator of L.Boyce Bridal and Beyond, LaQuoshia Boyce, whom she met at a Super Bowl fashion show in February 2019. LaQuoshia came up with the name We Art and branded the title with the colors Black, Teal, and Red.
Globalair.com is now accepting applications for the Calvin L. Carrithers Aviation Scholarship. Globalair.com is passionate about all things aviation, including helping the next generation of college students chase their dreams within the industry. This scholarship will provide $1,000 annually to four American students who are dedicated to blogging on a weekly basis about flight training, flying, school, and their interest in aviation. By partnering with students in university aviation programs throughout the United States, we wish to provide a platform for students to share their experiences, all the while training for a successful career in aviation.
We are honored to announce the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards’ Michelle Obama Award for Memoir.
In recognition of Michelle Obama’s long-standing commitment to mentorship and education, as well as her inspiring leadership in encouraging young people to discover the power of telling their own stories, this award grants a college scholarship of $10,000 to one young, promising writer.
This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are adding the Michelle Obama Award for Memoir to our program. This award is one of five creative writing awards given by Penguin Random House. Other categories include fiction/drama; the Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry; and the Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word. In recognition of the Creative Writing Awards previously being centered in New York City, the competition will award an additional first-place prize to the top entrant from the NYC area.
This scholarship will grant three annual awards. Two awards will be in the amount of $500 and one will be in the amount of $1000. You may apply for this scholarship if you are a rising junior or senior undergraduate at one of the University of Michigan campuses with a major or minor in the English Department.
Gya Labs’ Research Paper contest encourages students (under graduates, graduates, PhDs), professionals, housewives, soap makers, aromatherapists, and doctors to deliberate and put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. Participants are required to research and present historical, scientific, experiential and/or informational write-ups on essential oils. The intent of organizing this contest is to harness creativity and to disseminate the benefits of essential oils and introduce it as a therapeutic choice for those who are unaware of this plant oil.
The Immerse Education Essay Competition provides the opportunity for students aged 13-18 to submit essay responses to a pre-set question relating to their chosen subject. 10 winners will receive a 100% scholarship, with runner-up prizes also awarded. Immerse Education was founded in 2012 with the aim of providing students aged 13-18 with unparalleled educational experiences. We have educated thousands of students through our exceptional academic enrichment programmes in the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge University, University College London, and the University of Sydney. Check out our Cambridge, Oxford, London, Sydney, and Online courses.
The GHR Fellows Scholarship Program at St. Thomas is a transformational undergraduate experience for ten students pursuing careers in business. Fellows receive full-tuition scholarships to the University of St. Thomas and customized cohort programming designed to deliver impactful leadership experiences. The scholarship covers full tuition and required fees for four years (and may, pending demonstrated financial need, include grant funds that assist with room and board costs). Recipients will get a fully funded J-Term study abroad experience, a customized four-year cohort program with other GHR Fellows, individual career coaching and preparation and service learning and social entrepreneurship opportunities as well as access to C-suite business, community and university leaders.
Our Activist Artist initiative recognizes the powerful connection between human rights and artists around the world. Human rights activists come from many different backgrounds, but one of the most powerful, yet often overlooked, forces in the human rights movement are the artists.
Artists can challenge, inform, inspire, and ultimately move communities toward understanding, acceptance and change. Through diverse media, such as film, writing, theater, dance, music, painting, poetry, and drawing, artists express the raw emotions that can often provoke needed attention and action on human rights crises around the world.
As part of our Global Citizenship work, the Lantos Foundation is committed to supporting, encouraging, and recognizing the work of Artist Activists who tell human rights stories in ways that are unique, inspiring and significant.
The Activist Artist Scholarship was launched in 2020 as an annual competition dedicated to the work of Activist Artists all over the world. Students are challenged to examine the influence of an Activist Artist’s work on a particular human rights issue or create and submit their own Activist Art
Since 2020, New Hampshire students from more than 30 schools have taken advantage of this scholarship opportunity and six scholarships totaling $20,000 have been awarded.
For over 100 years, local service agencies known as special districts have kept our lights on, kept the water flowing and provided access to a multitude of services that enhance our communities.
Special Districts provide vital services like water and energy, fire protection and public safety, treatment of waste water, and garbage removal and much more. They safeguard our communities, they work arduously to keep our families healthy, and they help our states thrive.
Special Districts go beyond providing important services to their residents. The partnerships they create with members of their community have ripple effects that positively impact the entire state.
Districts Make the Difference is the statewide brand that is used to promote the message about special districts, and we want to spread this message far and wide.
