Enjoy this conversation with a minority, first-generation college student, who is also a mom returning to college! I found her 8 scholarships worth potentially $18,000 for college (if she applies for and receives them)! Do you wanna work with me, too?
HEAD TO… calendly.com/moneyandmentalpeace and plan a FREE Scholarship Strategy Session! Enter code "LULL" in the answer box to get 20% off if you decide to hire me after the free session.
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Episode about CLEPs & testing out of classes: 148 - How I Earned a Degree for $1200! Colleges Don’t Want You to Know This Best-Kept Secret
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Get scholarships and pay for college without student loans!
Are you worried about how to pay for college? Stressed because it’s so expensive? Are you having trouble finding scholarships, or all you find don’t apply to you? Overwhelmed with all things school and money?
Welcome fam! This podcast will help you find and get scholarships, avoid student loans and maybe even graduate college debt-free!
Hey! I’m Kara, a Christian entrepreneur, amateur snowboarder, and scholarship BEAST! I figured out how to not only finish college debt-free, but I even had $10k left over in the bank after graduation. (& btw, my parents weren’t able to help me financially either!)
During school, I was worried about paying for next semester. I couldn’t find scholarships that worked specifically for me, and didn’t know how to get started while juggling homework and keeping up with ALL.THE.THINGS.
But dude, I learned there was a better way! With God’s direction, I tested out of classes, and found the perfect scholarships, grants, internships, and weird budget hacks that helped me go from overwhelmed to debt-free with $10k in the bank–all with God on my side.
... and I’m here to walk you through this, too.
If you are ready to find scholarships specific to you, learn to manage your money well, and have enough money to kill it at college, this pod is for you!
So grab your cold brew and TI-89, and listen in on the most stress-free and debt-free class you’ve ever attended: this is Money and Mental Peace.
Topics mentioned in this episode: save money, financial peace, debt-free, debt-free community, cost effective, pay for college, university, collegiate, academic, academia, Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, frugal, frugality, church coffee, Scholarships, Financial Aid, Debt-Free, Budget Tips, College Student Loans, finding scholarships, scholarship database, grants, bursaries, google it, duck duck go, ask family and friends, local businesses, church, denominations, Scholarships, Financial Aid, Debt-Free, Budget Tips, College Student Loans, CLEP, test out of classes, test out, returning student, non-traditional student, adult college student
Hey fam, welcome back to Money and Mental Peace here today with a little bit new before we've talked about clients where I've found them scholarships for college, but here I'm finding them for a mom going back to college and actually not only that, but she's a first generation student and minority student and just really wants to create a new family legacy of education and that her kids could get an education after her too, right, to be a role model, but hopefully without debt because we don't want that to follow us all our lives, really just a lot of our lives, doesn't always follow us all our lives, but just trying to do it without student loans, right? So here I help her go through finding out about her life, her life story, what she's looking at going into and then give her a few ideas and advice as coaching and then talk about what I think I can find her for scholarships, I do a summary at the end and then as you listen even farther, you know, there's technically a break in time because then I do the work to find her the scholarships and then I come back on and tell you what I found for her. So you guys should stick around, listen to the end, to hear how it all goes down and how it could be for you if you'd ever be interested in letting me find you some scholarships. All right, let's get into it. Hey girl, welcome to Money and Mental Peace. Do you want to find scholarships and avoid student loans? You find yourself googling, easy scholarships and how to pay for college. Do you feel overwhelmed with life in general that you can't even think about paying for next semester? Hey, I'm Cara and in college I too was worried if I was good at money. I couldn't find scholarships that worked specifically for me and I didn't know how to get started while juggling homework and all the things. But that changed through prayer and God's direction, I tested out of classes, learned to budget and found those perfect scholarships and even had $10,000 left over in the bank after graduation. At BTW my parents weren't able to help me financially either. If you're ready to find scholarships specific to you, manage your money well and just stop being broke. Then grab your cold brew and TA89 because class is now in session. Yes, welcome back to Money and Mental Peace. If you guys are also interested in just having a silver platter laid in front of you of scholarships that work specifically for you, you don't have to take the time to look for them, vet through them, sift through all the confusing websites. Have somebody else get your details, know exactly what you're looking for and find scholarships either related directly to your major and such or just still general ones that you are eligible for to apply to. Well, of course we're going to talk about that in this episode. You'll hear how it works. But just if you need a point person or a point, no, not person, a link for it. That's what I'm trying to say. You can head on over to calendly.com/moneyandmentalpeace. It's also in the description below. It's calendly like calendar but with an LY at the end, calendly.com/moneyandmentalpeace to plan a free scholarship strategy session completely free to talk about your plans for college and questions that you have for me to get started on this process. And if you like what you hear, if we want to work together, then you can hire me to find you scholarships for college. So calendly.com/moneyandmentalpeace and then let's get into it so you can hear how it goes down. Okay, so I actually just started school last Monday. This is my second round, I'm a mom of two, I have a nine-year-old and a five-year-old. And so I always, I tried going to school back before, during COVID and it just got really difficult so I just stopped going. So now that my youngest one started kindergarten, I was like, "Okay, I'm going to try again since I'll have more free time." How you do not even look like you're even like 20 to have two kids. So, so during this whole time, I've been working with graveyard shifts. My husband works during the day and I work during the night for five years now. So since my little one was six months old, I've been working with graveyard shifts. So I was doing the graveyard shift when I was going that first quarter and I was working three nights and it was really hard. So I was like, so this time around, I'm thinking like I want to just be done with graveyard shift and not have to do that. Yeah, absolutely. So I was just thinking like what is a way that I could pay for college, maybe have like a daytime, part-time job, but still be able to spend time with my family. Pretty much. So that's the reason I was like scholarships is a good one, hopefully it works. Definitely. Okay, I'm just going to pause and it's a writing note. Yeah, totally. I would also want to help you and encourage you that you could just do part-time and scholarships. And if you're able to find a job even at the school, no, obviously, just whatever you want to do, but just heads up, sometimes there are student jobs or just other jobs that don't require a lot of intensive work immediately that if there's laws, you can do your homework. So you could get paid to sit there and do your homework, just an idea, you know? Okay, so yeah, tell me about the college plans and the studying and the way you want to go into in school and all the things and your goals and yeah. So I'm going for, I started with, I'm enrolled for business management associates, but I was talking to my advisor and she said that our school's starting a business management accounting bachelor's degree. So I'm kind of like looking towards that. I thought I would start small just because, you know, it's something I'm a little bit older and I'm just trying to like get something done. But when she mentioned this, I was like, ooh, that sounds pretty interesting. So I'm kind of like hoping I can go into business management accounting after my associate. Yeah, that's a great degree, is this, you said associate, so a lot of times if any schools now have associates, they're usually community colleges, is that where you're or what school you're looking at? Oh, yes, I'm going to community college. Awesome. There's just a, I don't know if it's a college now because they offer bachelor's degrees. I think it's just like college. Is that right? Like now, communities only offer associates? Um, I don't know, not necessarily, they often, they often just offer associates, but sometimes there are some like select bachelors or sometimes they have connections with other schools. Like when I did my four year, I finished most of it at my community college because there was an agreement with the other universities. So it just depends. It just depends. I just, university is like four year that like a lot of people go off to and like live on campus and do all the things that's usually for like full bachelor's, you just don't hear people talk about associates as much there. So it's not set in stone and I do not know all, but that just when you had said that, it just gave me a hint that it might be in a community college. Communities, community colleges are amazing and also have you looked into any scholarships through there. A lot of community colleges have really good scholarships. Yeah, I'm going to go to a workshop today at two. Good. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And if it's currently fall, so they probably just heads up. They probably don't have any more open for this year. I mean, they might just tell you what I would usually is like, but if you can get details for like next semester or next school year, then you will be in it ahead. I mean, go for it like when I was at my community college, I pretty much paid for it just from scholarships from that college. Now when you get. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Now that doesn't always happen. And of course, universities tend to have scholarships too, but it's just the community colleges from my experience and again, I don't know all, but they're usually a little smaller. So there's less people applying for it, one set scholarship, and a lot of people don't even take the time to apply to scholarships. I hate to say it, but so just basically I'm trying to say you're doing great, like definitely go towards looking at the community college scholarships, especially if you can be there for four years and it's usually cheaper because you should be able to get a good chunk just from that. In my past understanding, I don't know about your exact school though, but basically I'm saying you're doing great, definitely go to that thing. Okay. Okay. And what are your kind of life goals from all of that and from these plans? I mean, I've seen this as like a big class on scholarships on first generation. So just pretty much being able to accomplish something that my family, nobody yet also my family has been able to do, to be able to show my children that it's possible and just kind of start a new tradition. Mm-hmm. Good for you. Yeah, definitely, and not even so the new tradition of being able to do it, but being able to do it debt-free, hopefully, right? I mean, like there's so many options out there. Now you are starting at a community college and you're starting, so probably right now are you doing your prerequisites, like general education requirements? No, so when I went that first round, I was able to get in all my prerequisites. Oh, good. Good. Okay, good for you. So right now I'm actually taking my business classes. Okay. Got it, got it, got it. Yep, that's good. I wasn't going to suggest that you could look into CLEP tests and testing out of some classes, but those are generally for like the first two years of college. I'll still send you details on that because sometimes they have some business classes that you could test out of if you already have the knowledge you don't have to go take the whole class, but you're probably already past those. I'm talking to myself. I am going to look up CLEP test episodes and we already know that some of this will be aired on the podcast, so if anyone's listening and you want to test out of classes for super cheap, instead of going through the entire class, go look up CLEP tests on my podcast. Okay. Cool. Okay. So I do have a few pointed questions and you already answered quite a few. So I might have to skip some, that, that, that. Okay. So when I look for scholarships for you, I often start with the school, but since it's October, it generally don't, and you're going to info, you know, meeting thing for coming up. So I probably wouldn't be looking at your school ones. I'd probably be looking at ones out in the world, out in the world, quote unquote, just a heads up, just because if it's already October, the school years already started, there won't necessarily be ones for this year, but you definitely should go to that meeting and look for next year, just heads up. Um, have you, thank you, have you filed your FAFSA or even know about it? Yes. And I'm waiting on that. Okay. All right. Awesome. Um, have you already applied, found or applied to any other scholarships that I should know about? Cause I wouldn't want to find you the same ones. So I was actually on this weekend and, um, this is a question I had for you. Yeah. She was, um, looking at bold.org and scholarship owl. And I actually like, um, filled out my information and I was thinking, Oh, no, are these a scam? Like, I don't know, have you heard of these pages? So those are the only two that I, um, looked at and it looks like they like have other scholarships, but then I started getting a whole bunch of emails from them. And I was like, Oh, no, was this not legit? Yeah. Okay. So to my understanding, and if anyone, if you look into this next year and it's entirely incorrect, I apologize, but to my understanding that I've looked into it as their legitimate sites and, you know, business, I don't know if they're kind of businesses, but sites that do have legitimate scholarships because I've seen it talk about like these were the winners, you know, and stuff. And if they are not asking you for like, like, don't give, if any site asks you for like your social security number, you know, don't give that. If they ask you to pay to then apply to scholarships, that's on scammy. So, um, basically don't do those types of things, but in my understanding, bold.org and scholarship out, they do have legitimate scholarships there. Um, however, I, they have new ones that are put on their website. Like if you can look at bold.org, there's, there's ones by different people, like in, in honor of their parent who had some disease and they want to, you know, give a scholarship for people who have that disease or something like that, because there's new ones put on periodically. Um, I, I'm guessing they have a vetting process to legitimize those, but I do not know the entire process of those. So hypothetically, there, there could be some questionable ones on there. Um, but I haven't been shown that they are questionable. Does that make sense? Like, because it's like people putting them on there. So what I'm trying to say is, as far as I know, it's legit. Generally, if you can apply for those, just know though, that they're more competitive because they're on these general database websites. And I do look on those and some people even really like, or, you know, enjoy those types of scholarships, but also I will look at other scholarships like recently we found several that were like from a random law firm or a random business or whatever that wants to give back to the community. Um, those seem to be less competitive because they're less, uh, seen, you know, like, less people apply to them. So if that was kind of a long answer, but does that make sense or does that bring up more questions? Um, no, no, that's, um, no, that's, that's good. Okay. All right. Awesome. Um, yeah. So let's see. Oh, yeah. And, um, have you found any scholarship so far? And if so, if it's like a lot, if you could email those to me so I don't find you the same ones. No, so I haven't, um, no, so once I started looking on there, I just was kind of like, it kind of like guided me to like the, um, so I started on, oh, you know, okay, so this is what I did. So I went on TikTok and I was like looking at scobs for videos on there. And so then that led me to the bowl.org and then from there, it led me to the scholarship out. Well, so when I was looking at them, they were, um, the wipes, but the websites are pretty confusing, um, kind of the, I thought I was applying to a scholarship on the bowl.org. But then when I got there, like it showed me a whole bunch of different, um, scholarships. So then it like led me to the scholarship out. So it just, everything was a little confusing. Sure. Sure. So I don't, I just subscribed, I'm guessing to each of these, um, websites. Then they probably send you emails about scholarships and, and that doesn't necessarily mean they're scammy, again, if something happens in the future and there's new ownership and they become scammy, then I'm sorry, but as far as I know, um, but actually what I would do and I would do stuff like that is I would use like Gmail, um, for my email because they have a promotions tab that will keep them separate from your general emails or you could even start like a, like a scholarship email to apply and get responses back because it's kind of like, it's kind of like you sign up for rewards or whatever at Walmart or whatever. And then you get promotional emails. It doesn't mean that they're not a legitimate business. It's them trying to market. Um, but definitely I'm glad that you were had like your radar up to be aware of anything being scammy because again, not putting it, don't, if it asks for like super personal information that seems dangerous to give it, you know, that's concerning. If they ask you to pay to apply for a scholarship, that sounds scammy, like, you know, just heads up. Okay, then. All right. So yeah. Um, so then it, you haven't necessarily, Oh, wait, no, I keep getting back to my question. So then you did apply for a few. No, no, you were just used to, that's great. Got it. Okay. All right. So then we'll go on from there. How old are you and when is your birthday? So I'm 29, no, 28, um, January 20th. And okay. Um, so you have a family in the situation, so you probably not live in on campus. Are you? No. Okay. And are you going full time? Yes. Okay. And is your school in a, in accredited college? Yes. Okay. I'm guessing it is, if it's just like a community or a state college, I just make it perfect. Um, all right. Can you tell me about some, any, uh, internships or jobs or volunteering you've done, basically anything that you've done as working, whether you've been paid or not, just an, I can note some of your experience. Um, I don't, I guess not really anything. Um, my husband and I, coach, um, soccer teams for the, for, um, the city, we usually, we've done it for the, we're, we, this year, am last year. That's really cool. That's definitely a community involvement and experience. That's awesome. And what about through work? What have you done for work experience? So I've just been at Amazon for five years. Okay. Yeah, I could see how you could do that work and do your podcast and whatever. I bet that, well, I don't know how it all is, but I bet that's nice. Some nights, if you want to just like listen to stuff, um, but we're going to get you out of that. Cause I know you don't want to do graveyard all the time. Um, yeah. What about any other interests, skills or hobbies, what do you like to do? Um, I like outdoor stuff. We definitely like to be involved with our kids. Um, yeah, just staying busy outdoors. Would you say, cause I, I'm aware of some scholarships around this. Would you say you enjoy like hiking or exercise or healthy living? Cause you mentioned that. Yeah. Okay. What about religion or church group denomination? If you'd care to share, um, I'm Catholic, right? And then, okay, skipping, were you ever adopted or in foster care? No. All right. And then you said, first generation college student, right? Yeah. That's awesome. Good for you. Um, do you have any sort of disability, mental, physical learning disability? No. Okay. What about illness, physical, mental illness? No. Okay. And then race, nationality and ethnicity, please. Um, Mexican? Yeah. Mexican. Yeah. And are you a U.S. citizen? U.S. resident. U.S. resident. Okay. Some ask some, okay, but checking, um, that, that, that, that. Okay. So when are we talking about scholarship deadlines by? So I can definitely look for scholarships, do like really quick, but also we usually get a lot more options if you don't mind if they're due over kind of the rest of this year or even the school year, it depends on your preference. So when are we thinking you wanting the scholarship to do by? Because, um, I can try to accommodate. It just depends on what's available. And I know you already started this year. Are we, are we looking like you need funds for the winter or spring semester or we want to just look to next year in the future? Um, kind of a little bit of everything. Okay. Sure. So then what I would say and you tell me if this is okay, I would hopefully find some do this semester, meaning potentially if you win, you would get funds for like the next semester. And also some could be due next semester for the next school year. Basically if you're okay with it, I think you're saying just all this school year, but probably not like, I'm guessing not like next summer because in the summer, you probably want to be around like your kids off and stuff. Is that? Yeah. Okay. Didn't want to be planning to take two classes in the summer. Okay. Get it out of the way. Oh, yeah. Then you could click on that. Okay. So I'm going to say scholarship deadlines now through end of school year. Yeah. Basically from what we've talked about, I have a plan forming in my mind. Okay. So I'm definitely going to be looking for, or me and my team, I have some people that help me find scholarships sometimes if I have too many interested people, but I always go through and finalize them. They're all handpicked specific to you and they're going to be related, well, I don't know if they're going to be related because sometimes it depends on what's open, but I'm going to look for them related to business, business management, first generation college student that you have done possibly local to your area. If I can find those details that you've done, some volunteering, your hard worker, there's stuff related to hiking exercises, healthy living. Sometimes there are some out there that are even like Catholic or religion related, not 100 percent, sometimes those depend on the deadlines, Mexican heritage and looking at them being due now through the end of the school year, right? And definitely I'm going to help find some ones. Now I can't guarantee that you'll get the scholarships because, I mean, for one, I don't even know if you'll apply to them, not that I don't think you're responsible, but just like, you know, I can't guarantee it if somebody doesn't apply, you know, and then also I don't know how the scholarship committee goes through and decides things, but I can definitely find stuff related to you that you would be eligible for. So I'm here for you for that. Awesome. Thank you so much. Well, well, good job to you. All the hard work and you're adorable. It's great to meet you. Oh, thank you. You too. Thanks. I'll see you later. Email for me if you have any questions. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks. Bye-bye. Wasn't that awesome? I'm really proud of her for doing this, going back to school, going to be first generation college students. So cool. Well, she's already been a student, but first gen, graduating and hopefully debt free. So let's talk about some stuff I found for her. I found a return to college scholarship for adult and non-traditional students. That's worth $1,000 as well as a scholarship that's related that's in someone's name. So which means it's more specific like it's for someone's business or their family. And if you notice, I'm not always telling you the names of all the scholarships because the person who got these, you know, I gave them to her, I wanted her to have the main chance of applying for them. So you'll have to listen to more episodes on how you can find your own or do it with me. But that one was worth $1,000 coupon birds scholarship was worth $1,500, which is pretty cool, who doesn't like to save money and have coupons. There's another one I had found that was a minority first generation scholarship and it was worth $10,000. So why not apply for that one, right? There was one I had found specifically a scholarship for business students that was worth $1,000 as her interest to go into that with management and possibly accounting in the future. There was a STEM scholarship, which is interesting because normally STEM is scholarship technology engineering and math, right? But apparently this one is for STEM and business students. So don't always pass up a scholarship opportunity that looks like it's not quite for you. It's often good to read the fine print or ask somebody who told you about it. So this one is a STEM scholarship, but also for business students is worth $2,000. I found another one. It was interesting. It was from an excavating company, which is super random, like a heavy equipment parts excavating company. But it was a scholarship because they want to help students. Basically you answer an essay question and let's see if I can find it. Yeah. If you could have any job in the world, what would it be and why? Like, what does this have to do with bulldozer parts, excavator parts, loader parts, you know, planning heavy equipment, but they want to give back and they're just, they gave a general question. So again, this is an example of one that's like not 100% specific to her actual, like every single detail about her life, but she qualifies for. So I had found it for her to do that one was worth $500. Don't skimp out on the $500 ones because just the fact that it's less sometimes less people might apply for it and thus then you have more of a chance. And also you can get so many books for college with $500, so to say them. There was another one. The last one was for mental health, mental health and recovery related. So particularly with this group, they've talked about addiction and recovery and they just want to assist college students in achieving their goals. And it's talking about understanding with college and binge drinking and writing an essay related to that and winners could receive $1,000. And even this one had a runner up that you could receive 250. So again, if you're like, just try if you don't feel like you find out about a scholarship and it's doing like three hours and you're like, well, normally I want more time to think about it before I write it, you know, and do other things, but I just, I want to just apply for it. I still apply for scholarships because sometimes you might be the runner up or in $250 or whatever else. So all that together is how I found this very sweet, ambitious, loving mom, first generation minority college student, $18,000 in scholarship opportunities that she could apply for and hopefully receive. And if you would like to do the same, remember, there's just a step for free call to talk about what you're doing and how I could help you find scholarships related to you for college. Head on over to calendly.com slash money and mental piece. I've actually had quite a few clients recently, but currently this week there's a little lull in between people and then I think it'll be getting busy again. But every once in a while, you get a little lull, you know, between an influx of clients and finishing client, a client right now, but there's like not anyone scheduled for the rest of the week. So how about the first one who can, I'm just making this up, like I didn't even plan this. I didn't even not. I didn't even plan this, but I want to help you out. So the first one who listens to this episode and signs up on calendly and in the question part of the answer, you can put the word l-u-l-l and I'll give you 20% off. Literally this is not in the notes. I just plan this. Okay. So go get 20% off. What I mean is it's a free call, absolutely free call, but if you end up wanting to hire me after that free call, after we go through questions, concerns, all your details, I'll give you 20% off. Well, that was fun. I'm the business owner. I can make these things up. Huh. It's kind of freeing. Okay. That was not planned. I love you guys. Have a great rest of the day. Turn on over, plan a call with me, and until next time, bye! [MUSIC PLAYING]
