Letter from the Co-Founder: Access Scholarships is on a Mission to Financially Support Higher Education Students in Need

Ayden Berkey
3 min readFeb 25, 2021

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According to a June 2020 OneClass poll of over 10,000 college freshmen, sophomores, and juniors from 200+ colleges and universities across the US, well over 50% of students say that they can no longer afford the cost of tuition.

This statistic, unfortunately, comes as no surprise. Coupling the years of rising college costs with the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic (namely, those spikes in unemployment), students and their families alike have had to severely change their courses of action when it comes to figuring out how to pay for school.

This is where the support comes in.

Access Scholarships, my 100% free-to-use scholarship search engine and student resource platform, is dedicated to providing some much-needed financial support to as many students in need as possible.

How might we be going about accomplishing this?

The answer is simple.

I am proud to announce the Access Scholarships Higher Education Fundraiser. Through March 31st, we will be accepting charitable contributions, with 100% of the proceeds going towards high school, college, and graduate school students who are struggling to pay for school.

My goal is to raise $5,000. With this money, Access Scholarships would be able to distribute $500 to 10 students. If we can raise more than $5,000, the number of students we can help increases exponentially.

So, whether this cause resonates with you, or you are just feeling generous, I would greatly appreciate any support you can provide in helping me to meet (and hopefully exceed) my goal of giving back to these students. No amount is too big or too small!

If donating isn’t in the cards for you, but you want to still play a part, consider sharing my fundraiser with your family, friends, and community. The more we can amplify the cause, the more likely we will be to reach our goal.

Now, onto the flip-side.

If you’re a student, and you’re experiencing financial hardship, it is likely that you have already begun or are familiar with the process of applying for scholarships.

You may be wondering how you can get involved in potentially earning a slice of this money pie that I am working to earn and distribute.

Access Scholarships currently has a no essay scholarship which is awarded to one lucky student by random drawing each quarter of the year. The next deadline for our scholarship is March 31st.

When you enter into our scholarship drawing for this cycle, not only will you be in the running to win the normal $1,000 scholarship, but you will also be considered to win a fraction of the money that is raised through my GoFundMe.

Talk about feeding two birds with one scone (more scones for me!).

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