CRAWFORD COUNTY — The Community Foundation for Crawford County has announced that its scholarship applications for the 2020-21 school year are now open and available on their website at www.cfcrawford.org/scholarships. They are encouraging anyone looking for free money for college to start now.

“The holiday break is a perfect time for students to start applying for scholarships,” said Lisa Workman, the foundation’s president. “While the Foundation’s scholarship application deadline is March 2, 2020 at 5 p.m., some of the first scholarship deadlines students will see are as early as Dec. 31, 2019.”

The Foundation currently holds 32 different scholarship funds which will generate approximately 90 scholarships for the coming year ranging from $500 to $3,500. In addition, approximately half of those scholarships permit non-traditional students to apply, meaning students who have been out of high school for one year or more, students entering their second, third or fourth year of college, or students in graduate school. Students planning to attend an accredited trade school are also eligible to apply for many of the available scholarships.

“We currently have nine funds, which generate approximately 55 scholarships, that are renewable as long as the student reapplies and is chosen as a winner for additional year(s),” said Amy Vaughn, thefoundation’s program and office manager. “Some are even renewable for as long as the student is in school, including graduate school.”

Although each scholarship has its own set of unique requirements which applicants may check out on their website, the online applications are set up to make it easy for the applicant to apply to all eligible scholarships with just one application. The only exceptions to that rule are the scholarships with multiple or open deadlines throughout the year: the Pry Scholarship, the Samuel Neff Fellowship for International Study Scholarship, and the Come Home Scholarship.