Scholarship Your Way To Success! (Episode 6)

Discover hidden funding secrets for college and continued education with TEDx speaker and scholarship expert Denise Thomas. Learn game-changing strategies to graduate debt-free as Thomas exposes overlooked scholarships, grants, and financial opportunities that most families never hear about.

Get expert insights on:

• Little-known scholarship opportunities beyond traditional academic awards
• Step-by-step strategies for maximizing financial aid packages
• Alternative funding sources most guidance counselors don't mention
• How to stack multiple scholarships and grants effectively
• Common mistakes that cost students thousands in potential funding

Thomas shares insider knowledge gained from helping countless students secure full funding for their education. Whether you're a high school student planning for college or a parent navigating the financial aid maze, this episode reveals proven pathways to debt-free education.

Essential listening for college-bound students, parents, guidance counselors, and anyone looking to pursue higher education without the crushing burden of student loans. Learn why student debt isn't inevitable and how to access the funding that's already waiting for you.

To learn more about Denise Thomas, please click on the link below.

https://www.getaheadoftheclass.com/

Her Book: 

How to Go to College Debt Free A Guide to College Acceptance and Scholarships: How to Find Scholarships K Through College 

Click below to receive her 

12 Winning Scholarship Secrets!

Transcript

Welcome to Mindshift Power podcast, a show for teenagers and the adults who work with them, where we have raw and honest conversations. I'm your host, Fatima Bey, the mind shifter. And welcome. In today's episode, we're gonna be talking about student debt and how we can get away from it. So on today's episode, we have on Denise, and Denise is a TEDx speaker.

She's from Florida. She is she has designed a strategy that has won her two homeschools teens 17 scholarships totaling more than a hundred $99,000 for four years of college debt free with cash left over. I think that is so awesome. Welcome, Denise. How are you today?

Hey, darling. I am so excited to be here to share this with your audience. I'm excited to have you. I can't wait to get this conversation going because I believe very strongly in in what you do and and how you're helping people. So you own something called get ahead of the class.

Tell us what that is. Get Ahead of the Class is my company, and what we do is we work with families to help them figure out ways of sending their kids to college, to higher education without sacrificing whatever investments or income the parents have and also without the teenager, the young adult, having to go into ridiculous amounts of debt for literally decades. The truth is there there's so many truths and mindset shifts that have to happen in order for this to happen. Number one, not everyone needs to go to college. I firmly believe that somewhere along the lines of three decades ago, someone said everyone must have a college degree in order to be successful in life.

Mhmm. And that is so not true. And so from that premise, I believe that that is why today, we have seventy percent of our population with a college degree. Whereas three decades ago, it was just the opposite. Only 30% had a college degree.

And trust me, everybody was doing just freaking fine. So, you know, whoever came up with this and look, I'm one of these people that says follow the money. Mhmm. I would be willing to bet that when it comes to following the money, that whoever created that study that says everyone has to have a college degree, somewhere down that trickling of following the money, there are colleges that are high priced that were involved in that study. There just had to be because it's a ridiculous premise.

Because what we have today is a bunch of college educated people that are serving coffee at Starbucks. Amen. You're so right. Completely unnecessary. % right.

Yeah. I agree. So I'm I'm really doing my best to share with the people in The United States how is it that we can make a change. A, like I said, you don't have to have a college degree if that's not something that is required, by your your lifetime skills and what it is you wanna do for your career. But in addition, those who do want to go to college, there are so many different things and ways of doing this without going into decades of debt.

And it's not just the kids that end up in debt. The parents end up in debt. We hear, what, about every couple of years when it's a political football about student debt. Problem with that is that they talk about it, but they don't tell you that the kids, teenagers, can only get a very small amount of student loans without a cosigner. So all this oh, we have tens of thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt.

Well, guess who's cosigning for that puppy? Either mom and dad or grandma and grandpa. And how is that gonna affect their retirement? Because I can promise you, Johnny and Susie are not planning to support their parents in their retirement years because the money ran out. So it's really something we have to go back and think about.

You know? We we we need the trades, and our trades are suffering right now because of this false premise that everyone needs a college degree. You are a % right, and that's something that, you know, I I run around and and do workshops and speak at high schools and work with high school students in different capacities a lot, and absolutely love it. One of the things that I I try to to speak on is what you just said. There are other there are other careers out there that actually don't require a college degree, and you make the same amount of freaking money, like mechanics.

There's different kinds of mechanics, but mechanics makes really good money. They do need to go to trade trade school. They do need extra, you know, they still need continued education, but it doesn't have to be in the form of college. Right? And certainly not the kind of money that it takes to get the college degree.

And even if you look at it this way, because people don't usually think about this. When you're going to trade school, a, that's a short term. It might be two years. But usually, you can still get a job and start making some money and start investing in your own retirement even at that young age. But when you're in college, the vast majority are not working and making good money.

So they have to put off starting their life and saving at least four to six years. Whereas the person coming out of high school going into the trades, they can be starting right off the bat, and they're already financially ahead of those who are getting the college degree. So it's not a requirement. As you said, a mechanic has the same potential income possibility as a mechanical engineer. You just have to choose what is best for you.

Right. Right. And so many people are just jumping to college because that's what their parents are telling them that they're supposed to do. As you said, you know, before, that's that's been kind of pounded into our head and and made a part of a culture. Oh, yes.

You you must you must put money into the industry that we own. You know, you could say the same thing about oh, other industries like pharmaceuticals, but that's another con another conversation. But, it really to me is kind of the the the, the same thing. Now is there let me ask you this question because I know that since we're talking about trades, there are gonna be teenagers who are listening right now. They're gonna wonder this for themselves.

Is there money out there for people who are not going to college, who are going to trade school, want to become an entrepreneur, start their own business, or or going to a gap year program. Is there money out there for people like that? Yes and no. There the the money is mostly for higher education Okay. Which does include trades because that is past high school.

Mhmm. If you look if you look at the mountain of money that's available, and it is a mountain, there's 1,800,000 scholarships given away every year, totaling more than $23,000,000,000 with a b. Wow. The vast majority is for high school seniors. So if you look at it like a mountain, if you you look upside down v, it's a mountain.

The very top, the most available are for high school seniors going into college the very next year. You come down one side of the mountain, I kid you not, scholarships for college begin in kindergarten. What? Uh-huh. Yeah.

I had to pause for that because I knew that was coming. They do begin in kindergarten. There's only one or two. And as you come up that side of the mountain, there are about 20 or so available for 13. Then there's a few hundred or so available for early high school, freshman, sophomore, and junior year.

Then you get into literally millions available for seniors. And now let's come back down the other side of that mountain. The other side of that mountain are current undergraduate college students. And then a little further down, you have professional school, maybe grad school, medical school, law school. There are scholarships for that as well.

Oh, okay. And, yes, even at the other end of that spectrum, there are scholarships for trade school and for community college or junior college. But just as with younger ages, elementary school, there's just not as many available. But, yes, there there is definitely money available for the trades. As far as money's available for other endeavors, whether you wanna become an entrepreneur or, as you mentioned, maybe a gap year to figure out what you wanna do or a gap year to go on a mission field or something.

That would be more getting involved in some personal ways of bringing in that money versus, an organization that has already gotten that figured out. Okay. Well, thank you for, clarifying that. Let me ask you another question. Let's say we have a a situation, and I know of someone where this is the case, for her.

You have someone who in a situation where I know a young woman who doesn't their their mother their their biological mother reigns in 6 figures. So it's difficult for them to get funding otherwise, but she's not actually involved or living with her mother. But on paper, this is what, you know, this is what she has, and it it really harms her greatly when it comes to getting funding for for her college, and she's put it off because of it, which as we know is is not a good idea, in most cases. Would would going for scholarships work for someone like that? Absolutely.

Yeah. And and here's the thing. There are rules there are rules when it comes to, which parent or or what parents' finances are included on the financial aid forms for college. Mhmm. For example, if there's a divorce, sometimes both parents' information has to be on it.

Sometimes it's a specific parent who gives the most financial support. Some of that is gonna depend on which financial aid form we're talking about. There's actually two. Okay. The other thing to to to know as well is that for a student who is estranged from the parent, it's entirely possible to become emancipated.

Now that requires an attorney and it requires, you know, a lot of involvement. There are also check boxes if the student was homeless as of a certain point in time. Okay. So there's definitely ways of not having to put the parents' income on these financial forms. However, you can bet your bottom dollar that the federal government has seen every trick in the book.

Mhmm. They have made sure that only the most deserving families are getting federal aid or federal grants. So, basically, if if you can put food on the table, you're not gonna get a federal grant. Oh, wow. And you shouldn't because that's not the purpose.

It's not for everyone to be able to just, you know, come grab hold of some money somebody else's taxes are paying for. Yeah. It's intended for those who truly are in financial straits. However, that said, the monies available for that is not intended for you to go away to some really expensive college, private school with room and board and all that mess added. It's intended to cover your local regional university and for you to live at home while you're doing it.

It's supposed to cover, you know, maybe basic tuition, maybe tuition and fees depending, but it's not going to cover all the bells and whistles. That's not its intent. It's to get the educational portion. Now you you you talked in the beginning about how you, pretty much told us, you know, what motivated you to to get this started. How long have you been at how long have you been at this?

I've been coaching parents for at least fifteen years. I really don't, you know, like, check the box and what year was it was I started. Yeah. Me either. But I do absolutely love what I do because it brings financial freedom to these families, and it is such a blessing to me to be able to do that and give that to these families.

What I find is that the the families that win are the ones that hit the ground running. We're on the same page. We have the same goal. The goal is not to attend a college that's not going to offer you money. The goal is the money.

We just need the degree, and we need to do it with as little out of pocket money as possible. So a large percentage of my families are in that realm where they're able to have their kids go to college debt free with cash leftover. It's it's way more than the national averages because there's a reason for this. You know, we're we're on the same page. We understand what we're going for.

And if I'm having an initial conversation and a family wants to purchase the cracking the code to free college formula, but I feel like maybe the teenager's not on board. Maybe the teenager feels like, you know, everybody has college debt. I guess I'll have college debt too. Honey, that's not gonna work. Yes.

No. That's not gonna work. And there's too many out there thinking that way. And I I know this because I, again, I deal with teenagers all the time and and talk to them in high schools, and many of them do not realize what's actually out there available for them. And you can get oh my god.

You can get scholarships. I'll let you dive into this a little bit more. You can get scholarships for the the biggest and the dumbest things. 100%. Butterflies on Tuesday.

There's a scholarship for that. Yes. I'm exaggerating only a little bit. Only a little. Only a little.

But in every every state, there's different scholarships. I you know, that's it's not like there's the same scholarships in every state, and I think it's important that teen my teenage audience understands that too. Your your particular state is gonna have different details. And but what, what Denise does is across the nation. So she gives you the general tools, and then you could talk about the details within your state.

You know? Yeah. It's kinda like it's kinda like teaching a man to fish. You know, if you're film familiar with that biblical story, you know, do you do you do you give a man a fish? He's gonna eat for a day.

But if you teach a man a fish, he's gonna eat for his life. And that's exactly what I'm doing. I I have seen, I know, quote, other scholarship gurus out there who, for a very large number of dollars, are happy to curate 20 scholarships for the teenager. Okay. That's cool.

That's a drop in the bucket. What about next year? Yeah. What about next month? You know, especially when you talk about juniors and seniors, we're talking about literally, I kid you not, millions of scholarships available.

And so I wanna talk to the teenagers here for just a minute. You will lose. That's just life. Life is not full of roses. There are gonna be times that you're gonna lose.

Learn that concept now Mhmm. So that going forth in life, when obstacles come up, when there are losses, when you get dumped by a girlfriend or boyfriend, when you get laid off from a job. And notice I'm saying when, not if. These things will happen in your life. Mhmm.

And the same is true with college acceptance and with scholarships. You will lose. So what I tell my families is this, as you're applying for these scholarships, you're gonna list them in a spreadsheet, you're gonna check the box and write down the date that you applied, and you hit the send button, and then you're gonna forget about it and move on to the next one. Because that's the attitude you have to take. What's next?

Move forward. Because these scholarship organizations are not going to tell you that you lost. They will only connect with the person or persons who have won that particular round. Right. Okay?

So to make this work, you have to be willing to continually be applying for more and more scholarships. And here's the thing. I've I've seen two two things occur real frequently. Number one, I've seen parents that tell their kid, don't apply to anything under $10,000. Really?

I swear to you, I have heard that. And I'm thinking, excuse me, $500 was more than you had in the bank yesterday. I don't care how many millions you have right now. It's still $500. Yep.

Alright. Second, which I'm thinking, hey. You wanna tell your kids that? That's great. That's more for my kids.

Whatever. Just saying. You know? But, anyway, the other thing is this. There are more than 100,000 scholarships every year that go unawarded.

Unawarded meaning nobody got the prize. So why is it that nobody got the prize? Well, either no one applied for the scholarship, which does happen. Mhmm. I've actually talked with people who give scholarships who say they have to go to the high schools every year that are local and beg their kids to apply.

But a lot of people don't think they can win. They don't think they're good enough. Right. Read my lips even though you can't see me. BS.

Okay? Anyone can win these scholarships. You do not have to be a genius. That almost $200 that my two kids won, literally half of it did not ask for GPA or test scores. Really?

Literally half. A hundred grand worth. Wow. All you have to do is answer an essay question. Now I'm not one to really promote answering the ones that are requiring you to write a dissertation of 10,000 words.

Unless you wrote that essay already for an English class, please pass that by. It is not worth it. I guarantee you it's just not worth the effort. Do not do that. But the vast majority are going to be less than a page long for your essay, and they just want your opinion on a topic.

Just be honest. And you're right. There are so many topics out there. I kid you not. One of them is a zombie apocalypse scholarship.

I'm laughing, but I know that you're not lying. When I approach this zombie apocalypse, I'm gonna wear a mask. I'm telling you. And wouldn't that be hilarious? I'm loving that.

I'm loving that. That'd be awesome. And somebody today might really laugh at that. And here's the thing. If if for the teenagers out there listening right now, there really are scholarships out there for every freaking tiny little thing.

And even if the scholarship is as little as 2 and $500, get a few of those. They add up. It does. It really, really matters. And it's something I find myself even before I met Denise, I would find myself saying this to teenagers, like, don't go don't go to school with more debt than you need to.

There's so many people out there who are just like, oh my god. I wish I had known what Denise is now teaching, which is why I have her on. I I really believe very strongly in in what you're doing and what you're doing for the families and really for our nation, by getting as many people out of that pitfall that we call college debt, and onto better you know, a better experience in life. Because these scholar these, the college debt that people are incurring after college at the in this day and time is so immense, and it adds so much undue stress to people that it hurts their lives. And that's what bothers me the most about it.

It's the actually not the money. It's the it's the stress and the feeling of failure that many of them have afterwards because they're still spending years and years paying off the freaking debt. And if they have so if they listen to someone like you, they don't have to do that. There are ways around it. They just need to actually connect with the people who can do that, and I'm I'm hoping that enough of you listening actually either connect with Denise or start looking for some scholarships around you.

Yeah. And, you know, one of the things that I think kids need to understand too and look. It's not just you as a teenager. It's your it's your your adult mentors, whether it's a parent or a high school counselor. We all have fallen into this trap that says, I have to attend a top 20 college or a top 100 college, whatever that means.

But here's what they don't know about this. That college ranking system is not based on educational quality. It is not? It's not. That ranking system is not based on student outcomes.

In other words, what happens five years, ten years after you have that degree from that, quote, prestigious college versus a state university. But there have been enough studies that prove for the vast majority of students attending those colleges versus attending a a state school, the outcome is identical. It's just that one of them has $200 in debt more than the other one. So really think seriously about that because it's not a requirement. And if you ask what we used to call headhunters, which today are our employment recruiters, they will tell you straight out, I've been doing this twenty years.

Nobody gives a crap about what college you went to. We just know that you got the degree. That's it. Mhmm. So as far as shifting your mindset, there are several things you have to do.

You know, Believe you can win because literally anyone can win. And don't believe what everyone else is doing out there because what they're doing is keeping them in debt. You've got to change your mind. Right. And when it comes to applying for scholarships, and I know that this I know that it's an issue for a lot of teens who don't believe that they'll win, so they don't even try.

I you can a hundred percent guarantee that you will not win if you don't try. You have to you have to at least try. And as Denise said earlier, you you might you're not gonna win every single one, and that's okay. Apply for 50. If you get 20, that's really awesome.

You know? You you're gonna have to apply for it's just like applying for jobs. You're not gonna get every job you apply for either. You're gonna have to apply a bunch of different places, and you might get three or four phone calls back. But at least you you're at the end of the day, you're gonna get a job, you know, just from those phone calls.

So you we you have to at least try. Denise, let me ask you this this other question. What does it mean to be successful after high school for you? For me, now I come from a I'm old school. Okay.

I'm a just start there. I come from a background that to be a successful what it means to to raise successful children is that when they leave your home, they can, quote, fend for themselves, they can get a job of some kind, they can feed themselves, they can close themselves, they can get some type of roof over their head, but they're also contributing members of society. They're contributing to making things happen, and they're contributing in some way of volunteering. Or or even if they don't have the time, let's say they let's say they have a job that's twelve hours a day. My brother I have a brother that does that.

So if time is not something you can give to your community in volunteering, perhaps you can contribute some of your funds to your community to help along with whatever's happening in your community. So to me, being successful in life, even for someone just coming out of school, I've I've got, families whose kids just out of school, and one of the first things they did is they noticed the number of homeless people in their travels to and from work every day. And what they did was they went to the grocery store, and they picked up a small package of paper bag lunch bag lunch sacks, the small lunch sacks, and they filled it with necessity items, toothbrushes, hand soap, things like that, and maybe a few gift cards to local McDonald's or Burger King that was nearby in those areas where she saw these people. And she would mark the bags, male, female, or c for children, and she put them behind the seat of her car. So in her daily travels, she was able to hand these out to the homeless people that she ran into along her drive every single day.

That is success to me. It's thinking about your fellow man and understanding I can do something to help. What can I do? I would say that that's a part of being a productive member of society, not just paying your bills and not just making money and buying stuff, but doing for others in any form. And there are many different forms in which we can do that, but in any form.

Well, it's been really, really awesome talking to you, and I'm really hoping that, we that we can get that message out there to teenagers and that more of them really do try to go for scholarships so that they can actually not come out with all the debt that they keep hearing us talking about. So how can people find you, Denise? Well, you can always run over to my my website, get ahead of the class.com, or get a debtfreedegree.com. Whichever one you can remember will get you to the same place. I also have, if you get to that website, on that website, there's opportunities for some free ideas and some free things, some blog post information.

There's a Facebook group, podcast. All of that is available on that same page. But I also have a book, and the book is on Amazon, and it's called how to go to college debt free. So if you look that up and just put Denise Thomas in it, you'll find it. And what this book does, the first one that's out tells you exactly how we found all those scholarships for my kids.

There are 17 ways of finding scholarships, and that's what that book will do for you. And, everything that Denisha said will also be in the episode details on whichever platform you're listening to this podcast. I wanna add that Denise also has a checklist on her website that I think is an excellent tool for every single high school student to take a look at. I will have a link to that, in the the episode description as well. So thank you, Denise, for for coming on and spending time with us and, getting the word out there, and I hope that this makes a lot of connections for you.

Thank you. Thank you for having me on and helping me spread the word. And now for a mind shifting moment. If you're a parent out there, please make an effort to find out what scholarships are out there for your for your kids, for your child that's going away to a trade school, to college, whatever the next venture is. Please don't take on more debt than you need to.

Parenting is hard enough, and financially, it's hard enough. Don't take out more debt than you need to. Get as much help as you can. And for the teenagers listening, please take the time. It is worth the effort to go out there and seek out those scholarships that may be available to you.

As you heard Denise say earlier, at least 50% of the scholarships that her kids applied for did not even ask for you what your GPA is. They didn't ask about your grades. Apply. You don't know till you try. If you apply for 50 and you get 10 to 20, that's a victory.

It's free money. You don't have to pay back. Plan for a better future now. Don't be like everyone else who's complaining about paying off loans. You might make 6 figures in the next career you're going into, but you won't see those 6 figures for years because you'll be paying off loans.

Don't do that. Apply for your little scholarships today. They are for you. They are for you. Thank you for listening to mind shift power podcast.

Please visit FatimaBay.com/podcast. Remember, there's power in shifting your thinking. Tune in for next week.