Some of the major credit card companies have started to offer scholarships, and the Discover Card Scholarship is one such offer. This is also known as the Discover Card Tribute Award Scholarship since they refer to it as a "tribute" to successful high school seniors who are looking to move forward with a college education.
It is interesting to note that the Discover Card Scholarship is designed so that high school juniors are eligible to apply for it. That may seem strange since it will be at least a year before most high school juniors are going to college, but that is the way they have set it up.
To be eligible for the Discover Card Tribute Scholarship, the high school junior must be currently enrolled in an accredited public or private high school located within the United States. The student must also have a GPA (Grade Point Average) of at least 2.75. While that is lower than many scholarship requirements, the Discover Card Scholarship only looks on the GPA from the 9th and 10th grades to determine your GPA.
Now here is where it gets interesting. Additional requirements for eligibility are that the student must be able to demonstrate leadership in achievements or community service. Almost all high schools have opportunities for the student do sign up for community service tasks, and those tasks vary from working at the public library, working on a Habitat For Humanity project, serving food at the local homeless shelter, and a wide range of other things. If you do one of those projects, be sure to check with your high school counselor about how and if you can get community service credits for a project you have in mind.
The last and most interesting requirement is that the student must be able to demonstrate how they have overcome a significant roadblock or challenge in their life. Now this opens itself up to a broad range of interpretations, but the people who are evaluating the applicants for the Discover Card Scholarship have the final decision on this and what would be considered a significant roadblock or challenge that you have overcome.
The state awards for the Discover Card Scholarship are $2500 each and up to 300 of them are awarded each year. They also award up to 10 national scholarships which are valued at up to $25,000.
If you meet the requirements, the Discover Card Scholarship is definitely one that you should consider applying for.