Benton, Iowa county students awarded scholarships

WEST DES MOINES — Students from Belle Plaine and Williamsburg high schools were among 50 Iowa high school seniors who each earned a $1,000 scholarship for college through the 2022—2023 Iowa Financial Know-How Challenge: Senior Scholarship.

Olivia Schanbacher, Belle Plaine High School, and Erica McMullin, Williamsburg High School were recently named scholarship winners.

The program is sponsored by ISL Education Lending, the name under which the nonprofit Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation provides college funding programs. Students qualified for the scholarship by completing online tools to understand financial planning for college expenses.

Nearly 4,000 Iowa high school seniors registered for the scholarship from November 2022 through March 31, 2023. Of those, more than 1,000 completed two online financial literacy tools to be included in monthly drawings for the 50 college scholarships.

“This program has allowed us to help Iowa students directly with more than $500,000 in college costs over the past decade,” said Christine Hensley, board chair for ISL. “But, more importantly, the knowledge gained through qualifying for the scholarship has helped thousands of high school seniors understand how they can reduce the need to take on student loan debt to pay for their college educations.”

Participating students completed Student Loan Game Plan and the Return on College Investment tool, both of which are always available to the public at www.IowaStudentLoan.org. The tools help students create strategies to reduce college debt and maximize the financial returns of an investment in higher education.

The scholarship has no requirements for GPA, test scores or income but is open to any Iowa high school senior who is a legal U.S. resident and intends to attend an eligible college, university or program the following fall.

Scholarship funds are sent directly to each recipient’s college in time for fall expenses.

Families interested in future award programs from ISL Education Lending should watch for details at www.IowaStudentLoan.org/Scholarships.