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When I worked in the Ontario area east of LA about 12 years ago, I was paired up with an unassuming young engineer right out of college. Ahmed was 2nd generation Egyptian and when he first met me, he didn’t know what to expect. He thought I was a hillbilly from the Midwest. I told him, “That’s OK. We do a lot of things in the Midwest to earn that reputation. But just like any poor stereotype, you need to learn to judge people individually.”He laughed it off and rolled his eyes. He didn’t really work well with me at first because I came into the company and caused some problems - I was a little too… ahem… monochromatic, and to him spoke like “Peggy Hill.”The company had its issues and when I went to tackle them head on, whether it was the staff not following the scope of work, or whether they had unsupervised technicians doing full on design work, I got told that’s not how we do things in California. I kept seeing major mistakes and lapses in judgement, but, hey, that’s how it’s supposed to be done.I was told it enough, that I even started to believe it.Instead of managing and mentoring, I went back to what I used to do - complex computer modeling. At first, nobody noticed. Then Ahmed saw me juggling a 3-D roadway model of an access road on the side of a mountain. He saw me manipulate the model in real time to adjust my slopes to perfectly snake up the mountain. I then created my plan sheets and turned the project in weeks ahead of schedule. He asked me to show him how to do that and we immediately hit it off. He did the whole “I was just messin’ with you” routine.At the same time, the technicians around the office started to become concerned. An outside engineer was showing the other younger engineers how to bypass them. The projects could be done in a quarter of the time. This upset the proverbial apple cart as their reliable work source was threatened.I tried to show the technicians what I did, but the concepts were abstract. The lead technician, a big 300 lb 6′-6″ man closed my door one day, plopped down on my desk in a menacing way and stated that he was an ex member of the Latin Kings. When I asked what that had to do with anything, he stated, “You better get back to your old place before we send you there in a pine box.”I should have said something to HR but wanted to fit in and didn’t. That was a big mistake as they had already started the projection game of stating that I was threatening staff. The first to HR wins every time.Ahmed had a friend, Esmeralda, at the office and we started hanging out after work. She was a pretty cool engineer too and Ahmed started showing her to do what I showed him. She was pretty tight lipped about her social life - so I didn’t ask questions. She was attractive and married but I knew there was some chemistry between her and Ahmed. It was probably nothing, but they started to let some of their secrets go.One evening at a bar where I felt like 500 years old, I started to rough house with Ahmed, when Esme made an offhand comment about not pushing my luck. I laughed it off, but Ahmed looked at Esme with a surprised look to be quiet. He laughed it off by saying he knew some judo and that was it. She shot back something along the lines of …”10th degree black belt and State finalist...” and he stated he knew some moves but not like she talked about. He laughed it off like it was nothing.I started landing new clients and took over a meeting with a large client when I realized he was about to fire us for gross incompetence. I simply stated what was in the scope of the contract and what we could do to remedy the situation. The client was so impressed, he handed us a new interchange to design on the 210. The office was ecstatic as we had never had a large job like this before. When I stated Ahmed would lead the design, the technicians all grouped together and complained to the company VPs.This time became weird for me as I was winning work and being reprimanded at the same time. When I found out from HR that there were several complaints about me threatening staff, I stated the opposite was actually true. Guess what, when you’re the last one to HR, your statement gets the least credibility.I flew back to Indiana every couple of weeks to spend time with my family, but my goal was to grow the Ontario office and eventually move my family to California. I started to have reservations - even after landing new project after new project. I had increased backlog over $3.5 million in less than 6 months but I couldn’t do anything right according to HR.To top it off, the company chief executive (who was also from Indiana too) got caught embezzling funds and was ousted immediately. He had actually hired me because he thought I could turn that office around. Now all my company connections with the executives were severed and I was flapping in the wind. HR told me to go home and think long and hard about my future with the company. So, I flew home for four days.While I was gone, the technicians decided it was time to take back the office. They knew Ahmed and Esme hung around later than everyone else to do their work, so several of them decided to call in their homies and gang up on Ahmed in the parking lot after work. He was my right-hand man - so if they took him out, I would be neutered.Esme stayed a little later than Ahmed and after he left, she heard something drastic was going down. Some of the other technicians had decided to stay late that night and couldn’t contain their glee as to what was about to happen. She attempted to get downstairs to warn Ahmed but she was too late. He was surrounded by 5 menacing hombres. Two were supposedly still in the Latin Kings and held weapons. Ahmed was outnumbered and assumed the position.From what I was told, the first came at Ahmed and he was able to use his laptop to deflect the hit from the brass knuckles. The second and third attackers were then blocked into one another while the forth and the fifth just swung violently. By this time, they were left surprised that after 5 attempts at an ambush, nobody landed a blow.Ahmed then pulled in the swingers when they were off balanced and one-punched one of them into unconsciousness. Brass knuckles was back, but this time he decided to take out his switch blade. This backfired as Ahmed knocked it out of his hands and when he went to pick it…well he never came back up. The elbow on the back of his head put him out cold. The remaining three then attempted to bum rush him, but he was in much better shape and out ran them out of the parking lot. They quickly separated from one another in an attempt to catch him and he then dispatched them one at a time. The last guy apparently dropped his stuff and ran once he realized he was it.The police were never called but the technicians went straight to HR that night. They called HR at home to tell them that they had been attacked by Ahmed in the company parking lot that night and they were thinking about pressing charges.Luckily, the event was caught on closed circuit security cameras. After reviewing the footage everyone in the company involved in the brawl was fired on the spot. Including Ahmed. You see, the company had a “0” tolerance policy toward any physical altercation on company property. Defending yourself didn't count. Even though he was outnumbered, he was told he should have called the police (I’m guessing during the punches).When I got back, I was told I had fostered a toxic culture in the office that had led to this event. Knowing a scapegoat situation was brewing, I promptly resigned and returned to Indiana. The office closed up nine months later as the work I had brought in dried up or was done incorrectly.I decided to keep in touch with Ahmed. He had been blackballed by most of the firms in southern California over the incident and didn’t know if he had a future in engineering. I had established some client contacts in Caltrans before I left and I told him to work for Caltrans as a designer for 4 years. In that time, I told him to get to know every person possible in the organization. Take advantage of their training courses and get to know the brass in Sacramento. I talked to a district head at SanBag (San Bernardino Regional Caltrans Office) and he was ecstatic to get an engineer that knew how to use their modeling software like an expert. He even believed me when I said the story behind Ahmed was a setup by disgruntled employees. The district head responded with “he was jumped by the same people who kept submitting crap to the State…No wonder!”After a few years, Ahmed and I reconnected on Facebook. The advice panned out and he got a high paying job with a civil firm in southern California bringing in high profile projects from Caltrans. I wanted to meet back up, but it’s hard with a family. He told me he never regretted what happened and wanted me to try again out there. “Nope,” I said, “California is a beautiful state with lots to do, but it didn’t like me there.”My wife agreed and I stayed back in Indy.

Q. Is it really possible to get a scholarship in the 6th grade?A.You're never too young for scholarships!There are also ample opportunities for elementary and middle school students? Unfortunately, due to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), online scholarship search services are not available to students under the age of 13. These are some of the programs open for younger students.1. Kohl's Kids Who Care ProgramEach year, Kohl’s provides several prizes and scholarships to students (ages 6 through 18) who have volunteered within the past year. One winner at each store receives a $50 gift card and advances to the regional level, where he/she competes for a $1,000 scholarship. Ten regional winners will be selected to receive an additional $10,000 national award. Deadline: March 15.2. Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku CompetitionStudents in grades 7 through 12 may compete in this creative writing contest. Students may submit up to three haikus, as long as the work has not been previously published or submitted in any other contest. Six winners will each receive $50. Deadline: March 25.3. “I Want to Go to College” Writing ContestThis contest is open to Nebraska seventh and eighth graders. Winners will receive a contribution to their state-sponsored 529 college savings plan, ranging between $500 and $2,000 each. Deadline: March 28.4. Doodle4GoogleAny student in elementary, middle, or high school may submit their artwork for consideration. Students simply need to take the Google name and turn it into something creative that reflects this year’s theme. National finalists will each receive a $5,000 scholarship. The Grand Prize winner will receive a $30,000 scholarship and his/her school will also receive a $50,000 technology grant. Deadline: March (TBA).5. The Gloria Barron Prize for Young HeroesEach year, the Barron Prize honors 25 outstanding students between the ages of 8 and 18. Students are recognized for their contributions to their community and the environment. The top 10 students will each receive a $5,000 scholarship. Deadline: April 15.6. The Healers Trilogy ContestStudents in grades 6 through 12 may submit a billboard, video, speech, essay, poem, song, or commercial based on Donna Labermeier’s book, The Healers, which is free to contestants. There are six scholarships, ranging in value from $500 to $2,500 each. Deadline: May 16.7. Courage in Student Journalism AwardsMiddle school and high school students who have exercised their First Amendment rights, despite difficulty or resistance, may be eligible to win a$5,000 scholarship through this contest sponsored by the Student Press Law Center, the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University, and the National Scholastic Press Association. Deadline: June 8.8. Patriot’s Pen Writing ContestThis program, sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), is open to students in grades 6 through 8. Students must submit an essay addressing this year’s topic, ‘Why I Appreciate America’s Veterans.” Prizes are given to the top 40 students, ranging between $500 and $5,000 each. Deadline: Nov. 1.9. Jif™ Most Creative Sandwich ContestEach fall, Jif™ sponsors a cooking contest for children between the ages of 6 and 12. Students must creative a main dish, side item, appetizer, or dessert using peanut butter as one of the ingredients. The contest typically opens in late August, so students can start working on their recipes now. One lucky winner will receive a $25,000 scholarship and four runners-up will each receive $4,000 for college. Deadline: November (TBA).10. Angela AwardFemale students in grades 5 through 8, who have an interest in science, may apply for this program. One winner will receive a $1,000 savings bond. Deadline: Nov. 30.11. Scholastic Art & Writing AwardsEach September, students in grades 7 through 12 can compete in 28 different categories, including, but not limited to: comic art, fashion, painting, photography, poetry, short story, journalism, and video games. More than $250,000 in scholarships is awarded annually. Deadline: Varies by region.It’s never too early to start searching and applying for scholarships. Keep an eye out in your local paper or parenting magazines for writing contests and other opportunities, and don’t forget to check out Google and Facebookpages that offer advice for parents of younger children. These forums often post photo and essay contests that can help build your child’s college nest egg.4 Scholarships to Apply to Before Senior Year (usnews.com)1. Best Buy @15: Best Buy Children's Foundation will award up to 1,200 scholarships of $1,000 each to students in grades 9-12 who are planning to attend college after high school. Scholarship recipients are selected based on academic achievement, volunteering efforts, and work experience.2. Kohl's Cares Scholarship Program: Kids ages 6 to 18 are eligible for the Kohl's Cares Scholarship Program—provided they have contributed to their community in a meaningful way in the past 12 months by performing volunteer service that helped a non-family member. Students must be nominated for this award, and nominators must be age 21 or older. Parents: Yes, you can nominate your own children for this award.[Find out more about turning your community service into college cash.]3. Raytheon Math Moves U: Raytheon has a middle school scholarship focused on students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades only, who submit an answer to the question, "How does math put the action in your passion?" Submissions may be multimedia or paper, and awards of $1,000 can be used for "camperships" at a science, technology, engineering, or math-related summer camp—or set aside for the students' freshman year of college.4. Discover Scholarship Program: The Discover Scholarship Program is aimed specifically at high school juniors who have at least a 2.75 cumulative GPA on a 4.0 scale for their 9th and 10th grades. Up to 10 scholarships of $25,000 are awarded each year and may be used for any type of post-high school education or training, certification, etc. at a two- or four-year school. The 2012 program year will open for applications in late 2011.Janine Fugate joined Scholarship America in 2002. She is an alumna of the College of Saint Benedict, Saint Joseph, Minn., and is currently pursuing a Master of Public Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Fugate is the recipient of numerous scholarships at both the undergraduate and graduate level.Committing to Play for a College, Then Starting 9th GradeHaley Berg, 15, at home with her sister in Celina, Tex. She accepted a soccer scholarship to Texas four years in advance. CreditCooper Neill for The New York TimesSANFORD, Fla. — Before Haley Berg was done with middle school, she had the numbers for 16 college soccer coaches programmed into the iPhone she protected with a Justin Bieber case.She was all of 14, but Hales, as her friends call her, was already weighing offers to attend the University of Colorado, Texas A&M and the University of Texas, free of charge.Haley is not a once-in-a-generation talent like LeBron James. She just happens to be a very good soccer player, and that is now valuable enough to set off a frenzy among college coaches, even when — or especially when — the athlete in question has not attended a day of high school. For Haley, the process ended last summer, a few weeks before ninth grade began, when she called the coach at Texas to accept her offer of a scholarship four years later.“When I started in seventh grade, I didn’t think they would talk to me that early,” Haley, now 15, said after a tournament late last month in Central Florida, where Texas coaches showed up to watch her juke past defenders, blond ponytail bouncing behind.“Even the coaches told me, ‘Wow, we’re recruiting an eighth grader,’ ” she said.In today’s sports world, students are offered full scholarships before they have taken their first College Boards, or even the Preliminary SAT exams. Coaches at colleges large and small flock to watch 13- and 14-year-old girls who they hope will fill out their future rosters. This is happening despite N.C.A.A. rules that appear to explicitly prohibit it.The heated race to recruit ever younger players has drastically accelerated over the last five years, according to the coaches involved. It is generally traced back to the professionalization of college and youth sports, a shift that has transformed soccer and other recreational sports from after-school activities into regimens requiring strength coaches and managers.The practice has attracted little public notice, except when it has occasionally happened in football and in basketball. But a review of recruiting data and interviews with coaches indicate that it is actually occurring much more frequently in sports that never make a dime for their colleges.Early scouting has also become more prevalent in women’s sports than men’s, in part because girls mature sooner than boys. But coaches say it is also an unintended consequence of Title IX, the federal law that requires equal spending on men’s and women’s sports. Colleges have sharply increased the number of women’s sports scholarships they offer, leading to a growing number of coaches chasing talent pools that have not expanded as quickly. In soccer, for instance, there are 322 women’s soccer teams in the highest division, up from 82 in 1990. There are now 204 men’s soccer teams.“In women’s soccer, there are more scholarships than there are good players,” said Peter Albright, the coach at Richmond and a regular critic of early recruiting. “In men’s sports, it’s the opposite.”While women’s soccer is generally viewed as having led the way in early recruiting, lacrosse, volleyball and field hockey have been following and occasionally surpassing it, and other women’s and men’s sports are becoming involved each year when coaches realize a possibility of getting an edge.Precise numbers are difficult to come by, but an analysis done for by the National Collegiate Scouting Association, a company that consults with families on the recruiting process, shows that while only 5 percent of men’s basketball players and 4 percent of football players who use the company commit to colleges early — before the official recruiting process begins — the numbers are 36 percent in women’s lacrosse and 24 percent in women’s soccer.Berg at a recent tournament.CreditSarah Beth licksteen for The New York TimesAt universities with elite teams like North Carolina and Texas, the rosters are almost entirely filled by the time official recruiting begins.While the fierce competition for good female players encourages the pursuit of younger recruits, men’s soccer has retained a comparably relaxed rhythm — only 8 percent of N.C.S.A.’s male soccer athletes commit early.For girls and boys, the trend is gaining steam despite the unhappiness of many of the coaches and parents who are most heavily involved, many of whom worry about the psychological and physical toll it is taking on youngsters.“It’s detrimental to the whole development of the sport, and to the girls,” Haley’s future coach at Texas, Angela Kelly, said at the Florida tournament.The difficulty, according to Ms. Kelly and many other coaches, is that if they do not do it, other coaches will, and will snap up all of the best players. Many parents and girls say that committing early ensures they do not miss out on scholarship money.After the weekend in Florida, the coach at Virginia, Steve Swanson, said, “To me, it’s the singular biggest problem in college athletics.”The N.C.A.A. rules designed to prevent all of this indicate that coaches cannot call players until July after their junior year of high school. Players are not supposed to commit to a college until signing a letter of intent in the spring of their senior year.But these rules have enormous and widely understood loopholes. The easiest way for coaches to circumvent the rules is by contacting the students through their high school or club coaches. Once the students are alerted, they can reach out to the college coaches themselves with few limits on what they can talk about or how often they can call.Haley said she was having phone conversations with college coaches nearly every night during the eighth grade.‘It’s Killing All of Us’The early recruiting machine was on display during the Florida tournament, where Haley played alongside hundreds of other teenage girls at a sprawling complex of perfectly mowed fields.A Sunday afternoon game between 14-year-olds from Texas and Ohio drew coaches from Miami, Arizona, Texas and U.C.L.A. — the most recent Division I national champion. Milling among them was the most storied coach in women’s soccer, Anson Dorrance of North Carolina, who wore a dark hat and sunglasses that made him look like a poker player as he scanned the field.Mr. Dorrance, who has won 22 national championships as a coach, said he was spending his entire weekend focusing on the youngest girls at the tournament, those in the eighth and ninth grades. Mr. Dorrance is credited with being one of the first coaches to look at younger players, but he says he is not happy about the way the practice has evolved.Libby Bassett, an assistant at South Carolina, was among hundreds of college soccer coaches at a recent tournament in Sanford, Fla. Many were scouting eighth and ninth graders.CreditSarah Beth Glicksteen for The New York Times“It’s killing all of us,” he said.Mr. Dorrance’s biggest complaint is that he is increasingly making early offers to players who do not pan out years later.“If you can’t make a decision on one or two looks, they go to your competitor, and they make an offer,” he said. “You are under this huge pressure to make a scholarship offer on their first visit.”The result has been a growing number of girls who come to play for him at North Carolina and end up sitting on the bench.“It’s killing the kids that go places and don’t play,” he said. “It’s killing the schools that have all the scholarships tied up in kids who can’t play at their level. It’s just, well, it’s actually rather destructive.”The organizer of the Florida event, the Elite Clubs National League, was set up a few years ago to help bring together the best girls’ soccer teams from around the country, largely for the sake of recruiters. At the recent event, in an Orlando suburb, an estimated 600 college coaches attended as 158 teams played on 17 fields over the course of three days.Scouts were given a hospitality tent as well as a special area next to the team benches, not accessible to parents, to set up their folding chairs. Nearly every youth club had a pamphlet — handed out by a parent during the games — with a head shot, academic records, soccer achievements and personal contact information for each player.While the older teams, for girls in their final two years of high school, drew crowds of recruiters, they were generally from smaller and less competitive universities. Coaches from colleges vying for national championships, like Mr. Dorrance, spent most of their weekend watching the youngest age group.Despite the rush, there is a growing desire among many coaching groups to push back. At a meeting of women’s lacrosse coaches in December, nearly every group session was dedicated to complaints about how quickly the trend was moving and discussions about how it might be reversed. In 2012, the Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association proposed rule changes to the N.C.A.A. to curtail early recruiting. But the N.C.A.A. declined to take them up, pointing to a moratorium on new recruiting rules. (At the same time, though, the N.C.A.A. passed new rules allowing unlimited texting and calls to basketball recruits at an earlier age.)Marc Stein's NewsletterHe's covered Jordan. He's covered Kobe. And LeBron vs. the Warriors. Go behind the N.B.A.'s curtain with the league's foremost expert.“The most frustrating piece is that we haven’t been able to get any traction with the N.C.A.A.,” said Dom Starsia, the men’s lacrosse coach at Virginia. “There’s a sense that the N.C.A.A. doesn’t want to address this topic at all.”In an interview, Steve Mallonee, the managing director of academic and membership affairs for the N.C.A.A., reiterated his organization’s moratorium on new recruiting rules. He said the new rules on texting and calling were allowed because they were a “presidential initiative.”Mr. Mallonee said the N.C.A.A. did not track early recruiting because it happened outside of official channels. He added that new rules trying to restrict the practice would be hard to enforce because of the unofficial nature of the commitments.“We are trying to be practical and realistic and not adopt a bunch of rules that are unenforceable and too difficult to monitor,” he said.Early CommitmentsThe National Collegiate Scouting Association helps athletes navigate the recruiting process. Here is the percentage of N.C.S.A. clients in each sport who received and accepted a scholarship offer before the official recruiting process began.Club Coaches in Key RoleThe early recruiting system has given significant power to club coaches, who serve as gatekeepers and agents for their players.One of the most outspoken critics of this process is Rory Dames, the coach of one of the most successful youth club teams, the Chicago Eclipse. In Florida, Mr. Dames kept a watchful eye on his players between games, at the pool at the Marriott where they were staying. As the 14- and 15-year-old girls went down the water slide, he listed the colleges that had called him to express interest in each one.“Notre Dame, North Carolina and Florida State have called about her,” he said as one ninth grader barreled down the slide.Another slid down behind her. “U.N.C., U.C.L.A. and I can’t even remember who else called me about her,” he said.Mr. Dames said that he kept a good relationship with those programs but that he generally refused to connect colleges with girls before their sophomore year in high school, when he thinks they are too young to be making decisions about what college to attend.Some colleges, though, do not take no for an answer and try to get to his players through team managers or other parents. After one such email was forwarded to him, Mr. Dames shot back his own message to the coach: “How you think this reflects positively on your university I would love to hear.”He did not hear back. Mr. Dames said that when his players wait, they find scholarship money is still available.Most club coaches, though, are more cooperative than Mr. Dames and view it as their job to help facilitate the process, even if they think it is happening too early.Michael O’Neill, the director of coaching at one of the top clubs in New Jersey, Players Development Academy, said that he and his staff helped set up phone calls so his players did not miss out on opportunities. They also tutor the players on handling the process.“You almost have to,” Mr. O’Neill said. “If you don’t, you can get left behind.”Once the colleges manage to connect with a player, they have to deal with the prohibition on making a formal scholarship offer before a player’s final year of high school. But there is now a well-evolved process that is informal but considered essentially binding by all sides. Most sports have popular websites where commitments are tallied, and coaches can keep up with who is on and off the market.Either side can make a different decision after an informal commitment, but this happens infrequently because players are expected to stop talking with coaches from other programs and can lose offers if they are spotted shopping around. For their part, coaches usually stop recruiting other players.“You play this goofy game of musical chairs,” said Alfred Yen, a law professor at Boston College who has written a scholarly article on the topic and also saw it up close when his son was being recruited to play soccer. “Only in this game, if you are sitting in a chair, someone can pull it out from under you.”Girls from the Players Development Academy, a New Jersey club, at the three-day event.CreditSarah Beth Glicksteen for The New York TimesMr. Yen said that colleges withdrew their offers to two boys his son played with, one of whom ended up in junior college and the other at a significantly less prestigious university. Other players who made early decisions went to colleges where they were unhappy, leading them to transfer.The process can be particularly tricky for universities with high academic standards.Ivy League colleges, which generally have the toughest standards for admission, generally avoid recruiting high school freshmen, but the programs do not stay out of the process altogether, according to coaches at the colleges, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the topic.Two Ivy League coaches said they were generally able to look at players with a grade-point average above 3.7 and a score above 2,000 on the College Boards — out of 2,400 — much lower than the standard for nonathlete applicants. Ivy League coaches can put their recruits on a list of preferred candidates given to admissions officers, who in turn help the process along by telling coaches in the summer after an athlete’s junior year whether the player is likely to be admitted — months before other applicants find out.Fearing a Toll on MindsAt the Florida tournament, many players said they had given up all other recreational sports in middle school to play soccer year round.A growing body of academic studies has suggested that this sort of specialization can take a toll on young bodies, leading to higher rates of injury.For many parents, though, the biggest worry is the psychological pressure falling on adolescents, who are often ill equipped to determine what they will want to study in college, and where.These issues were evident on the last morning of the Florida event, on the sidelines of a game involving the Dallas Sting. Scott Lewis, the father of a high school sophomore, said his daughter switched to play for the Sting before this season because her old team was not helping steer the recruiting process enough. He watched scholarship offers snapped up by girls on other teams, he said.“Is it a little bit sick? Yeah,” he said. “You are a little young to do this, but if you don’t, the other kids are going to.”A parent standing next to Mr. Lewis, Tami McKeon, said, “It’s caused this downward spiral for everybody.” The spiral is moving much faster, she said, than when her older daughter went through the recruiting process three years ago.Ms. McKeon’s younger daughter, Kyla, was one of four players on the Sting who committed to colleges last season as freshmen. Kyla spent almost 30 minutes a day writing emails to coaches and setting up phone calls. The coaches at two programs wanted to talk every week to track her progress. Throughout the year, Kyla said, she “would have these little breakdowns.”“You are making this big life decision when you are a freshman in high school,” she said. “You know what you want in a week, but it’s hard to predict what you’ll want in four years.”Kyla said that when she told Arkansas that she was accepting its offer, she was happy about her choice, but it was as if a burden had been lifted from her.“I love just being done with it,” she said.A version of this article appears in print on January 27, 2014, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Committing to Play for a College, Then Starting 9th Grade. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe10 Great Ways to Win a College Scholarship (cbsnews.com)Last Updated Jan 31, 2011 11:29 AM ESTEvery year organizations award more than 1.5 million private college scholarships to students that are worth in excess of $3.5 billion.Want to increase your chances of winning some of this college scholarship money? Here are 10 ways to increase the odds that you'll win a scholarship for college students.1. Give the scholarship sponsor what it wants.A scholarship application often contains the sponsor's scholarship selection criteria, but dig deeper. Research the scholarship sponsor on the web. Look for the organization's mission statement, which you'll often find in the "About Us" section of its website.2. Get involved with your community.Students who volunteer enjoy a huge advantage with scholarship sponsors, says Marianne Ragins, who was featured on the cover of Parade Magazine in 1991, one of the most popular issues in the magazine's history, after winning more than $400,000 in college scholarships. Ragins, who conducts presentations on winning scholarships, says scholarship sponsors are looking for a long-time commitment to volunteering. This bias towards volunteering makes sense since many scholarship providers are nonprofits committed to helping others.3. Look professional.Google your name to make sure that you have a professional online presence, advises Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of FastWeb and the author of the new book Secrets to Winning a Scholarship. Remove any inappropriate material from Facebook. And don't use a risqué email account. Keep it boring.4. Use a scholarship search engine.Using scholarship search engines will make your job easier. Here are some to check out:FastwebKaarme.comScholarships.comCollege BoardCOLLEGEData5. Don't ignore the optional questions.When supplying your background on scholarship search engines, answer the optional questions. Addressing these questions can generate about twice as many scholarship matches, Kantrowitz says.6. Learn more about scholarship odds.Read this post from CollegeStats.org: Which College Scholarships are Easy to Get? We Have the Data.7. Apply to every eligible scholarship.It's a numbers game and even among the most accomplished students, luck is a factor. Don't ignore the small stuff. Some scholarships worth $1,000 or less may only have 15 or 20 students applying, Ragins says.8. Look for essay contests.Students can be lazy and many will skip scholarship contests that require an essay. Applying for these scholarships could increase your odds of success.9. Be passionate.When you're writing a scholarship essay let your personal voice come through. Include lots of details in your essay that helps reveal who you are. It's usually a good idea to focus on a problem and how you solved it or overcame adversity.10. Think local.Ask your high school guidance counselors about local scholarships. Also check bulletin boards at libraries and outside financial aid offices. Local scholarships are going to be easier to win than regional and national ones.More on CBS MoneyWatch: 10 Most Prestigious Scholarships in America,How Rare Are Full-Ride Scholarships? Lynn O'Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes for TheCollegeSolutionBlog.Scholarships for college students image by Johnny Vulkan. CC 2.0.© 2011 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.10 Easy Scholarships - College GreenlightNicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku CompetitionThis competition is for students in grades 7 through 12 who are enrolled in school as of September 2014. To enter, applicants must submit up to three haiku poems. All haiku must be previously unpublished, original work, and not entered in any other contest or submitted elsewhere for publication.Odenza Marketing Group ScholarshipTo apply for this scholarship, applicants must submit two small essays, one related to travel, and the other on why they deserve a scholarship.ERCA Community Contribution ScholarshipThis scholarship is for high school students who are legal residents of the United States. To qualify for this scholarship, applicants must have recognized a need or problem in their community, have determined a way to address this need or solve the problem, have developed an action plan, and have worked to put the action plan in place so as to address the need or solve the problem. The action plan must be a unique project developed by the student, not a project developed by an established group of which the student is a member.Potential Magazine Countdown to College ChampionshipThis scholarship is for college-bound teens. Upon signing up for Potential Magazine’s free weekly eNewsletter, students will be entered to win an $1,000 scholarship.National Achievement Scholarship ProgramThis scholarship is for African American high school students. To apply for this scholarship, applicants must complete the PSAT/NMSQT exam and indicate on the test answer sheet that they wish to compete for the Achievement Scholarship.Elizabeth ChereskinHow I Became a Straight-A Student By Following These 7 Rules