Scholarships for Students with Tourette Syndrome
Looking for Some Extra Cash?
The Tourette Syndrome Association of New Jersey offers a scholarship to a high school senior who has been diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome. Applicant must be a citizen of New Jersey and a high school senior planning to attend college/university full or part-time.
Applicant will need to submit grades from junior and senior years and an essay describing how Tourette's Syndrome has impacted their lives. In lieu of the essay, the applicant may instead submit a 5 minute audio or video tape showcasing his or her talents.
According to the Tourette Syndrome Association of New Jersey (TSANJ), 200,000 people currently have full-blown Tourette's Syndrome while another million exhibit some symptoms. It is estimated that 1 in 1,000 people have Tourette's Syndrome or are symptomatic.
With only one Tourette's specific scholarship to list, keep in mind that many people with Tourette's Syndrome will qualify for scholarships that are set aside for persons with disabilities. See our page on disability scholarships.
People with Tourette's Syndrome have overcome enormous challenges to focus on bettering life for themselves and their families.
Famous people who had/have Tourette's Syndrome include: Dan Ackroyd, who has been in too many films to count, most notable for Ghostbusters, The Blues Brothers and Saturday Night Live. Ackroyd went public on NPR radio and discussed his struggles growing up with symptoms of Tourette's and Asperger's Syndrome. Most people just thought Howard Hughes was eccentric but the director, producer and pilot suffered from Tourette's Syndrome yet managed to accomplish an incredible amount of challenging endeavors in his lifetime.
Jim Eisenreich is a retired major league baseball player who, although he had Tourette's syndrome since childhood, wasn't diagnosed until he was 23. Today, he spends a lot of time and resources educating the public about Tourette's Syndrome.
This list goes on and on. Athletes, actors, pilots, producers, writers, people from all walks of life have Tourette's Syndrome yet manage to live full productive lives.
Although there is no cure for Tourette's Syndrome, there is treatment, and some people stop having symptoms altogether once they pass puberty. For reasons not yet understood, males are affected by TS 3 to 4 times more than females. The good news is that most people with TS are able to lead long and productive lives.
If your struggle with Tourette's Syndrome is such that it is indeed a disability for you, then you should have no problem being eligible for scholarships under that umbrella. However, if your symptoms are mild and you are not classified as having a disability, there are still a myriad of college scholarships out there for you. Some are merit based and some are based on financial need, while others are based on what career you have chosen.
