Looking for Left-Handed College Aid?
The One Left-Handed Scholarship
There's only one scholarship for southpaws. The Frederick and Mary F Buckley Scholarship offers up to $1,000 for a left-handed student enrolled at Juniata College in Huntington, Pennsylvania. For more information, write to Office of Student Financial Planning, Juniata College, 1700 Moore Street, Huntington, PA 16652.
You can also visit the website to look at the other scholarships Juniata College offers but there is no information on the website about the left-handed scholarship.
Demographics
According to Penn State, about 13 percent of American 20-year-olds are left-handed and 10% of the overall population is. Although there are many theories, no one knows for sure what makes a person left-handed. What is known is that many people who were once thought to be left-handed were simply ambidextrous and that is still true today.
For those 10% that are bona fide left-handed, what challenges do they face? Do they have to purchase special implements to do every day tasks and are those implements readily available?
Products for Left-Handed People
Someone who uses their left hand dominantly might appreciate a left-handed computer mouse or a left-handed keyboard, which is the same QUERTY keyboard with the exception of having the number pad on the left. Left-handed scissors have been around for a long time but as technology grows more and more enterprising thinkers are coming out with left-handed products to make life easier for that 10%.
Famous Southpaws
If you've ever felt lonely as a Southpaw, take heart. There are a lot of you around. Presidents, athletes, actors, musicians - people from all walks of life are left-handed. Bill Clinton, George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan, Herbert Hoover, just to name a few presidents. Queen Victoria of England, Prince Charles, Prince William, Dan Ackroyd, Julius Caesar, Buzz Aldrin and many, many other famous people are left-handed.
Other Scholarships
As far as scholarships go, if you're looking at scholarships for left-handed people, I hope it's because you're looking at every single avenue of your life and not just your physical attributes. For instance, there are scholarships whether there is a financial need or not. Some people are under the erroneous assumption that you have to have a financial need in order to get a scholarship or a perfect GPA or something else wonderful or perfect.
That's just not true. While GPA and financial need are two of the most popular criteria for determining scholarship awards, as you can see from the fact that there even is a left-handed scholarship, there are scholarships for every situation.
If you're wondering which scholarships to apply for, start with yourself, your family, your community, and your hobbies. Start by writing down every affiliation you have with people or clubs or organizations. If you have any kind of disability, there are most likely scholarships for that. If you are the child of a veteran, there's another possibility. Community organizations often offer scholarships to graduates of certain high schools.
See what I mean? Leave your list where you can easily find it and every time you think of something new or different about you or your life, write it down. Of course, you could just study instead but why not put the odds in your favor by applying for as many scholarships as possible?
