Skateboarding Scholarships
Skate for Scholarships
If your passion is skateboarding, it’s possible you may be eligible to receive one of the new skateboarding scholarships that have arrived on the scene. Scholarships are popping up everywhere and why not put some money into the hands of a different type of athlete?
There are some big-time sponsors for skaters and as the trend for scholarships escalates more and more money will become available. For example, the well-known Tony Hawk Foundation gives away hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to communities that need funds to build skate parks. Now some of these types of monies are slowly but surely being redirected into scholarships. Expect to be required to prove financial need in combination with academic scores.
Because skateboarding is such a grassroots sport, much of the information on any type of scholarships remains largely word of mouth and available on a regional basis. If you’re seriously committed, you should keep up to date on your local competitions, and contact your community recreation department.
Skateboard Scholarships Begin to Show Themselves
The Patrick Kerr Skateboard Scholarships are given to high schoolers heading off to college and whose passion is skateboarding. This scholarship has given skaters new reason to feel proud about their sport. Patrick Kerr was a precocious teen skater in Philadelphia who worked hard to find sponsorship and grant money for a skatepark in his hometown. He was killed while skateboarding. Applicants must have high academic records to be considered and a devotion to the sport. A $5,000 grand prize scholarship and a handful of $1,000 awards are given.
Pro skateboarder Mike Vallely has thrown his hat into the ring and is now going to sponsor his own self-titled scholarship with the Kerr Scholarship. The Mike V. Stand Strong Scholarship with an award of $2,000 is paving the way for other sponsorship money, making the Kerr Scholarship now one of the most visible and formal skateboard scholarships around.
The Patrick Kerr Skateboard Scholarship is a not-for-profit organization that has now received monetary support from the Hawk Foundation and others that serve as the core philanthropists in the skate world.
Elemental Awareness, an outgrowth of Element Skateboards, has gotten a lot of press for its commitment to helping kids win scholarship money for skate camps and "nature awareness programs." The group specifically targets the San Francisco Bay Area and through its competition videos and other fundraisers is building a community of support and generating national visibility for their efforts.