DHS students often overlook scholarship opportunities

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Photo by Ava Umpierre ’27: DHS Guidance Counselor Brian Nutcher, who serves on the DHS Scholarship Committee.

By Ava Umpierre ’27

Paying for college can be overwhelming for students, but scholarships are an effective way to help cover the expenses. Many students are clueless when looking to apply for scholarships. Luckily, at Derby High School, we have numerous resources, diverse opportunities, and a supportive community to help the student body. Derby High School offers numerous scholarships to support its graduating students.

Carter Ruggiero ‘26 shares, “I haven’t really looked into scholarships.” Ruggiero says the only scholarship he looked into was the UCONN scholarship for students graduating top of their class. “I’ve only looked into the UCONN one, which is where I’ll probably be going,” says Ruggiero.

New Social Studies teacher, Isabelle Cheverella, recommends Scholarship.com when looking for out-of-school scholarships. “I think the first issue is putting the effort into actually looking it up and looking for scholarships,” emphasizes Cheverella. “They are very necessary,” says Cheverella about scholarships, “since college is costly. Unless you have tons of money, it’s very hard to pay for college.” 

On the other hand, Guidance Counselor Brian Nutcher believes scholarships are not absolutely necessary for college or future success. “No, they are not necessary; there are many other ways to pay for college,” he said. Nutcher mentions the many scholarship sponsors Derby High School has: “We get numerous scholarships from different businesses, agencies, companies…we get a lot of electronic scholarships.”

Following Cheverella’s words, Sara Poric ’26 has taken the initiative to research and apply for out-of-school scholarships. “I just went on TikTok, honestly, or social media, and they have a lot of recommendations,” says Poric. “There are a lot of different ones. There’s McDonald’s, there’s Burger King. There’s Coca-Cola…There is a Big Future one,” she added.

At the end of the year, scholarships are awarded to the graduating high school students of Derby High School. Students who most fit the scholarship criteria are awarded the scholarship. They are chosen by the Scholarship Committee of DHS. The committee consists of Derby High School Assistant Principal Ray Coplin and Derby High School Principal Jennifer Olsen, Guidance Counselors Nutcher and Jennifer Ostrosky, Derby High School Athletic Director Jennifer Moffat, and Derby High School teachers and staff Nicole Borges, Spencer Butterworth, Molly Sullivan, and Angela Lillemoe.