Scholarship Search Spotlight: Scholarships for Vegetarians | College Coach Blog

When I began refusing to eat meat in high school, I drove my mother crazy.  All of a sudden, she had to cook two separate family dinners each night:  one for the carnivores in the house and one for me. (Shame on me – while I had embraced eating vegetarian food, I had not yet mastered cooking it myself. I guess I owe her one.) For any parents of vegetarian high schoolers out there enduring similar frustrations with your child’s newly restrictive diet, I have some good news.  Your child’s vegetarianism may just pay off for you… in the form of a college scholarship. The Vegetarian Resource Group awards $20,000 annually in college scholarships (one $10,000 award and two $5000 awards) to graduating high school seniors who have embraced and promoted a vegetarian lifestyle within their community.  Applicants must submit an essay addressing (among other things) their successes and challenges promoting a vegetarian lifestyle and how they intend to continue to promote vegetarianism in college.  Scholarship winners are chosen based upon their demonstrated compassion, courage, and commitment to fostering peace through vegetarian living. Applications for scholarships for the 2016-17 school year are due February 20, 2016 and can be found on the Vegetarian Resource Group’s website. So take heart, moms and dads, as you stew that pot of lentils beside the rest of the family’s grilled chicken.  It is not only the chicken that is grateful for your son or daughter’s dietary restrictions.  The Vegetarian Resource Group may thank them kindly with thousands of dollars in college scholarship funding.