5 Cool Scholarships You Don't Know About

The New England Patriots, Star Trek, T-Shirts, Superpowers, and Height certainly seem like an odd hodgepodge of teams, shows, brands, abilities, and genetics to be lumped together, but when you dig a little deeper you discover they all play for the same team. All of them want to give you money for school, cha-ching!

As a diehard sports fan and lifelong Massachusetts resident I love the New England Patriots. The only thing greater than searching for a win on Sunday is finding one. The Pats have mastered this little game of hide and seek better than any team in the NFL over the past several seasons. Now you, the fan, can win too! The Pats have one of the five coolest scholarships you don't know about.

The Patriots have a Write On Contest for Massachusetts residents. To enter, simply write between 500-750 words about the Patriots most recent game. After every four game stretch on the Patriots schedule, a first place winner of $5,000, two second place winners of $2,500, and six $1,000 winners will receive scholarship money. In addition, at the conclusion of the season, all previous winners will be eligible to win the $15,000 grand prize, $10,000 runner-up prize or the $5,000 honorable mention prize. Visit http://www.totallypatriots.com/contest/default.asp for more details.

This next scholarship, from the Klingon Language Institute, would make my brother Dan proud. He's a Sci-Fi fanatic and certified "Trekkie.". He introduced me to the world of Star Trek many years ago. My favorite quote comes from Episode 2 of the original series when Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell says to Captain Kirk, "Pray to me, pray that you die easily." It was a powerful and horrifying moment that gave me chills - still does. Now I'm proud to say the KLI Academic Award has made my top 5 list of the coolest scholarships you don't know about.

The $500 KLI Academic Award is bestowed upon one student each year. All nominees must be full-time students at the time of the award and in a program leading to a degree in a field of language study. Unfortunately if you're from a planet or star system in the Klingon Empire you're not eligible for this scholarship. Visit https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/scholar/pdf/ScholarshipProfile.PDF?scholarshipId=94841 for more details.

Do you have a creative flare? If so I've got the perfect scholarship challenge for you, design a t-shirt for Honest Foods! That's right, design a t-shirt and you could win a $500 scholarship, $100 Whole Foods gift certificate, and a goodie basket (I told you these were cool scholarships).

Honest Foods has a line of all-natural whole foods created to provide good health and nourishment and is looking for you to step up to this unique challenge! They have some artwork for you to incorporate, but then you add your own special touches to create your Van Gogh (just don't go cutting off your ear lobe when you're done). Honest Foods will even have your t-shirt printed and featured on the www.honest-foods.com website. Visit http://www.brickfish.com/Lifestyles/HonestFoodsTshirtDesign for more details.

The Superpower scholarship is my personal favorite as it involves time travel. Back to the Future is one of my all time favorite movies. If I could manipulate time I would have done exactly what Biff did in Back to the Future II and brought a sports almanac back in time to myself. Then it wouldn't matter what scholarships were out there, I'd have millions of dollars from wagering on sporting events. In fact, I'd be giving out scholarship money. The David E. Bonvie American Genius Scholarship Award has a nice ring, doesn't it?

Five $1,000 scholarships are awarded to those with the most creative answer to the question, "If you were granted the superpower to manipulate time, how would you use it and why?" Your response must be original and previously unpublished (250 words or less). Visit http://www.scholarshipexperts.com/apply.htx#superpower&src=sss for more details.

And the final coolest scholarship you don't know about is the Tall Clubs International Scholarship. Now, for all you vertically challenged ones out there I'm sorry to say this one is out of reach, quite literally. Females must be 5'10" or taller while males must be 6'2" or taller. I just missed this requirement by seven inches! All you need to do is write an essay on, "What Being Tall Means to Me," and you could be the recipient of $1,000. Visit http://www.tall.org/ for more details.

I hope all you tall, artistic, time traveling, trekkie, football fans register to win one of these 5 cool scholarships, because at the end of the day nothing is cooler than free money. And that's knowledge you can take to the bank.