Scholarship search database launches

UNC students searching for scholarships now have a comprehensive, categorized database to help them, thanks to the recently launched website money.unc.edu.

As a part of his platform, Student Body President Will Leimenstoll promised an inclusive list of financial opportunities for UNC students.

Leimenstoll has delivered on that promise with last week’s launch of money.unc.edu, a resource that allows students to find scholarship opportunities for a variety of needs.

It is not associated with the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid.

“I came up with this idea for my platform because there are tons of financial opportunities for students, but you oftentimes had to know people with the scholarships to find out about them,” Leimenstoll said.

Matt Farley, executive assistant to the student body treasurer and developer of the site, said many resources are available to students that they do not know about.

“One of the main issues I see on campus is the lack of accessibility to resources that already exist,” he said.

“Your average first-year from HoJo often won’t hear about a lot of resources because they aren’t as well-publicized as they could be.”

Leimenstoll said he hopes students will use the website to find scholarships for opportunities they may have previously had to turn down, such as traveling abroad.

“I’m excited for this to democratize the process for finding money for the really cool opportunities we have at UNC,” he said.

Students can search for specific scholarships by typing in criteria such as whether they want to travel, whether they would need the scholarship for the school year or during the summer, and whether they are looking for a race-specific scholarship.

A team of several students and student government’s University services committee worked to create the site — a project that took several months to complete and did not cost the University any money.

The team reached out to various departments and University Career Services to build the database of scholarships.

The website currently has about 150 scholarships in its database, said Student Body Treasurer Shrija Ghosh.

Leimenstoll said he thinks maintenance for the site should become part of the treasurer’s duties, though he said not much should be required.

Farley said he is particularly excited about the website because he has had to work to pay for various opportunities before.

“This is definitely something I would have used in the past,” he said.
“And something that I definitely will use in the future.”

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