Without a job, money is hard to come by.

Most people go into college broke or in debt. Senior Lena Nelson will start hers with over $250,000 in scholarships.

The fall of senior year is filled with college applications: filling out everything from first potential choice of college major to father’s middle name, driving six hours to interview and writing ten essay drafts. But just as important as applying and getting into college is finding a way to pay for it.

Although Career Center Specialist Hannah Hurlburt encourages students to start researching and applying for scholarships in September, they often wait until after Winter Break to begin, missing most of the deadlines. Nelson’s huge successes in scholarships is proof that the hard work does pay off, and that the early bird really does get the worm.

 “[Nelson] started the process very early, paid close attention to deadlines and was very organized and prepared,” said Hurlburt.

Nelson began her scholarship search at the beginning of the school year, meeting with Hurlburt to choose the scholarships she was a good match for.

With the support and help of her mother, she filled out countless applications and wrote tons of essays. For several of the scholarships she applied for, she also had to interview. In total, she applied to over ten scholarships.

When she wrote the essay for the Northern Virginia Urban League scholarship, she was not excited about the prompt, but she wrote it anyway without taking the topic seriously.

The evening after she had been interviewed as a finalist, she got a phone call telling her she had won the $5000 scholarship, and would be giving her student response in a speech to 600 people.

“I was excited and really happy, and I had to contain myself while on the phone. But the minute I hung up, my mom and dad and I were laughing and screaming for joy,” said Nelson.

Winning $5000 was exciting, but nothing compared to learning college would be paid for. In March, after becoming a finalist and attending a Scholars Weekend, Nelson won a full ride to Wake Forest University, her top college choice. The day results were to be emailed out, Nelson refreshed her email continuously with anticipation.

“At exactly 5:29 on March 23, all I read in the subject line was ‘Congratulations!’ and I started jumping up and down and screaming,” said Nelson.

The scholarship is awarded to students of underrepresented constituencies with impressive achievements and potential. It covers tuition, room and board, and personal expenses, as well as a summer stipend.

Since then, Nelson has received several others scholarships that she applied to before receiving the full ride. She won $2000 from Apple Federal Credit Union, $1000 from the Virginia DECA Foundation, $1000 from a National DECA organization, and between $1000 and $5000 from the DELTA Sigma Theta Sorority Fairfax County Alumni Chapter. At this point, she is also being considered for two other scholarships.

“It was worth it and I’m happy I did it,” said Nelson.