Scholarship searches

From time to time, VbDC has been fortunate to work with exceptional athletes and sometimes, these athletes might be able to use their sports talent to help defray the cost of higher education, or to take a course of study abroad.

In the past these athletes have gone on to attend a volleyball academy, to obtain a bursary for helping run a British university volleyball club, or to win a scholarship to attend a US university. One camper went on to play professionally in Europe, another was selected for her nation’s Olympic squad, and several have gone on to win substantial scholarships to play at American universities – one of whom earned All American athlete honors.

Scholarship advice and search assistance is currently offered by VbDC on a pro-bono basis, and the financial awards received by athletes is approaching a half-million dollars in total. At some point in the future scholarship search assistance will become fee-based, but in the process of establishing the service, VbDC administrators have established a working relationship with a number of universities, including doing some talent scouting for a select group of schools.

Searches are conducted on an academics-first basis, on the understanding that the athlete’s education will last a lifetime, while there will inevitably be some point in the future when they are no longer a top level volleyball player. In other words, the athlete’s sporting talent is a way to help them obtain something that is really much more important than volleyball.