Christopher Gray found that each year $100 million
in scholarships go unclaimed while students drown in debt. He confirmed that there is a lot of
scholarship money out there and through hard work and diligent searching, he
landed himself a whopping $1.3 million in scholarships.
Gray came up with the idea for a mobile app to make
things easier for other students seeking scholarships. He later teamed up
with Nick Pirollo and Bryson Alef to become co-founders of what is now known as
Scholly and what will forever be known as encouraging ‘Opportunity for
All’.
Gray made an apperance on the ABC’s “Shark Tank” to convince a panel
of financiers to back his business and was able to secure $40,000 in capital. Within
hours of the episode airing, the Scholly site was bombarded with 80,000 requests. Since then, 850,000 users have downloaded the app—and it
has connected students with $50 million in scholarships.
Gray has met with Bill Gates, been honored by Oprah
Winfrey, invited to the White House twice. As well as Steve Case, the AOL co-founder, awarding a $100,000 competitive grant to Scholly.
Aware of the app’s potential, some users have bought the app for other students. Such as Karen Starks, a teacher who recently used her
own money to purchase the Scholly app for all 600 seniors in her school. Then there are people like Edmund Ford who organized
a successful citywide fund-raising drive that enabled Memphis, Tennessee to become the first city in the U.S. to have Scholly for its school system.
To determine the various scholarships that a student is
eligible for, Gray’s app asks for simple background information on the student's : 1)
gender, 2) race, 3) current location, 4) citizenship, 5) GPA, 6) grade level,
7) degree sought, 8) preferred colleges, 9) major/ field of study, 10) whether application
is based on need, and/or merit, and 11) miscellaneous – a list of multiple
questions to find out background, health, and other factors (e.g., whether a
veteran dependent) that could make a student eligible for some of the many
scholarships out there.
To access the “full story” on Gray’s app, please click
here and also here; and to check
out the app and confirm that the needed investment (the one-time fee now stands
at $2.99) is worth it, please click
here.
