The best scholarships for future teachers include the Jack Kinnaman Scholarship at $3,500, Golden Apple Scholars in Illinois at up to $23,000, and the DAR Borgens awards at $1,500. The federal TEACH Grant pays $3,772 a year but isn’t a scholarship. It becomes a loan if you don’t teach for 4 years.
Every fall I send the same list to our education-major students. Some of these awards run to five figures. A few of them nobody applies for, which is why they are worth your time.
Here it is, with what each one is actually worth this cycle. One warning first: not everything marketed to future teachers is a scholarship, and one of the biggest names on every other list can leave you owing money. More on that below. If you want a wider net than this, start with our scholarship search directory.
The Best Scholarships for Future Teachers
| Award | Amount | Deadline | Open to |
| Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois | Up to $23,000 | Dec 1 priority | Illinois HS seniors and early college |
| AFT Robert G. Porter Scholars | $8,000 over four years | Dec 1 to Mar 31 | HS seniors with an AFT member parent |
| Jack Kinnaman Scholarship (NEA) | $3,500, five awards | April 15 | Undergrads, NEA Aspiring Educators members |
| Barbara Lotze Scholarship (AAPT) | Up to $3,000, renewable | December 1 | HS seniors and undergrads, future physics teachers |
| PDK International Scholarship | $500 to $4,000 | Opens January | HS seniors and undergrads, members |
| P.C. Somerville Awards (Sigma Tau Delta) | Up to $2,000 | Oct and Mar cycles | Seniors about to teach English |
| Kappa Delta Pi scholarships | $500 to $1,900 | Opens early 2027 | Undergrads, KDP members |
| Nancy Larson Foundation | $1,500, five or more | November 15 | Juniors and up, elementary education |
| DAR Borgens Teacher Education | $1,500 each | January 31 | Age 25 and over, sophomore and up |
| Applegate-Jackson-Parks | $1,000 | Sept 1 to Dec 31 | Declared education majors |
| Bill Kane Scholarship (SHAPE America) | $1,000 | October 15 | Health education majors, 3.25 GPA |
| NCTM prospective teacher awards | Varies | Nov 1 and May 1 | Future math teachers, NCTM members |
| James Madison Fellowship | Up to $24,000 | March 1 | Graduate study only |
Read the eligibility column twice. Most of these want you to be a member of a professional organization, which sounds like a barrier and usually costs less than a textbook. The Barbara Lotze scholarship asks for nothing, which makes it one of the very few a high school senior can apply for cold.
Two have catches worth naming. Kappa Delta Pi runs about twenty named funds off a single application, so it is the highest-leverage form you will fill out all year, though several of those funds are tied to a particular state or campus. And Sigma Tau Delta only releases the money once you verify a teaching job by August 31. That one is for a senior who is already student-teaching, not a freshman with a plan.
Is the TEACH Grant a Scholarship?
No. This is the one we make every family read twice. The TEACH Grant pays up to $4,000 a year, currently $3,772 after the federal sequester. In exchange you agree to teach full time for four years, in a high-need field, at a low-income school, within eight years of finishing school.
Miss any part of it and the grant becomes an unsubsidized Direct Loan. Worse, the interest is charged back to the day the money was first disbursed, not the day it converted. I have seen students change their minds about teaching, or take a job at a school that did not qualify, and discover they owe thousands they thought were a gift.
If you are certain about teaching, take it. Just take it knowing what it is.
What about Teach for America?
Also not a scholarship. It is a two-year teaching corps you join after you graduate, and your paycheck comes from the school district, not from TFA. Corps members may get a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award of up to $7,395, though TFA says plainly that it cannot guarantee that money year to year.
How Do You Find Teaching Scholarships?
Most students look in one place and stop. There are really three, and the one people ignore is usually the one they would win.
Local. Community foundations, your district, the PTA, the Rotary club. Tiny applicant pools. Ask your high school counselor what has not been posted anywhere, because a surprising amount of it never is.
National. The table above, plus anything tied to something specific about you rather than to teaching. Our guides for juniors and our HBCU grants and scholarships post are both worth a look if they apply.
College-specific. Usually the biggest money of the three, and the one families miss because they are busy looking outward. Start with our post on colleges that give the most merit aid.
Apply early, apply widely, and don’t skip the ones that want an essay. Those draw fewer applicants precisely because they are work, so our scholarship essay tips will earn back the time. Nine out of ten of our students report earning scholarships. The ones who win the most are just the ones who applied the most.
Not sure where to start? Our scholarship services build the list, match the deadlines, and keep the whole thing moving.
Start Now, Not Senior Spring
Here is the part that makes this urgent. In a lot of states a bachelor’s alone won’t carry a teaching career, and full licensure runs through a master’s. So you are funding five or six years, not four. A $3,500 award you win as a sophomore is worth more to you than to almost anyone else on campus. Run the real number with our post on what college actually costs.
Most of these deadlines land between October and April, and most want an essay plus a recommendation. So, build the list while you are building your college list, keep every date in our free college application tracker, and file the FAFSA even if you are sure you won’t qualify. Several of these awards check it.
Want help building the list and hitting the dates? Book a free consultation.
FAQs
Do you need an education degree to become a teacher?
Not always. Plenty of states license teachers who majored in a content area like math or English and then completed a preparation program or a master’s credential. If you are weighing that, our post on writing the why major essay is a good way to test how clear your reasoning really is.
Can high school seniors apply for teaching scholarships?
Yes. Golden Apple Scholars, PDK International, AFT Porter Scholars and the Barbara Lotze scholarship all take high school seniors, and Lotze doesn’t require membership. The DAR Borgens awards don’t, since applicants have to be at least 25 and at sophomore standing.
