This year MSU is offering five scholarships for undergraduates to study in Africa. The scholarship was established in 2003, but for the last two years there haven’t been enough applicants.

During Marshall’s time abroad, she said she realized how much she takes for granted.

“It was such a welcoming, giving and very hospitable country,” Marshall said. “It made me appreciate the little things — running water and toilet paper.”

The awards for the scholarships are $5,875, which leaves the student with a cost of $3,500 for six months in Durban, Africa.

“Usually, the most the study abroad office gives to a student is 2,500 (dollars),” said Cindy Chalou, the Office of Study Abroad associate director.

Chalou, who also helped develop the proposal for the scholarship said part of the challenge is getting the word out to those who are eligible and finding students who want to study in Africa.

“Last year, there was enough money to disperse 14 scholarships, but only seven were given awards,” Chalou said.

Some of the qualifications for the scholarship is that the student must be at least a junior, have a 3.0 grade point average or higher, be a first generation college student and Pell grant eligible.

“Our wishes were to target underrepresented students that would not have funds and to encourage students to study in Africa,” she said.

The scholarship Marshall received is just one of thousands the university offers, in addition to from sports scholarships.

For example, if you are a child of a Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers employee and a freshman, you could get a scholarship.

The LaVerne Noyes Foundation Scholarship is a need-based award for students who have served in the U.S. Army or Navy, and were discharged with honor. The scholarship also gives preference to students who are descendents of military veterans or currently enlisted soldiers.

For students who are residents of Wayne, Oakland or Macomb counties, the Harold I. Gach Scholarship Endowment gives scholarships to students who have been affected by cancer.

The Walter and Shirley Sperber Scholarship gives awards to two students with a least one deceased parent. It was created to assist student who have faced hardship through the loss of one or both of their parents.

Not just academics

At a Big Ten university, athletics bring in and generate millions of dollars every year. With programs that involve thousands of athletes and staff, financial aid plays just as prominent a role for these students.

Many MSU students who come to East Lansing to play a sport receive one of two types of NCAA scholarships — “head-count” or “equivalency.”

The NCAA bylaws state that the scholarship title is applied to “full-counter status (1.0)” for a full year regardless of whether the student was awarded the full dollar amount.

“Any time they give somebody a dollar under a ‘head-count,’ they count it as a whole scholarship,” said Jennifer Smith, associate athletics director for compliance services.

“You couldn’t have 150 kids on a partial. It counts as one regardless of how many you get, so you wouldn’t want to waste it.”

Football, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s tennis and gymnastics and volleyball are full head-count scholarships at MSU.

Equivalency sports, like baseball and hockey, offer scholarships that can be split between more than one athlete.

Every year, the NCAA awards about $1 billion in athletics scholarships to more than 126,000 students. The NCAA sets the limitations to the scholarships allowed per sport, Smith said, but distribution of funding is at the university’s discretion.

“That’s determined by the administration in each school,” she said.

“Most programs in the Big Ten are fully funded. So, in the Big Ten if you have 85 football scholarships, you can say, ‘Coach Dantonio, you can have 85 full scholarships.’”

Every institution has the ability to offer academic scholarships to athletes, but they have to be based fully outside of athletics, Smith said.

After a year, athletics scholarships are up for renewal, and it’s at the coach’s discretion to evaluate whether a student’s scholarship should be renewed for another year.

These regulations, combined with university standards of how the money is spent, keeps athletics departments in line.

“Any personal expenses are not included in scholarships,” Smith said.

“Anything like if (athletes) don’t check out of their room or they lose a key or lose their ID, we don’t pay for that. If they live in a single, they end up paying the excess. We don’t cover above and beyond the amount.”