An Exclusive Interview with Christopher Gray: Founder of Scholly, Shark Tank Winner and Forbes 30 under 30. Christopher Gray’s Scholly App Is Bringing Millions of Dollars to College Students in Need The entrepreneur’s new digital platform has helped applicants land $50 million in scholarships I've been featured in the New York Times, O Magazine, Huffington Post, Forbes, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and more. Scholly is an easy way to find scholarships for high school seniors, current undergraduates, and graduate students. The most common trait in aspiring entrepreneurs is passion. Gray was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama to a single mom and two younger siblings. Scholly was created by Christopher Gray… Christopher Gray is the founder and chief executive officer of Scholly, a mobile and web app that helps students find scholarships for college. Chris won over one million dollars to go to college, some of it from big name scholarship programs like the Gate's Foundation and Coca Cola Scholars Foundation. See, even in high school, he was making good on his ideas for social enterprise. As of February, Scholly had 600,000 users and over $20 million in funding. From homeless at times during his highschool years and applying for scholarships at the library one hour at a time (to keep with the posting screen limits), founder of Scholly, Christopher Gray amassed 1.3 million in scholarships and used the money to study entrepreneurship and finance at Drexel University. While in high school, he started his first organization, Genesis, which was geared toward helping students get volunteer opportunities. Christopher tells us that “After applying to over 400 different scholarships and being awarded over $1.3 million in funding,” he saw the reality of what was possible compared to what most students actualize. Chris, can you tell us about your childhood background? For countless high school students across the country, the thought of heading off to college is one that inspires excitement and apprehension in equal measure. The most common trait in aspiring entrepreneurs is passion. 1. Because it took way too long to even find scholarships to apply for, Gray would find himself at home writing out his scholarship essays and then on his cell phone typing them into the scholarship application fields. Chris, can you tell us about your childhood background? Learn more by visiting us online or check out the Sootchy app today. In part, that is because Christopher Gray and the rest of the team at Scholly go to the trouble of handpicking all the scholarships that the app lists. Also, how have social good projects played a role in your early life? Christopher Gray is great at finding those obscure, private scholarships. As a high school student, Christopher Gray applied for hundreds of scholarships. Only a few years later, he’s connected hundreds of … 29K likes. Christopher Gray is the founder and CEO of Scholly, a web and mobile app that helps students find scholarships for college. William Shakespeare - Hamlet ( Folger Library Shakespeare), John Milton - Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions), Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Christopher Gray (A): I’m Christopher Gray, the founder and CEO of Scholly, a web and mobile app that helps students find scholarships for college. Even as a young child growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, Christopher Gray’s interest in education was evident. On his bookshelf sat works that would intimidate many adults, let alone children: Paradise Lost shared space with the biographies of prominent financiers and inspirational books by the likes of Malcolm Gladwell. His new app Scholly can help you find them, too. Seeing people not get the education that they worked for and deserve because they cant afford it is something I cant stand for. Right now, Scholly only matches students with privately funded scholarships, but Gray hopes to one day include public university scholarships in the database, too. As Christopher Gray and his co-founders, Nick Pirollo and Bryson Alef, began the work of developing Scholly into a powerful tool for prospective college students, they were offered the opportunity to pitch their nascent app on the popular show Shark Tank. Home › News › An Exclusive Interview with Christopher Gray: Founder of Scholly. For many students, scholarships won with the help of resources like Scholly can cover tens of thousands of dollars in higher education expenses, but given the ever-growing costs associated with college, more might be required. Only current scholarships are considered (staff members constantly update the app’s pool of scholarships), and Scholly passes over options that require a Social Security Number – often an indication that a scholarship is untrustworthy – or that require a big upfront payment. Scholly was created by Christopher Gray, who won $1.3 million in scholarships through grit, sweat, and hustle. Living in what he called an underserved Alabama community, Gray found himself constantly frustrated with the tools available to him to find scholarships. Christopher Gray: CEO of Scholly … Since Gray was able to earn $1.3 million worth of scholarships for his education, you're safe in assuming that he knows how to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to finding legitimate awards. Like David Adefeso's struggle to pay for college being the impetus for the creation of Sootchy, so did Christopher Gray's challenge to find scholarships drive him to develop Scholly. For seven months, Gray made the trip to his local library to jockey for time on one of a limited number of desktops there. During the college application process, Christopher Gray discovered that information for scholarships was scattered all over the internet. Learn how Christopher Gray turned his struggle to fund his education into a national service to help people across the country achieve their dreams. When a student inputs her data (state, race, GPA, etc.) Gray was still a college student himself when he created Scholly to help others pursuing a route that was all too familiar to him. Do Something Awesome; Share With A Friend Who May Benefit. Chris represents his company, Scholly, and has come to … Between Drexel and other competitions, I won around $130,000 dollars for Scholly. Gray (@cjgray91) 13.1k Followers, 1,226 Following, 434 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Christopher J. ‎Scholly takes the hassle out of the scholarship search process so you can focus on what’s important—getting free money for school. Gray himself has earned more than a little attention as well. Sources: The Huffington Post, USA TODAY College, Yahoo! His story has been featured in some of the most prominent newspapers, magazines, and news programs in the U.S.; in 2016, Gray was placed at the top of the Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Social Entrepreneurship, and he received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award that same year. Similar to scholarships, I became pretty good at raising “free money” for Scholly. This insight led to the idea for an application that streamlines the process for everyone: Scholly. If you are not making money, you need passion to get you through those sleepless nights. An Exclusive Interview with Christopher Gray: Founder of Scholly, Shark Tank Winner and Forbes 30 under 30. As graduation drew closer, Gray turned to scholarships to cover the cost of his continuing education, but he quickly found that the work of hunting down and applying for college funds required significant time and energy, not to mention easy access to a computer.

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