[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/03/dash.graduation.art.jpg caption="Dasheen's dark past motivates him to strive for his dreams."]

From CNN Producer Ben Tinker

Dasheen Ellis’ mother abandoned him, along with his brother, before he was old enough to form a memory of her.

“She left us on one of her friend’s steps and never came back,” he recounts. Dasheen was just five years old, his brother eight. “She was a drug addict and she had sex for drugs. She was always high and experimenting with different drugs. It was not a positive environment for us. I mean, me and my brother would have to just sometimes be in the house alone. He was the one protecting me. She was never there.”

Dasheen was sent to live with his godmother, which turned into another bad situation. “The environment wasn’t a positive thing for me,” he says. “There was a lot of drugs and sex and things around me that were uncomfortable, so I decided to tell my social worker that I wanted to leave.”

From there, he was placed into his first foster home; then, into the care of the Jewish Child Care Association. Andrea Fink, his former social worker, knows all that it took for Dasheen to get here.

“The Dasheen that you see today is pretty much the Dasheen you saw when he was 13,” she remembers. “He came in quiet, peaceful, very self-assured. But underneath it, very, very scared and worried about what was going to be his future.”

Dasheen recently returned to the Pleasantville Cottage School to offer the current residents something few others can: empathy.

“I wanted to come and talk to you guys about my experiences in life,” he tells them, “because most of them have been kind of similar to what you guys have gone through.”

Talking, Fink says, is the most important thing an at-risk youth can do. “Talk about your feelings. Find somebody who you trust and talk it out, not matter how difficult it is.”

When he was a resident, Dasheen played an integral role in crafting a unique peer mentoring program. “I figured it would be best for residents to help other residents,” he explains,” because you can relate more to someone who’s your peer rather than someone who’s above you.”

FULL POST

By Ben Kaplan – Founder of CityofCollegeDreams.org

Not too many years ago, I was caught in the classic middle-income financial-aid crunch. The obvious options: take on piles of debt or settle for a much cheaper school.

Fortunately, I stumbled upon a third way: Over the course of my senior year in high school, I applied for three dozen scholarship awards. With a healthy dose of determination, some dogged detective work, and more than a little elbow grease, my efforts paid off. When the dust settled, I had accumulated more than two dozen scholarships worth $90,000-enough for me to attend Harvard University virtually for free.

These days, I answer thousands of questions on the topic at my CityofCollegeDreams Web site and at my national "Paying-for-College Pajamas Workshops." Here are answers to four of the most frequently asked questions.

Q: Are scholarships only for exceptional students?

Many students mistakenly assume that they must have sky-high GPAs or amazing SAT scores to win merit scholarships. Although some scholarships use grades and test scores to evaluate merit, others use criteria such as extracurricular activity participation, leadership ability, community service involvement, obstacles overcome, family affiliations and much more. Contrary to popular belief, "merit" is not another word for "academics."

Q: When should I begin looking for scholarships?

For many students, the process begins during the junior and senior years of high school. The earlier you can start, the better. Some students may want to start searching as early as seventh or eighth grade because of the many learning contests for younger kids that include scholarship awards (usually as a cash prize or U.S. savings bond).

But it's never too late. Once students select their academic majors and potential career paths in college, a wide range of corporations, foundations, professional associations likely offer scholarships in those fields. There are a lot of scholarships for adult returning students, too.

Q: How can I find scholarships on the Internet?

A nice way to get your feet wet is with free Internet scholarship search databases. You fill out questionnaires and these databases match you up with scholarships that fit your personal characteristics.
Just one big piece of advice-none of these databases are comprehensive, so search as many as you can. To start, go to www.CityofCollegeDreams.org and use my free "Scholarship Surfer" tool to connect with and optimize these helpful resources.

Q: Is it really worth all of the work?

For every dollar of scholarship money you receive, you can potentially save more than two dollars in student loan principal and compounded interest. Better yet, by avoiding substantial student debt, you will open up a wide range of exciting opportunities and possibilities when you graduate. In the final tally, it's a simple equation: More scholarships = less debt = greater freedom. That's powerful motivation, to say the least.

Ben Kaplan is the creator of the new DVD, "Finding College Cash in Tough Times." He is hosting a free scholarship workshop on June 18 at 9:00 p.m. EDT that you can watch online or listen to on the telephone. Visit http://www.CityofCollegeDreams.org/workshop for more information.