<p>I am graduating HS a year early for various reasons, and am now planning my "gap year" before applying to colleges (basically instead of a senior year of hs, i'm going abroad). I have several internships in the process of being set up, a few in the states, one in Ireland, possible Greece or Madrid, all of which offer housing and food in exchange for my work. Which would work out fine, i could easily earn the plane ticket money this summer. However, for the fall my guidance counselor found a program in my state (VIS - vermont intercultural semesters, if anyone's heard of it) that takes a select group to India. It's an amazing program which supports the local economy there, and we basically trek around from village to village for the first month then set up base camp at a school where you set up your own internship in any area of interest with the locals and the help of the instructors. However, the downside is there is not much Aid as its a small and new program, and it's 9500 dollars. Which is a great deal for what it offers as that also includes the flights. But i cannot earn that much money by myself and my parents cannot afford that. </p>
<p>Anyone know of any scholarships that could be offered to me? Or any fundraising ideas? I was thinking of finding some local companies that support sustainable living and/or india and seeing if they might fund me a little, but not sure of which companies would even do that. The economy is not so great right now, so any sort of money is hard to come by. But any help would be much appreciated!</p>