Singing for Scholarship

With students and their parents scrambling to find new ways to pay for college, a nonprofit organization has launched what is planned as an annual talent contest with a grand prize of a $10,000 scholarship.

The D.C. College Access Program (DC-CAP) is inviting area residents to vote online for their favorite among 44 D.C. public and charter high school students selected for the DC-CAPital Stars Talent Competition.

"I think [the competition] will be a great surprise for people to see," said Argelia Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of DC-CAP. "It's really quite an array of talent and kids."

Eighty students auditioned in January before a panel of judges. The performances of the 44 who advanced were videotaped.

On Friday, 15 of the videos were uploaded onto the program's Web site, http://www.dccap.org. Visitors to the site can view all of the performances -- vocalists, instrumental musicians and dancers -- and vote for their favorites until March 15.

Ten finalists will be selected from the online voting. They will compete for the grand prize before a panel of celebrity judges at DC-CAP's 10th-anniversary gala at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on April 6.

The nonprofit program aims to help D.C. high school students enroll in college and stay on track to graduation. Since 1999, DC-CAP has awarded more than $15 million in scholarships, helping more than 2,000 D.C. students graduate from college.

There is more than one way to gain access to money for college, and there are many others.