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The Clever Girls Know Podcast With Bola Sokunbi

395: College Without The Debt - How To Win Scholarships And Build Wealth With Melissa Rowe

The Clever Girls Know Podcast With Bola Sokunbi

Bola Sokunbi

Education, Self-improvement, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 931 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

❤ Subscribe to the Clever Girl Finance newsletter for weekly motivation! clevergirlfinance.com/subscribe

On this episode of the podcast, we're joined by Melissa A. Rowe, M.Ed., award-winning Scholarship Specialist, College Coach, and founder of Capture Greatness!, to explore how students can graduate from college without the debt.

Melissa has helped students secure over $12 million in scholarships, including multiple Gates Millennium Scholars, and gain acceptance to elite institutions like Yale, UPenn, Cornell, Howard, and Morehouse—all while keeping their families financially secure.

As the author of Scholars Get Dollars and a Certified Financial Education Instructor™, Melissa believes college should be a legacy-building experience, not a lifelong financial burden. She shares practical strategies to find scholarships, busts myths about who qualifies for them, and explains how to turn the college journey into a launchpad for long-term wealth.

What Melissa Discussed on the Podcast:

  • Her journey into college coaching and why she's passionate about helping students graduate debt-free.

  • The secret to standing out in the scholarship application process.

  • Common myths about scholarships, and why they're not just for straight-A students.

  • Where to find scholarships and how to start the search effectively.

  • How she helps students get into top-tier schools with a financial strategy in place.

  • What it really means to treat college as a wealth-building opportunity.

  • Common mistakes families make when planning for college and how to avoid them.

  • How she integrates financial education into the college planning process.

  • Simple, actionable steps for families who feel behind or overwhelmed by college costs.

  • A success story of a student who used scholarships to build a legacy, not just fund their education.

AND SO MUCH MORE

 

How to Keep Up With Melissa:

 

More Clever Girl Finance Resources:

❤ Get the best-selling Clever Girl Finance Books: clevergirlfinance.com/books

❤ Get access to 30+ free courses, worksheets, savings challenges, and our favorite banking resources: clevergirlfinance.com/course-packages

❤ Read the Clever Girl Finance Blog: clevergirlfinance.com/blog

❤ Follow us on Instagram: @clevergirlfinance

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hi, Melissa. Hi, Bola. How are you today? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well. Amazing.

0:08.4

Welcome to the Clever Girls No Podcast. I am really glad you're on here. Very excited to talk to you about a really important topic, especially from moms and any young adults who listen to this that are headed to college because you're

0:21.9

going to be talking to us about how to get through college without debt by winning scholarships

0:27.8

and then building wealth along the way. So this is going to be a great conversation. Welcome.

0:32.5

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here and have this conversation with you, Bola.

0:37.3

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Clever Girls No Podcast. This is Bola Shokombe. I'm the founder

0:43.2

and CEO of Clever Girl Finance. The Clever Girls No podcast is a podcast for women, offering a

0:49.4

space for conversations around personal finance, business, life, and living.

0:59.4

I'd love for you to subscribe to this podcast, and you can do that everywhere you listen to your podcast episodes.

1:06.4

And if you love what you're listening to, be sure to leave a review so that other amazing women just like you can find this podcast too.

1:14.1

Also, don't forget to stop by Clevergirlfinance.com forward slash subscribe and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

1:20.9

It's a great way to get motivation and accountability sent straight to your inbox as you work on achieving your financial goals.

1:26.4

We also have over 30 plus completely free courses to help you on your financial journey.

1:28.2

And if you haven't already,

1:34.1

check out our YouTube channel. Just search Clever Girl Finance on YouTube. You can also find us on Instagram at Clever Girl Finance. Okay, let's get into today's episode. I guess my first

1:41.7

question is to have you introduce yourself. So tell us who you are and what you do.

1:47.1

And I'd also love for you to share how you became passionate about helping students want to graduate debt-free.

1:53.8

Sure. So my name is Melissa A. Row. I am a scholarship specialist and Mommy Money Coach. In the past, I've helped students win over $12 million in scholarships for college. And I've come to that work because I used to be a college coordinator in Philadelphia. And this was during the Obama administration and we were trying to get kids to college.

2:19.2

Everybody was completing faxes.

2:20.8

And some of my top students were getting admitted into college.

2:25.9

Their parents were really proud of them and willing to do whatever it took to get them through.

2:30.5

But along the way, my students were what they felt was stopping out, but essentially leaving college before they earned their degree.

...

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