At ElectricityPlans.com, we help you Power Your Life. Education is an important part of life. It gives us knowledge of the world around us. It helps us develop our life’s perspective. And, it helps build future success.
That’s why ElectricityPlans.com offers the Energize Your Education Scholarship.
This scholarship rewards a deserving high school senior for using their energy to make a positive difference in the lives of others.
Winner of the 2025 Energize Your Education Scholarship
This year’s winner of the Energize Your Education Scholarship is Crystal Yang of Katy, Texas, who undertook a technology project to create an educational platform for blind students.
She is attending the University of Pennsylvania in the fall of 2025 in the Management & Technology program.
Crystal’s winning essay entry is below:
Five letters. Six guesses. Type. Enter.
This was my lunch routine—strategically guessing words and praying we got them right. ONE…TWO…THREE…FOUR…Five green squares flashed across the screen. We erupted in cheers: the winners of the A-Lunch Daily Wordle Showdown. The opposing table slumped in defeat.
Each day, our neighboring lunch tables clashed in a Wordle race. Losers faced a culinary punishment: a mix of chili flakes and random condiments. Wordle bonded us.
One day, a new girl named Kelsie joined our table. She carried a long white cane. I invited her to join our epic Wordle contest. She said she’d love to—but she couldn’t play. Wordle—my lifeblood—was out of reach for her. No colorful blocks lighting up, no thrill after each guess. Just darkness.
I was committed to letting Kelsie share our thrill. But how?
Driven by curiosity, I contacted Texas A&M Sketch Recognition Lab, a research hub for assistive tech. I dove into papers and evaluated different approaches. Eventually, I built four prototypes and tested them with blind and sighted users. By the end of summer, I created a fully working conversational version of Wordle.
On the first day back from break, I ran to Kelsie at lunch.
“Hi! Welcome to Heard-le, a conversational Wordle.”
She smiled. I mirrored her joy. She joined the opposing team—which, in hindsight, was a mistake. She guessed the day’s word, SPOUT, in three tries. I did not. Alongside my PB&J, I had to drink a mix of ketchup, chili flakes, pineapple, and ranch. I winced—but I smiled.
That moment sparked my obsession with assistive tech. I later learned that 70% of blind students were at least a grade behind in school. Why? How could we still have such a drastic accessibility gap?
Turns out, tons of amazing assistive technologies were stuck in the research phase, never reaching the students who needed them.
So, I created Audemy, an educational game platform for blind students. I started by adapting my audio-based algorithm from Heard-le into learning games. I spoke to blind students and special education teachers, learning their pain points and refining each prototype.
What began as a tech project became a venture. I raised $32,000, built a team of 30—including designers and outreach coordinators—and applied business skills from summer programs and MBA lectures on YouTube. To date, we’ve created 12 games, helping over 1,000 blind students learn through play.
The first time I shared Audemy publicly was at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I heard giggles as students filled in ridiculous words in an accessible version of Mad Libs.
That’s when I realized: my projects, though built in code, are powered by connection.
Now, my goal is to create an assistive tech startup that brings more joy and access to people with disabilities—one innovation at a time, even if it means eating chili flakes at lunch forever.
The “Energize Your Education” College Scholarship 2026
Here at ElectricityPlans.com we make a positive difference for our customers’ lives by helping them save money on their electricity bill.
Are you a high school senior in Texas attending college in the fall of 2026 or spring of 2027? Then we want to know what positive difference you make in your community!
The Energize Your Education Scholarship rewards your positive energy. Let us know how you use your positive energy in the community to make a difference in the lives of others. You could win a $500 scholarship towards your college education.
Scholarship Requirements
- High school senior, planning to attend an accredited two- or four-year college degree program in fall 2026 or spring 2027
- Minimum of a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale
- Resident of Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Connecticut
Application Process
Complete the online application, including your essay answering this question:
Electricity powers your life. That’s one kind of energy, but not the only kind. How do you bring your positive energy into the community to make a difference in the lives of others?
Scholarship Application Deadline
2026 Scholarship applications: February 1 – May 1 2026
Scholarship Notification Date
Scholarship winner will be notified by May 15, 2026
Additional College Scholarship Lists
Want more? Here are some additional college scholarship lists you should check out. You can search by intended major, activities, club membership and more.
