The Betty Crocker scholarship program was an unbelievably interesting scholarship program. General Mills awarded millions of dollars to high school senior girls (and later on boys). And they didn't even have to major in home economics.
I wasn't able to include anything about the scholarship in my book because ten years ago I couldn't locate any national or state Betty Crocker scholarship winners to interview. Now, don't get my wrong, I've spoken with many winners from individual high schools. Any many have shown up to my book events wearing their Betty Crocker Homemaker pins and all of them claim they knew nothing about home economics, they were just good test takers.
One woman told me that she just took the test in 1968 just to get out of class and wound up with the highest score. She was honored at an all-school assembly. She was no Betty Crocker and her friends haven't let her live it down to this day.
If you are a former recipient of a Betty Crocker Scholarship, I would love to hear your story. Also I would love to see some photos!
****2016 Update****
Keep those stories coming! And if you have related-photos I would love to see them. And if you just stumbled upon my blog for the first time, take the time to check out all the comments on this post. These histories are fantastic.
