Written By: Cara Goldstone|
Edited By: Alyssa Schulz|Updated: June 23, 2025
Ralph Keen, Pilot and Scholarship Winner
Taking Flight
At age 5, Ralph Keen sat in his backyard daily to watch airplanes cross the sky; he dreamed, like many children, to one day become a pilot himself. Unlike many children, though, he held onto that dream as he grew, and now, with the help of Scholarships.com, he has received over $50,000 in scholarship awards to fund his aviation studies at the University of Oklahoma. Keen’s remarkable achievements are, to him, quite simply explained.
“If you want to do something,” he said, “you're going to do it.”
But aviation is a difficult industry to break into. Degrees and certifications in the fields cost tens of thousands of dollars more than typical undergraduate degrees; many pilots come from aviation industry families, privileged to follow their dreams through generational guidance and wealth. Keen, a Cherokee Nation citizen living with his single mother and brother in rural Nebraska, had no such path laid out for him— so he did his best to pave his own.
“I was always doing something,” said Keen. Through his primary education, he filled his academic life to the brim, participating in extracurriculars from football to show choir to the Quiz Bowl team; he took challenging STEM courses, dove into Advanced Placement classes, and began his college search early.
“Sophomore year of high school, I started to research,” he explained, citing his passions for flight and football as major factors in his college search. “I’ve always been an Oklahoma fan, and I found out they had an aviation program, so my mind was set: I’m going to the University of Oklahoma to do aviation.”
“Scholarships.com gave me a starting point when I had nowhere else to start,” said Keen.
Keen poured himself into college prep. He found a list of OU’s flight training course requirements available online and cross-referenced it with his high school’s AP offerings to maximize the amount of credits he’d bring with him to college. Many Nebraska schools offer free college courses to motivated high school students, so Keen took as many as he could. There was still one huge issue, though.
“I had the academics, I had the drive, but I didn’t have the money,” he said. “The scholarships have bridged that last part.”
Keen’s scholarship search took off when he entered his junior year of high school. He searched online for anything that might be applicable: “Scholarships for flight students, scholarships for Native Americans, scholarships for high school students in Nebraska,” he recalled. “And that’s where Scholarships.com came in.”
With Scholarships.com, Keen could find scholarships that were ideal for his particular background. His Cherokee Nation citizenship and his interest in aviation meant he was eligible for hundreds of scholarships he’d never have discovered without the site’s scholarship matching feature.
“Scholarships.com gave me a starting point when I had nowhere else to start,” said Keen. “There were so many scholarships that I didn’t know about that I was able to find and start applying to.”
From there, the process was simple. Scholarships.com sent Keen weekly emails full of relevant awards and notified him as deadlines approached; all he had to do was apply, which saved him the time he needed to focus on all of his academic and extracurricular pursuits. Soon enough, the good news started to come in.
“The first one I got was from the International Order of the King’s Daughters and Sons, and it was $1,000,” Keen recalled, “and then another scholarship came in. A couple thousand dollars, then a couple more thousand dollars, and a couple more thousand dollars...”
“These scholarships have been able to give me the peace of mind to really dive into college,” he said.
Now nearing the end of his studies at the University of Oklahoma, Keen’s wins total over $50,000, putting a significant dent in the financial burden of his college education. With Scholarships.com’s help, he’s found renewable funds that will carry him through to his graduation in 2026— a semester earlier than the rest of his class.
“These scholarships have been able to give me the peace of mind to really dive into college,” he said. Because he doesn’t need to work a full-time job, Keen is free to stay as involved as ever on his campus. When he isn’t behind the control panel of an airplane 10,000 feet in the air, he’s out parading around the football field, an esteemed member of the oldest all-male school spirit organization in the United States: the Oklahoma RUF/NEKS.
Countless other activities— like his duties as president of the OU Speech team, secretary of the National Gay Pilots Association at OU, and his membership in the American Indian Science and Engineering Society— fill Keen’s daily schedule, not to mention the time spent studying to maintain his 4.0 GPA. He is never happier than when he’s busy.
“I’m still in some debt,” he added, “but it’s been minimized.” Without the awards he discovered through Scholarships.com, Keen would not have had the opportunity to follow his dreams at all; he’s thankful for every scholarship, whether it’s worth $2,000 or $20,000, and hopes to give back to organizations that support Native American pilots however he is able.
“You need to advocate for yourself,” concluded Keen, advising other students not to let fears of inadequacy get in the way of their success. “And once you’ve advocated for yourself, advocate for all those behind you, because they deserve it so much too.”
Written By: 
Edited By: 
