Carter Smith worked as much as he could last summer and saved every extra dollar. He has a scholarship, but he still keeps a backup fund. When money has been tight your whole life, you do not stop worrying just because the numbers look better on paper. “I’ve always been very financially foc used,” he says. “Maybe even to a fault.”  That did not come from nowhere. Carter is the oldest child. His parents were young when he was born, and money was tight throughout his childhood. He learned early to watch what he spent, plan for gaps, and not assume things would hold.  When it was time to choose a college, Carter ran the numbers. He compared community colleges, state schools, and private schools by price. Norwich University was out of reach. “Price and how much I was going to spend were huge factors,” he says. “That was just the reality.”  Carter is not the first in his family to want a degree, but finishing one has been harder. His stepdad dropped out. His stepdad’s father did too. Money was part of the reason both times. Carter getting to Norwich on a Curtis Fund scholarship and staying there is a real shift for his family.  Then the Curtis Fund scholarship came through. Carter could choose a school that gave him the best chance at the kind of life he wanted, not just one that fit his budget. “Having that freedom of choice was an amazing feeling,” he says. “Just being able to say: I can actually afford to do this.”  So he picked Norwich. The accounting program gives him a path he’s excited to pursue, and he’s found people and opportunities he would not have found at another school.  Chelsea, his VSAC counselor, helped him through the applications. Without her, Carter isn’t sure he would have made it to college at all. He knows not everyone gets that kind of support. One friend had to drop out when the money ran out. Another never even started because the numbers did not add up. The Curtis Fund’s support meant Carter did not have to make that choice.  He’s in accounting because numbers have always made sense to him. One of his professors works with local businesses, and Carter has seen what that work looks like: helping someone keep a business going after they built it from scratch. “I’d like to help the people who are trying to start their own business and make their own life,” Carter says.  He plans to stay in central Vermont after graduation. His family and friends are here, and he is building connections through Norwich. He likes the scale of the state and the way communities know each other. “I really enjoy the small, tight-knit community,” he says. For Carter, practical and personal reasons are closely linked.  The Curtis Fund awards over 600 degree scholarships each year to Vermonters like Carter, and another 250 scholarships to students pursuing credentials through short-term professional training programs. Since 1910, more than 14,000 Vermonters have been able to pursue post-secondary education because of it. For the Smith family, that number just went up by one. To read more stories about Curtis Fund scholars, visit: https://www.thecurtisfund.org/meet-the-scholars  Learn more about how to support Vermont students like Carter: https://www.thecurtisfund.org/donate#give-now Read the story on VTDigger here: The first to finish: Carter Smith’s Curtis Fund story. ...read more read less