Nia Grant graduated from Clemson University in 2022 with about $30,000 — in her bank account, not in loans.
Grant's road to post-grad prosperity started in high school, where she estimates she applied for between 60 and 70 scholarships. She won about a dozen, including awards from the Horatio Alger Foundation, UNCF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
With the cost of her education covered, Grant didn't feel she had to wait until graduation to start building her financial future. As a freshman, she interned at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and parlayed her chemistry studies into a small business selling cosmetics. Junior year brought a marketing internship at Procter & Gamble, and senior year a gig at JPMorgan.
These days, Grant, age 22, works as a sales specialist at Dow and also runs the College Cash Coach, a financial coaching businesses through which she hopes to help students earn money not only for, but during and after, college.
"So many students don't know all the resources that are available to them, so I share access to those resources and the questions they should be asking," Grant tells CNBC Make It.
Resources vary from school to school, but one is available virtually everywhere and tends to be the most overlooked by students looking to get ahead, she says.
"Your email. As simple as it might sound, I'm not kidding — your email," she says. "Whatever university you go to, you have a .edu at the end of your email. You will not always have that, and you really need to use it for these four years."
'Your network is your net worth'
Grant says she found each of her internships via her email, but none of it happened by accident. Instead, she was active in making connections with people she thought could help her along her path, especially fellow Clemson Tigers.
"How many alumni are from your school? You can just reach out to them," Grant says.
When Grant, then an aspiring business owner, discovered that Clemson had an entrepreneurial incubator, she reached out to some of the program's bigger successes.
"There were people who sold their companies for $30 million. I wanted to learn more about that," she says. "People are happy to talk to you. They go to your university. They see that Clemson.edu and it's 'Hey, go Tigers!'"
She also recommends taking advantage of your school's deep roster of subject matter experts — even in departments you may not be studying under.
"I was a chemistry major. I'm not the best at marketing, but [the school had] a marketing division," Grant says. So she got in touch with marketing professors and alumni.
Once you get a foot in the door with someone who can potentially help you get where you want to go, your networking has only just begun.
"If you're talking with someone in a particular space, find out who else you can talk to. I'd ask, 'Who are two or three people you think I should talk to?'" she says. "People love to talk about themselves. They love to talk about their network."
Keep repeating the process, and soon you will have a network of people who can help make things happen for you.
"Your network is your net worth. Not to be cliched with that saying, but it's totally true," says Grant. "I have contacts in my phone who have sold $30 million companies. I'm 22 — how would I know anyone who's ever done that before? My advice for any type of student is to reach out to people on your campus using your email."
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