Delco Satanists Offering $666 Scholarships To Local Students

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA — Delaware County's Satanists have once again opened applications for their annual Outsider Achievement Award scholarship that gives local students $666.

Satanic Delco is now taking applications for the scholarship, which does not have any stipulations on how the funds can be used.

"High School is a critical, formative part of life for most American teenagers," the scholarship website reads. "Countless factors converge to define how that experience impacts each young individual. For some students, sports, academics, and groupthink come naturally. But in the shadows of the Homecoming Royalty, football star, and Most Likely To Succeed, lies the outsider."

This scholarship aims to award students who buck the status quo and embrace individualism, empathy, free-thought, and skepticism.

To apply, students at any Delaware County school can submit an essay, poem, film, song, or other creative medium detailing their experience as an outsider to Satanic Delco.

Submissions are not beholden to word counts, length, or other limitations.

Applications are due by May 31.

Graduating seniors should use the submission form online here to apply for this year's award.

"I'm really excited to give this award for the third straight tear," Satanic Delco founder Joseph Rose told Patch. "We've had some amazing kids submit works in the past, and we're looking forward to seeing this year's submissions."

In 2022, Lucas Sampson from Penncrest High School Lisa Travis from Ridley High School earned the scholarship.

And in 2021, Satanic Delco awarded Hannah Barnes, Charles Schiffer, and Tania Miller, all from Ridley High, the scholarship.

Rose is a Ridley High School graduate himself.

He said his time in high school was less than enjoyable being the anti-religious kid with a passion for heavy rock, grunge, and metal music he was in the 90s.

"My high school experience there stood out as nightmarish," he said. "So I wanted to find a kid who was in a position anywhere in the ballpark of where I felt and help them."

Rose and a fellow member, who is also a Ridley High School graduate, came up with the scholarship idea and began a funding campaign to raise the $666.

"The outsider doesn't always love the new popular song or wear the trendy fashion style," the group wrote on the funding page. "They're often on the receiving end of the bullying that goes overlooked by faculty. Sometimes they skip class, not because they're looking for trouble, but because they're overwhelmed by a crushing anxiety. Or maybe they're still alone, crying in the stairwell. They're not losing the popularity contest, it just never occurred to them to enter it in the first place."

For the unfamiliar, Satanic Delco is not actually a group of Satan's worshipers. In fact, they aren't religious in any way and don't believe in a heaven or a hell, Satan or God. Rather, they follow seven tenets — such as acting with compassion and empath, pursuing justice, and respecting others' freedoms — commonly followed among larger groups of Satanists.