ARLINGTON, Texas - As a high school student, Cory Barber of Rochester, New York, knew he wanted to attend Rochester Institute of Technology, where he would have a selection of engineering majors to choose from and have the opportunity to bowl collegiately.

Like most students who want to attend college, Barber wasn't completely sure how he would cover the financial costs associated with higher learning.

Ultimately, Barber's decision was made easier by the sport of bowling. At age 13, Barber began to seriously compete across the local Rochester landscape, improving regularly as he competed against the best youth bowlers in his area, and eventually, the country. He was a regular at local youth events, most notably two distinct youth bowling tours, the Junior Bowlers Tour (JBT) and the Youth Bowlers Tour (YBT).

Along with local events, Barber also was a multi-time participant in the bigger regional events and national events such as Junior Gold and the Youth Open Championships. Those events help build a Future for the Sport by providing opportunities for youth bowlers to compete and earn scholarship funds.

As Barber continued to improve on the lanes, the scholarship money he earned from the various events were placed into a SMART account, where they would be managed by the SMART program until he would need the funds for college.

SMART, which stands for Scholarship Management and Accounting Reports for Tenpins, is a program that began operation in 1994 as a service offering the bowling community a centralized location to manage bowling scholarship funds, as well as providing USBC members with a resource for inquiries about bowling scholarships.

In 2010, the SMART Bowling Scholarship Funding Corporation was created as an independent entity dedicated to the management, protection and promotion of the SMART scholarship funds.

When Barber decided to attend RIT, he knew part of the financial burden would be eased because of his academic achievement and youth bowling success.

He not only had the opportunity to pursue his educational goals, but Barber would help RIT qualify for the Intercollegiate Team Championships in 2012 and 2014. Individually, he also would qualify for the 2012 Intercollegiate Singles Championships.

Now, Barber is just days away from graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Chemical Engineering degree from RIT.

"It certainly was the combination of the location, engineering, bowling and cooperative education programs that made me want to attend RIT," said Barber, who also minored in mathematics. "I absolutely feel like I made the right decision because I was able to bowl on some great teams that qualified for the ITCs two of my four years bowling, while still getting a great education, a year's worth of work experience, and ultimately landing a great job in my field long before graduation."  

The mission of SMART is to help bowlers achieve their educational goals and to reach their full potential. With the program's focus on youth bowlers and secondary education, SMART continues to help build a future for the sport.

While Barber may have chosen to attend RIT without SMART, there is no question the program's assistance helped Barber.

"If I didn't have SMART scholarship money, it would have made attending RIT much more financially challenging," said Barber, who will graduate with a 3.94 GPA. "I can't guarantee that I would have picked another school, but I would have been far more willing to compromise my selection criteria to attend a school that was more affordable."

Barber's future is bright, as made evident by his successes as a student, and as a youth and collegiate bowler. Professionally, he'll begin his career in engineering in July as a Thin Films Process Engineer at Texas Instruments.

Go to BOWL.com/SMART to learn more about the SMART program.