Delco Satanist Group Offering $666 Scholarship To 'Outsiders'

RIDLEY, PA — Being an "outsider" is a bit of a double-edged sword. Outsiders can be maligned by being cast as those unwilling to participate in traditions and norms enjoyed by others, but also lauded for their unwillingness to conform and their ability to critically analyze communities, institutions, and more.

And a group of Delaware County satanists are looking to honor a local high school student who embodies the positive aspects of being an outsider.

Satanic Delco has launched its Outsider Achievement Award program.

The group is seeking a Ridley High School student who "embraces individualism, empathy, free-thought, and skepticism" to present them a scholarship in the amount of $666.

"High School is a critical, formative part of life for most American teenagers," according to the group. "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."

Details on the scholarship and how to submit an application are available online here.

Submissions are due by May 1.

Satanic Delco founder Joseph Rose is a Ridley High School graduate himself.

He told Patch 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."

So far, the group has received a handful of applications.

To be considered, students are asked to detail their experience being the outsider. This can be done in song, prose, verse, or other creative mediums. There are no specific requirements regarding word count, running time, or other guidelines for submissions.

"We will value honest expression and emotional impact above all else," the group wrote.

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 commonly followed among larger groups of Satanists.

Those tenets are:

1. One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
2. The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
3. One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone.
4. The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.
5. Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.
6. People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
7. Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

And the group holds true to these tenets. In November last year, the group donated about $2,800 worth of items to the Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County and also spent a day handing out homelessness survival kits in Philadelphia in September.

For now, the Outsider Achievement Award is only open to Ridley High School students, and the funds are allocated to winners with no stipulations and can be used on whatever the recipient wishes.

However, Rose and the group hope to plan for a wider scholarship offering next year.

"The plan for next year will be to open it to Delaware County as a whole," he said. The group plans to directly contact as many districts as they can in hopes of expanding the applicant pool.

And contacting schools has been a bit of a hurdle for the group.

Rose said reaching out to Ridley High School regarding the scholarship was a "phone tag" like situation.

He was told the person to speak with regarding presenting scholarships to students was on leave and wasn't given a timeframe for when that person would return.

Rose would then contact the school every few weeks to check in and eventually reached that person, but learned they knew nothing of the scholarship.

Rose was concerned the group could miss a deadline they were unaware of or missing out on important information needed to get the school on board with the scholarships by not communicating with the district directly.

Later, Rose spoke with Charles Maiers, who serves as the district's Assistant to the Superintendent/Board Secretary.

District Superintendent Lee Ann Wentzel told Patch that the district has no qualms with advertising the scholarship despite the group's often jarring name and the scholarship's total allocation.

However, the district said it would not present the scholarship at its awards ceremony where numerous scholarships and awards are presented to students due to the number of awards.

The district's webpage on scholarships for high school students was updated Tuesday to include information on Satanic Delco's Outsider Achievement Award.

"No matter what someone is going to win the award," Rose said. "My main concern was by the school choosing not to allow this, they are just dramatically reducing the number of students who are aware of it."

But still, through word of mouth and social media posting, Satanic Delco has had submissions.

Among the submissions are a song, poems, and short essays.

Rose has skimmed the submissions, but is holding off on fully reviewing them until members can convene to make their choice on who will win the inaugural scholarship.