Kick Me Out of The Nest

I'm a 17 year old junior looking to the future and hoping to go to college. I'm currently working part time and going to school maintaining a 3 .0 gpa. My school is project based and we normally create works of art as final projects. At my school we go on camping trips where we do community service learning including going to White Sands NM and Abiquiu lake(pictures in description way cool) I'd like to say I'm involved in school as student body president and former cheerleader. Im also in a student leadership program centered around community based projects. My senior year is approaching fast as is my 18th birthday(hooray!). I very much want to go to college and set up a nice future for myself creating a career. I want to start off at UNM then transfer to Washington State to get my PhD in Astrobiology(the study of life on anything other than Earth). This means I'm looking at moving to Albuquerque and starting off on my own. Knowing this costs a lot I'm trying my hardest to get scholarships and grants to help take the pay off my parents shoulders. I have some time before I set out on my journey but the only pressing matter is how I'm going to get the money to do so. Right now I need some funds to kick start me in the right direction. I need a vehicle with better gas mileage than the one I'm in and I'm also starting a savings for future rent food ect. My parents are supportive of my future but can only help so much. This will hopefully help set me off on a better path than the one I'm currently walking. At this point anything helps as I've learned doing this whole growing up thing. So what do you say wanna help kick me out of the nest??