Observance highlights importance of scholarships in promoting higher-education access
USA Funds Sponsors National Scholarship Month in May
INDIANAPOLIS — USA Funds®, the nation's leading education-loan guarantor, is partnering with corporations and organizations across the country to promote private-sector support of scholarships for postsecondary education. USA Funds is one of the sponsors of the fifth annual National Scholarship Month, which is observed each May to celebrate current levels of scholarship support and encourage broader participation from the private sector.
"State budget crises and competing national priorities may constrain the resources that the government can apply to expand aid to needy students, so it's incumbent on the private sector to step up its support of need-based student aid," said Carl C. Dalstrom, USA Funds president and CEO. "The return on an investment in scholarship support is significant, because a better-educated work force is more productive, more versatile and more adaptable to economic change."
As part of the National Scholarship Month kickoff, Dalstrom will moderate a panel discussion at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on May 3. The panel will discuss "Access Denied, Access Renewed: Mobilizing Student Aid for Low-Income Students." Members of the panel will include Brian K. Fitzgerald, staff director, Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance; Frederick S. Humphries, president, National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education; Kristin Conklin, senior policy analyst, National Governors Association. In addition, Deputy U.S. Education Secretary William D. Hansen has been invited to participate in the panel discussion.
Taking a leadership role in the effort to increase need-based scholarships to college students, USA Funds this year will award up to $3 million in scholarships to students from families with annual incomes of $35,000 or less. In addition, USA Funds has committed $1 million to the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund™ to provide college scholarships to the spouses and children of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. USA Funds also has contributed a total of $300,000 to three national scholarship organizations that promote access to higher education for minority students.
USA Funds is partnering with Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of America (CSFA), the nation's largest private-sector scholarship and educational support organization, and with other sponsors, in support of National Scholarship Month. For a list of nationwide events to celebrate National Scholarship Month, visit CSFA's Web site.
"Scholarships are a highly visible way of supporting our youth at the community level," said William C. Nelsen, president of CSFA. "With increased scholarship support, no student will be left behind. All students can achieve their education dreams and enter society as productive citizens."
USA Funds also will serve as title sponsor for a May 17 rally in Minneapolis in support of the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund. Seven-time Grammy Award-winning country-music artist Dolly Parton will headline the "Families of Freedom, Families of Promise" rally.