Contributions will enhance access to education for minority students
USA Funds awards $300,000 to national scholarship groups
INDIANAPOLIS — USA Funds®, the nation’s leading education-loan guarantor, has announced the award of $300,000 in contributions to three national scholarship organizations that promote access to higher education for minority students. USA Funds has awarded $100,000 each to the American Indian College Fund, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and the United Negro College Fund.
In announcing the awards, William R. Neale, chairman of USA Funds’ board of trustees noted, “We have made these contributions in response to the findings of a federal advisory panel, which reported that members of ethnic minority groups will account for a large part of the future growth in the college-going population and that these students will have significant financial need.”
“USA Funds is helping us make the dreams of American Indian students a reality,” said Richard Williams, executive director of the American Indian College Fund. With the support of corporations, foundations and 130,000 individual Americans, the American Indian College Fund has become the nation’s largest provider of privately funded Indian scholarships. USA Funds’ grant will support scholarships for students attending the nation’s 32 tribal colleges and universities.
“This donation brings us closer to achieving our goal of doubling the rate of Hispanic students earning college degrees,” said Sara Martinez Tucker, president and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), the largest Hispanic scholarship-granting organization in the nation. Founded in 1975, HSF has awarded more than 54,000 scholarships totaling more than $89 million.
“On behalf of UNCF, we are extremely grateful that USA Funds continues to invest in the future of financially disadvantaged students who deserve access to higher education,” said William H. Gray III, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund. Established in 1944, the United Negro College Fund has raised more than $2 billion to promote higher-education achievement and has helped more than 300,000 students earn undergraduate and graduate degrees.
USA Funds' contributions to the national scholarship organizations complement its own $3.5-million national scholarship program, which targets students from families with household incomes of less than $35,000. Up to half of USA Funds' Access to Education ScholarshipsT will go to students who are members of ethnic minority groups or are physically disabled.
Headquartered in Indianapolis, USA Funds is a nonprofit corporation that supports access to education by providing financial and other valued services to those who pursue, provide or promote education. USA Funds guarantees education loans totaling nearly $13.9 billion for students and parents throughout the nation and serves as the designated guarantor of federal education loans for eight states: Arizona, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada and Wyoming.