USA Funds awards grant to Council for Opportunity in Education
Scholarship Alert! will help TRIO students pursue scholarships
INDIANAPOLIS— USA Funds®, the nation's leading education-loan guarantor, has awarded a grant of nearly $119,000 to the Council for Opportunity in Education to help low-income students pursue scholarships for higher education.
The Council will use the grant for a program called Scholarship Alert! to promote scholarship programs to students participating in federal TRIO programs in the eight states that USA Funds serves as the designated guarantor of federal education loans. Those states are Arizona, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada and Wyoming.
Scholarship Alert! will identify private scholarship or grant programs in each state, communicate eligibility and application information for those scholarships to TRIO students, and encourage interaction between the scholarship funders and TRIO programs.
A portion of the funding will be used to support scholarships to students in participating TRIO programs.
"By making scholarship information and applications more easily accessible to these students, we believe the Scholarship Alert! program will enhance college access, college choice and college-completion rates of TRIO students in these states," said Arnold L. Mitchem, president of the Council for Opportunity in Education.
The Council expects that at least 2,000 students will apply for private scholarships or grants in the target states because of Scholarship Alert! and that at least $150,000 in scholarships and grants will be awarded to those students as a result.
"USA Funds is pleased to support this innovative program, which we believe will help lower-income students overcome financial barriers to higher education," said Carl C. Dalstrom, USA Funds president and CEO.
The Council for Opportunity in Education is a nonprofit organization, established in 1981, dedicated to furthering the expansion of educational opportunities throughout the United States. Through its numerous membership services, the Council works in conjunction with colleges, universities and agencies that host TRIO programs to specifically help low-income Americans enter college and graduate.
Federal TRIO programs (Talent Search, Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math Science, Veteran's Upward Bound, Student Support Services, Educational Opportunity Centers and the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program) help students to overcome socioeconomic, academic and cultural barriers to higher education.