USA Funds Grants Support Scholarships for Students in Learning Communities
USA Funds® recently awarded a total of more than $37,000 to the Dollars for Scholars chapters of five Learning Communities. In providing the grants, USA Funds aims to bolster those communities’ scholarship programs.
Each community will receive $7,500 to provide five $1,500 scholarships to graduating seniors in that community. The one-time scholarships will be for graduating seniors who plan to begin pursuing postsecondary education during the 2008-2009 academic year.
“Supporting students in the Learning Communities as they pursue postsecondary education is the ultimate goal of the Learning Communities initiative,” says Kyle Malone, USA Funds manager, access and outreach. “USA Funds is pleased to support these scholarships to help students and their families pursue their dreams of postsecondary success.”
The following are the Learning Communities that received the scholarship funding:
“The USA Funds scholarship dollars are a big help in getting our graduates to college,” says Jim Grim, director of the George Washington Community School Learning Communities initiative. “It means being able to attend college for five of our Indianapolis near-Westside graduates, and contributes to the reversal of our area’s 5 percent college-going rate for adults age 25 and older.”
Spearheaded by USA Funds and Scholarship America, the Learning Communities Coalition is a group of organizations that are focusing services on six pilot communities in a bid to improve access to postsecondary education for low-income students. These organizations are partnering with local community leaders to significantly increase the number of youths in the selected communities who complete high school and successfully pursue postsecondary education.
USA Funds also awarded a grant to support the Dollars for Scholars chapter in the sixth Learning Community — Sunnyside Unified School District in Tucson, Ariz. — earlier this year.
Each Learning Community has established a Dollars for Scholars chapter. Each chapter of Dollars for Scholars, a program of Scholarship America, helps its hometown students raise scholarship funds, establish endowments, provide assistance with college readiness and the financial aid process, and distribute scholarships.