Ohio Foundation awards 865 scholarships for 2011-12

Staff report

Columbus

The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges, through its Ohio Scholars Program, awarded 865 scholarships statewide to students enrolled in its 34 member colleges for the 2011-12 academic year.

The total value of the scholarships is more than $1.4 million.

The Ohio Scholars Program is funded by 148 corporations and foundations whose contributions provide scholarships to academically qualified students who might otherwise find the cost of higher education prohibitive.

“Scholarships are the single most important factor in assisting low- to moderate-income students to not only advance to college but also to stay in college and complete their undergraduate degrees,” said Gordon R. Brollier, OFIC president. “The importance of scholarships, which significantly help to reduce student loan debt, cannot be overstated. We are grateful to our donors — corporations, foundations and individuals — who have stepped forward to fund scholarships for Ohio’s students and to provide outstanding young people with the opportunity to reach their academic goals.”

Thirty-one students from the Mahoning Valley are attending college this year with financial assistance received through OFIC.

Victoria Bankhead of Youngstown is a senior studying integrated language arts at Malone University and aspires to a career in education. She is the recipient of a scholarship from the Pollock Company Foundation through OFIC.

Bankhead wrote to her donor: “Progress in obtaining my degree had been going smoothly until last semester, when rising costs made staying in school impossible. Receiving this scholarship enables me to finish what I started at Malone and meet my expected graduation date in the fall of 2012. By supporting me in my endeavor to earn my degree, you, too, are a part of forming and shaping lives in what will soon be my classroom. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

All scholarship recipients are selected based on recommendations from their colleges and meet criteria established by the donors. These criteria may include area of study, academic standing, geographic region or ethnicity.

OFIC is the primary corporate- and foundation- solicitation organization for 34 independent Ohio colleges and universities and operates one of the largest, most comprehensive and diverse scholarship management services in the state.

Member colleges are: Ashland, Bluffton, Capital, Cedarville, Denison, Franklin, Heidelberg, John Carroll, Lourdes, Malone, Mount Vernon Nazarene, Muskingum, Ohio Dominican, Ohio Northern, Ohio Wesleyan, Otterbein, Urbana, Walsh and Wittenberg universities, Baldwin-Wallace, Defiance, Hiram, Kenyon, Lake Erie, Marietta, Notre Dame, Oberlin, Ursuline and Wilmington colleges, University of Dayton, The University of Findlay, Franciscan University of Steubenville, University of Mount Union and The College of Wooster.