Penn State Alumni Association allocates $300,000 for scholarships

Penn State Alumni Association allocates $300,000 for scholarships

University Park, Pa. -- Following up on its historic 2008 pledge of $2.1 million to support scholarships across the University, the Penn State Alumni Association has allocated the second of the pledge's seven installments of $300,000.

This year's gift will create four Penn State Alumni Association Trustee Scholarships, each endowed with $50,000 for the 2009-10 academic year in the College of Agricultural Sciences, and at Penn State Abington, Penn State Greater Allegheny, and Penn State Worthington Scranton.

An additional $100,000 will fund scholarships in the Penn State Dickinson School of Law to support recruitment of Penn State undergraduates.

The recommendation for the gift came from the Alumni Council’s Margin of Excellence committee and was approved unanimously by the council's executive board in April. The committee selected the three campuses and the College of Agricultural Sciences because they have the highest proportion of students who qualify for Trustee Scholarships following the four campuses chosen last year to receive $50,000 endowments: Penn State DuBois; Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus; Penn State Schuylkill; and Penn State Shenango. The Division of Undergraduate Studies and the Office of Educational Equity also received $50,000 Trustee Scholarship endowments.

“Penn State alumni are always interested in and concerned about current students,” said David Han, president of the Penn State Alumni Association. “With rising tuition costs and the current economy, we thought this was the best possible way the Alumni Association could help students -- our future alumni.”

Proceeds for the gift will come from the Alumni Association’s Margin of Excellence fund, an endowment established in 2000 to support major gifts to the University. Since that time, the Alumni Association has donated $2.5 million to the University, excluding pledges.

Margin of Excellence gifts have established endowments for the Penn State College of Medicine Match Day program (2007), the First-Year Enrichment program for the Morgan Athletic Support Center (2006), Education Abroad scholarships (2005), the Student Discovery Undergraduate Research program (2004), a Trustee Scholarship (2003), and scholarships for Commonwealth Campuses (2001). Other Margin of Excellence gifts have helped to build the Blue Band practice facility (2002) and contributed to new lighting for Pattee Mall at University Park (2001).

In total, the Alumni Association has contributed more than $12.5 million to Penn State since 1988, a level of philanthropy unmatched by any other alumni association in higher education.

In support of the University’s current fund-raising effort, For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, the total $2.1 million gift will establish 35 Trustee Scholarships, each funded at $50,000 in 12 colleges, at 20 campuses, and three additional undergraduate units, as well as Penn State’s three graduate and professional education locations. The University’s match to all 35 Trustee Scholarships began during the 2008–09 academic year when the initial $300,000 installment was made. As the Alumni Association transfers its $50,000 into each of the scholarships over the next several years, they will become fully funded, thus effectively doubling the financial impact of each scholarship.

The Trustee Matching Scholarship Program was established by the Penn State’s Board of Trustees in 2002. It offers a novel approach to providing incentives for securing private gifts to establish new undergraduate scholarships. The University matches income from private scholarship endowments with funds from its operating budget in perpetuity. Thus, if a $50,000 endowed gift for this purpose would generate $2,500 per year or five percent in spendable income, the University would provide an additional $2,500 match, doubling the assistance available to students.

With more than 160,000 members, the Penn State Alumni Association is the world’s largest dues-paying organization of its kind. Established in 1870, it strives to connect alumni to the University and to each other, provide valuable benefits to members and support the University’s mission of teaching, research and service. Visit http://www.alumni.psu.edu for more information.