The Scholarship Fund for Alexandria Starts an Emergency Fundraising Campaign

The Scholarship Fund of Alexandria put out an emergency call for donations last week as they had to cancel their spring gala due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Priscilla Goodwin, Board Chair, and Beth Lovain, Executive Director, sent an email out last week for a final appeal for scholarship funding, and the amount of donations received during this emergency campaign will determine the scholarship levels for the class of 2020 which will be made as early as this week.

“The Class of 2020 has worked SO hard; please help make college possible for bright, talented kids in Alexandria with financial need,” said Goodwin and Lovain in their email.  

The email also reports that this year they have been receiving a record number of scholarship applications.  There were 488 students from the graduating class at T.C. Williams High School who applied for scholarship funding this year.  

According to the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria’s website, there is a great need for scholarship funding, and it continues to grow.  Since 1986, they have given away $16.5 million in scholarships and have sent 4,750 T.C. Williams graduates to college.

The website also states that each year they give away $1 million in scholarships, and they still have to turn away about 100 students per year due to not having enough funding.  

The Scholarship Fund of Alexandria says that with 2 out of 3 students in Alexandria schools living near the poverty level, scholarships and advising are critical in the community.  Their scholarships serve students in financial need, and they now need funding more than ever because families who live near or below the poverty line are the ones who will take the hardest hit economically from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The scholarships are based off of a students financial need and run from around 12 thousand to 40 thousand dollars spanned out over 4 years.  For every $1 donated, 93 cents goes directly towards the scholarship funding. In 2019, more than half of the scholarship recipients were the first in their family to attend college.

This year the annual spring gala would have been the 34th, and they were expecting to raise around $450,000 to support college scholarships.  The gala was supposed to take place on Saturday, April 25th. At the gala, the community celebrates the generosity of Alexandrians and also honors past recipients while trying to raise money for the upcoming years scholarship funding.

To donate, please visit their website at https://www.alexscholarshipfund.org/donate/.

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