Foundation Scholarships Make College Dreams a Reality

Ask any parent of a SHS senior and he or she will tell you what the most popular topic of conversation is these days: college admissions. With college applications at record levels across the country, SHS parents are understandably concerned about whether their children will get into their dream school. But a little discussed subject in Scarsdale – well under the radar screen in a community known for its affluence and high achievement – is a far more basic concern for some of our families: will college be affordable and how much debt will I have to assume to make it happen for my child?

With uneven economic recovery and spiraling tuition costs, more and more Scarsdale families are finding it difficult to send their kids to college. Some families have been hit by unemployment. Others are facing debilitating health setbacks or the death of a parent. Still others are simply living on incomes that are insufficient to cover college tuition and ancillary costs for their children. To send their kids to college, these families often deplete their life savings by dipping into retirement accounts and taking out additional loans.

The Scarsdale Foundation helps these families by providing annual, need-based scholarships to students entering their sophomore, junior, and senior years in college. In 2010, the Foundation awarded $76,000 in scholarship monies to 24 deserving young students. Grants ranged between $1,000 and $5,000 and averaged around $3,200. Many of these students received financial assistance in their first year of college from the SHS PTA Scholarship Fund for College, which provides support for college freshmen.

The students who seek help from the Foundation, all of whom are on financial aid, are pitching in by taking out loans and working during the school year and summers, but they’re still struggling to make ends meet. They are unanimously appreciative of their support, a sentiment that is perhaps best expressed by a 2010 scholarship recipient who wrote, “I want to thank the Scarsdale Foundation for all the assistance and help provided me. This assistance has helped me to focus my time on my studies. The cost of tuition, living expenses, books, etc. are so overwhelming that I do not know how I would have been able to make it this far without the help I have received.”

To continue to serve the Scarsdale community as generously and compassionately as possible, the Scarsdale Foundation is asking community members to consider making a tax-deductible donation to a specially earmarked fund for scholarships. Checks may be mailed to the Foundation at PO Box 542 or donations may be made online at www.scarsdalefoundation.org (donors are urged to specify Scholarships on the Paypal Purpose line.) By contributing to the Scarsdale Foundation’s scholarship program, Scarsdale families can make the dream of college a reality for students who are in need of financial support.

Contributed by Jackie Irwin, President of the Scarsdale Foundation