New Scholarship Reaches First-Generation Students

Vermonters who would be the first person in their families to attend college may be eligible for a new Vermont First Scholarship at Champlain College. Awards are contingent on family financial need and are renewable for four years of full-time study. The first class of Vermont First scholars will be enrolled in the fall 2007 semester. “We’ve always had the first-generation college-bound Vermont student apply,” says Hadley Abernathy Bunting, the admissions counselor who will work with these students during the admission process. “It’s wonderful to be able to offer them this option.”

Vermont First is the third Champlain College scholarship either recently enhanced or implemented that is designed to enfranchise target populations. Single Parent Scholarships provide tuition aid to single parents, and New American Student Scholarships assist students of refugee or asylum status. Vermont First Scholarships are geared toward a population for whom a college education is often out of reach because of cultural and financial issues. Applicants must be eligible for a Pell grant, seek additional grants and gift aid, and be able to meet Champlain’s admission requirements.

For more information about the Vermont First Scholarship program or the New American Student Scholarship, contact the Office of Admission at 802-860-2727. For information about the Single Parents program, visit www.champlain.edu/about/single_parents. To contribute to any of these scholaship programs, call 802-860-2788 or visit www.champlain.edu/support.

— DW