Two New Scholarship Opportunities

The Educational Opportunity Association Foundation Announces Two New Scholarships The Educational Opportunity Association Foundation (EOAF) will officially announce two new awards at its November 12 Plenary Breakfast during the 45th Annual Educational Opportunity Association (EOA) Professional Conference in Omaha. Both awards will be given out for the first time in 2020. Each will be focused toward groups within our EOA community previously not specifically targeted for awards. These two awards will further expand an already significant increase in scholarship dollars awarded through EOAF to members of the EOA TRIO/EOP community. The James B. Hamilton and Thomas G. Mortenson Research and Scholars Fund provides for two awards of $1,000 each year. These awards will support research consistent with the goals and purposes of the Educational Opportunity Association. One award will be given to an undergraduate SSS or McNair Scholars program participant or to a very recent alumnus of such a program who is pursuing an advanced degree. The other will go to a TRIO professional—EOAF’s first award to professionals working in the field. The Bridges and Ladders Scholarship Fund provides annual awards targeted to TRIO-eligible students who, because of the way they identify or are labeled by others, experience unique challenges and/or discrimination. The first scholarship from this fund will be an award of $1,000 to be given each year, beginning in 2020, to an eligible student who identifies as LGBTQ+ and meets other selection criteria to be established by the EOAF Board. In 2019, the EOAF  Board of Directors committed $32,000 to scholarships—a 33% increase compared with 2018. Adding the Hamilton/Mortenson and Bridges and Ladders awards in 2020 will further expand that commitment. “We are delighted, thanks to the enthusiastic support of our contributors, the support of the EOA membership, and the EOAF Board’s careful stewardship of Foundation funds, to be able to offer these new annual scholarships. We look forward to focusing our conversation at the EOAF Plenary in November on how to best demonstrate the power of our practice through research and evidence,” said Deon Brown, President of the EOA Foundation. The EOAF Breakfast and Plenary Session “Supporting and Expanding Research-Based Best Practices in College Access and Completion” will take place 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., Tuesday, November 12, 2019 at the 45th Annual EOA Professional Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. The Educational Opportunity Association is a nonprofit consortium of professionals with the purpose of leveling the playing field of educational opportunity for more than 165,500 first-generation, low-income, and disabled students in more than 615 programs throughout the Midwest. The Educational Opportunity Association Foundation provides scholarships and awards to TRIO and educational opportunity program students and professionals.