MGM Mirage helping scholar funding

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.

MGM Mirage is donating $100,000 toward a scholarship fund for Community College of Southern Nevada students who transfer to UNLV, officials said Monday.

The $100,000 will be matched two-to-one by the Hites Foundation to create a $300,000 scholarship endowment, Punam Mathur, senior vice president of corporate diversity and community affairs for MGM Mirage, said. The nonprofit, St. Louis-based foundation provides scholarships for community college students to advance to four-year institutions.

The amount and number of the scholarships given each year will be dependent on the income earned off the endowment, Mathur said, and will be available to CCSN graduates entering UNLV in fall 2006.

To apply for the scholarship, students must earn an associate's degree and have a cumulative 3.5 GPA from CCSN and MUST transfer to UNLV, said Diana Wilson, executive director of CCSN's foundation. MGM Mirage has also limited the scholarships to first generation college students.

"We're hoping this will help higher performing students who have aspirations bigger than their ability to fund them," Mathur said.

The hotel and casino empire already has a scholarship fund at UNLV for students entering the Harrah College of Hotel Administration, Mathur said. This new endowment will apply to students of all majors.

MGM Mirage and CCSN officials are scheduled to announce the formal details of the scholarship program at an Urban Chamber of Commerce luncheon Friday at the MGM Mirage conference center.