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twitterUNLV announces $12.6 million scholarship program
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 | 10:38 a.m.
Sun Coverage
UNLV President Neal Smatresk this morning announced the largest active endowed student scholarship program in the history of Nevada higher education -- $12.6 million from the Engelstad Family Foundation.
Smatresk's announcement drew a standing ovation from the standing-room only crowd at the UNLV Foundations Building.
Recipients of the competitive undergraduate scholarships will meet the eligibility requirements for federal Pell grants, which means they will be high-need students, Smatresk said.
The recipients, who will be known as Engelstad Scholars, will also be expected to participate in community service projects. While other organizations will likely be added to the list, the first partners will be local Boys & Girls Clubs, the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy and Three Square, the regional food bank.
"We definitely want to make sure our campus culture is one where people understand we have something to give back to the community," Smatresk said.
In September, the Andre Agassi Foundation for Children -- which supports the Agassi Prep charter school in West Las Vegas, announced a $7.5 million gift from the Engelstad Family Foundation. Given that commitment -- which will be spread over five years -- connecting the Engelstad Scholars program to Agassi Prep was a natural fit, Marsha Irvin, the charter school's chancellor, said.
Smatresk said the Engelstad Scholars will help Nevada students who struggle to find the money to pay for college, a gap that is widening given the reductions in state support and the dwindling reserves of the Millennium Scholarship fund.
Since its inception in 2002, the Engelstad Family Foundation has donated more than $217 million to support causes in Nevada, Minnesota, Mississippi and North Dakota. Recent local gifts include $35 million to the Nevada Cancer Institute. The family's patriarch, the late Ralph Engelstad, was the former owner of the Imperial Palace. His daughter, Kris Engelstad McGarry, graduated from UNLV in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in psychology, earning a second bachelor's in social work three years later.
McGarry told the audience this morning her father had been the first in his family to go to college and would not have been able to afford it had he not won an athletic scholarship.
McGarry said she considered the key component of the Engelstad Scholars program to be the community service requirement.
"It is an experience that will change all of their lives," McGarry said. "They will leave a better person."
Discussion: 9 comments so far…
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Hold your horses DESPERATELY NEEDY WANNABE STUDENTS!
This money will go to the SAME STUDENTS that are ALREADY GETTING A TAX-FREE FULL-RIDE WITH TUITION, HOUSING, CAR, and SPENDING MONEY!
YOU DO NOT QUALIFY & NEVER WILL!
Now get ready for you minimum-wage crappy part-time job and maybe you'll hit the JACKPOT next semester (not likely though).
rejco100: Wow. And your degree is in . . . what? Argumentation?
rejco (a.k.a., negative nancy), you're ridiculous.
Do you even know what a Pell grant is? Or how much the amounts vary by individual qualifying standard?
A $500 pell grant for clothing doesn't exactly imply a FULL-RIDE WITH TUITION (btw, what OTHER kind of full ride is there?), HOUSING, CAR (are you friggin kidding me? you're a complete nincompoop), and SPENDING MONEY (ok, you got me there... $500 for clothing... oooh).
The Pell Grant program is a national initiative based on need as defined by the US Department of Education. The amounts awarded are based on need and vary significantly.
But hey, I'm with you... it's WAAAAAY more fun to blast any kind of positive program that will help some deserving kids when you're half informed and mostly ignorant.
But personally, I applaud the Engelstad family for their initiative and public interest. Especially if you've looked around Vegas in the last two years: we'll see more people qualify for the Pell program every day as our economy lags in its recovery :-/
The story presents excellent news. In a time of shrinking public funding, this is just what we need. This generous gift will help more young people to get the education they need, and in turn make our community stronger.
With reductions in staff and faculty that are mandated because of state lawmakers' willingness to sacrifice public education due to the budget deficit, it will be interesting to see who will greet these new scholars when they arrive, wide-eyed, to receive Nevada Higher Education.
Please note that in the same edition of this paper there is a story that tax hikes are less likey and additional furloughs of state workers are more likely and realize that this state is trying to have it both ways with education when it simply cannot. We must either fund education, which includes retaining state workers and faculty at those institutions and not furloughing them, or we do not move forward to introduce more students into a system that is being reduced by the politicians. You do not bring more students in when there are less teachers and staff to teach and serve them.
What a great and generous donation. Too bad the 66 million spent on the the Galleria interchange in Henderson wasn't donated to UNLV as well.
12MM = 100 scholarships a year / 66MM = 5500 scholarships or we can save 2 minutes driving to the Galleria Mall.
CJ, give me a break. Don't even whine about the poor UNLV faculty. In my opinion, I'll take a 6 figure salary to work 2 days/week any time!
I said it before, and I'll say it again:
ALL PUBLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN NEVADA NEED AUDITED, TOP TO BOTTOM 'N SIDEWAYS, ASAP,
AND by an OUTSIDE AUDITOR (and not the 'cronies).
THEN they get the money.
"...Since its inception in 2002, the Engelstad Family Foundation has donated more than $217 million to support causes in Nevada, Minnesota, Mississippi and North Dakota. Recent local gifts include $35 million to the Nevada Cancer Institute...."
I AM EXTREMELY THANKFUL THAT THIS FAMILY HAS CHOSEN TO STEP UP AND DO WHAT MOST OF THE OTHER *PUNK OWNERS* WON'T DO IN NEVADA.
(It might only get us from "second stupidest" to "third stupidest", but at least these people are pullin' in the right direction on the rope...)
On what basis do you assume that they're not being audited by an outside auditor? Is there not such an audit at the time of the preparation of their annual report?