New Chair of the Board Scholarship

Contributing Writer Rebecca Grackin

Next fall, in 2017, Hood College will offer a new scholarship, the Chair of the Board Scholarship. This scholarship will cover a student’s full tuition, and is renewable up to four years, so long as the student maintains a 3.5 GPA and works continuously towards a bachelor’s degree.

All accepted first-year students will be considered for this award based on their high academic ability. It will be highly competitive, and students will need to attend Scholars Day on February 11, 2017 to be interviewed for the award.

The Chair of the Board scholarship is funded by Judy Messina ’66, Hood alumna and vice chair of the Board of Trustees, and her husband David Fleischer. This scholarship comes after Judy Messina’s 50^th class reunion, and she has funded it in hopes of attracting top academic students to Hood College. The scholarship itself is unrestricted, rather than endowed.

Every applicant to Hood College for next fall will be eligible for the award, but only the top academic students will be considered. Students who are considered should attend Scholars Day, February 11, 2017 in order to meet faculty and current students and be interviewed for the award. Two weeks following, four Chair of the Board Scholars will be named to receive the award.

According to Nancy Gillece ’81, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, most of the scholarships that Hood College awards annually are funded by alumni or certain classes that wish to give back to the college. On average, the total amount of funding that Hood College receives annually from supporters comes to about $8-9 million, $6-7.3 million of which is for scholarships and around $1.7 million goes to Hood’s operating budget for building projects and other maintenance.

As for the number students who receive awards every year, Gillece says nearly 100% of students receive something from Hood College. There is a lot to go around!