Regional Update...
WASFAA Region Students Awarded USA Group Scholarships
by Tom Quinn, Vice President for USA Group

USA Group will award $240,500 in scholarships to 180 students in the WASFAA region. In 2000, a total of $1 million in scholarships will be donated to 712 college-bound students from across the country.

This scholarship program extends our commitment to help students achieve their higher education goals. Over the next three to five years, we intend to increase that commitment and provide a total of $10 million in scholarships to students.

This year's USA Group Scholarship Program offers financial support to students who have economic need and who also are either members of ethnic minorities or have physical disabilities. Scholarship recipients are students who plan to enroll or are enrolled in full-time undergraduate or graduate coursework at an accredited two- or four-year college, university, or vocational-technical school.

Applicants from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the British West Indies, and the Virgin Islands were eligible for the program. Judges gave particular consideration to applicants from the nine states where USA Funds®, a USA Group affiliate, is the federally designated guarantor of student loans, and in another five states plus the District of Columbia, where one-third or more of the students enrolled in postsecondary education are members of ethnic minority groups. Four states in the WASFAA region, Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, and Hawaii, are designated states.

Depending on their documented financial need, scholarship recipients will receive $1,000 to $2,000 toward their higher education expenses. A panel of independent judges selected this year's scholarship recipients from a field of 2,844 qualified candidates based on the following criteria:

• Past academic performance and future potential
• Leadership and participation in school and community activities
• Work experience
• Career and educational aspirations and goals
• References