Million Dollar Scholar Offers Advice for College-Bound Financial Aid Seekers at Scholarships.com

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Derrius Quarles may have had the grades of a typical scholarship winner, but his story is anything but ordinary. The 19-year-old spent his childhood in the foster care system before becoming the “Million Dollar Scholar,” a nod to the $1.1 million in scholarships he has won to fund his college education and career aspirations.

Today, Derrius is a freshman at Morehouse College in Atlanta, a college that offered him a full scholarship on top of the awards he won by tackling the scholarship application process. In a series of blog posts on Scholarships.com, a resource he credits for much of his success in the hunt for available awards, Derrius will explain how he was chosen to receive more than $1 million in scholarships, a rare feat among scholarship applicants. His posts will include tips on the scholarship search process, with advice on funding a college education no matter your background.

“Derrius is a remarkable young man and a wonderful example for visitors of Scholarships.com,” said Kevin Ladd, Vice President for Scholarships.com. “He has some great advice for those currently searching for scholarships and we feel our readers will really benefit from learning about his approach and hopefully win some scholarships of their own.”

His second post in the series, featured on the website today, gives advice on building a strong scholarship application, an important step in impressing those evaluating applicants’ academic records and achievements. Derrius himself had a difficult start in high school, earning failing marks his first year before being pushed to work harder by a teacher. He ended up graduating from Chicago’s Kenwood Academy with a 4.2 GPA, with the drive to apply for – and win – some of the most competitive and generous scholarship awards out there, including $10,000 from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation and $20,000 from the Dell Scholars Program.

Today, Derrius can boast winning more than $1.1 million in scholarships, including full scholarships not only at Morehouse, but at four other universities. Derrius is pursuing a degree in psychology and biology, with a minor in public health. He hopes to one day complete a doctorate, work on improving the public health policies and educational opportunities for low-income youth in his hometown of Chicago and nationwide, and become the U.S. Surgeon General.

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In its New College Rankings, Washington Monthly Magazine Asks 'What Do Institutions of Higher Learning Do for the Country?'

/PRNewswire/ -- As an alternative to U.S. News & World Report's much-criticized college rankings, the Washington Monthly magazine today is releasing its own annual College Guide and Rankings. Whereas U.S. News relies on crude and easily manipulated measures of money and prestige, like alumni giving rates and a vague reputational survey, the Washington Monthly ranks schools based on their contributions to society.

To compile the list, the Washington Monthly's editors gathered reams of publicly available data and settled on three criteria: social mobility, research and service. America's best colleges, the editors reasoned, are those that produce new scientific discoveries and highly trained PhDs, help economically disadvantaged students earn degrees, and emphasize the obligations students have to serve their communities and the nation at large.

The Washington Monthly's unique methodology yields strikingly different results:

-- Only one of the U.S. News top 10 universities -- Stanford -- makes the
Washington Monthly's top 10, while high profile institutions such as
Princeton, Duke and the University of Pennsylvania fail to even crack
Washington Monthly's top 25.
-- Some of the top universities on the Washington Monthly list, like
South Carolina State (#6) and Jackson State (#22), are non-elite "red
state" schools buried in the lowest tiers of the U.S. News list.
-- While all the top 20 U.S. News universities are private, 13 of the top
20 Washington Monthly universities are public.
-- The University of California system grabs the top three slots --
including number-one-ranked Berkeley -- even as the state of
California is slashing higher education funding.
-- Women's liberal arts colleges score well in the Washington Monthly
rankings, with Mount Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr and Wellesley all in
the top 10. Historically black institutions, such as Spelman and
Morehouse, also make strong showings.

"Instead of just measuring what colleges can do for you," explains Washington Monthly editor-in-chief Paul Glastris, "we ask 'What are colleges doing for the country?'"

The Washington Monthly's College Guide and Rankings appear in the magazine's September/October issue. They are also available online at a new College Guide Web site the magazine is launching today, http://washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/. The Web site will be devoted to covering higher education reform, a subject the editors believe will emerge as a major political story in the next decade thanks to average tuition prices that are rising faster than health care costs.

Other stories in the latest issue of the Washington Monthly:
-- "College for $99 a Month": Why the next generation of online education
could be great for cash-strapped students, but catastrophic for
traditional universities.
-- "Pie in the Sky": How Domino's Pizza mogul Tom Monaghan built, and
then destroyed, an elite law school.
-- "Higher Ed's Bermuda Triangle": Vast numbers of students enter
community college remedial classes every year, and are never heard
from again.

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The Sallie Mae Fund Awards $2 Million in College Scholarships to 800 Students Nationwide This School Year

(BUSINESS WIRE)--In recognition of National Scholarship Month, The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, today awarded $2 million in scholarships to help approximately 800 students pursue a college education this school year. These awards are part of The Sallie Mae Fund’s efforts to increase access to higher education for lower-income and minority students by addressing a common barrier: financial need. Since 2001, The Sallie Mae Fund has awarded more than $14 million in scholarships to 5,700 students enrolled at 1,000 colleges in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

“In uncertain economic times such as these, it is more important than ever for deserving students to have access to resources that can fund their higher education dreams,” said Erin Korsvall, vice president, The Sallie Mae Fund. “The Sallie Mae Fund commends these students for what they have accomplished, and is pleased to provide a stepping stone for them to further shine in college.”

In 2008, more than 24,000 completed applications, a record number, were submitted to The Fund by college-bound students across the country. By 2015, there will be an additional 5 million college-age individuals in the United States. Approximately 80 percent of this growth is projected to come from minority populations with greater financial need.

“Coming from a low-income family, I never thought it would be possible for me to go to college,” said Brianda Perez of San Juan, Texas, now a sophomore at University of Texas – Austin. “From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for helping me come one step closer to achieving my goals and aspirations.” Perez is a recipient of The Fund’s First in My Family scholarship, working toward a degree in mechanical engineering.

Some recipients aim to set an example for their siblings, such as Jonathan Tyes, who is using his American Dream scholarship to help fund his education at Morehouse College in Georgia. “It is very important to me that I become a physician, not only for myself, but also for my eight younger siblings,” he said. “It is imperative that I show them that it is possible to escape drugs, poverty and ignorance through education.”

Unmet Need scholarship winner Ryan Fuller, a student at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, hopes to pursue a career in the research of alternative means of energy after graduation. “Receiving The Sallie Mae Fund Unmet Need scholarship can help relieve the financial stress on my family and me so I can focus instead on reaching my goals,” he said.

To help students cover financial need and access higher education, The Sallie Mae Fund’s 2008-2009 scholarship programs included:

* “Unmet Need” Scholarship Program: Open to families with a combined income of less than $30,000, Unmet Need scholarships provided a “last-dollar” resource when no other funds were available. This year, The Fund awarded more than $600,000 to help 176 students bridge the financial need gap.
* “American Dream” Scholarship Program: The American Dream program was developed in partnership with the United Negro College Fund and offered scholarships ranging from $500 to $5,000 to African-American students with demonstrated financial need. This year, 176 African-American students received roughly $500,000 in scholarships through this program.
* “First in My Family” Scholarship Program: The Fund developed the First in My Family program in partnership with the Hispanic College Fund in 2001. This year, 169 Hispanic-American students who were the first in their family to attend college received scholarships ranging from $500 to $5,000, totaling $500,000.
* The Sallie Mae 911 Education Fund: Created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, this fund annually provides scholarship dollars to children of those who were killed or permanently disabled in the attacks. This year, The Fund provided $2,500 scholarships to 36 students, for a total of $90,000.
* Community College Transfer Scholarship Program: Offered in collaboration with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, this program provided last-dollar scholarships to Latino students transferring from a community college to an accredited higher education institution. This year, the program awarded $2,500 scholarships to 34 students, for a total of $85,000.
* “Writers of Passage” Scholarship Program: In partnership with the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, this essay competition awarded four students from a Historically Black College or University, or a predominantly black college, with a $5,000 college scholarship. The winners’ universities each also received a $20,000 grant from The Fund to help improve student outreach and retention.
* “Next Level” Scholarship Program: In partnership with Black Entertainment Television (BET), this national essay competition asked African-American high school juniors and seniors to compose a 500-word statement on the obstacles they had to overcome to realize their dream of a college education. A panel of judges selected four winners from among more than 4,300 applicants to receive a total of $25,000 in awards.
* “Generation Next” Scholarship Program: In partnership with ESSENCE magazine, five African-American women won this national essay competition and each was awarded a $5,000 college scholarship. Additionally, these women attended the first-annual ESSENCE Young Women Leadership Conference and were featured in the October issue of ESSENCE magazine.

In addition, The Fund awarded scholarships ranging from $250 to $1,000 to future college students at its free Paying for College workshops and Bus Tour stops. More than 170 students received a total of $100,000 through this year’s program.

The Sallie Mae Fund offers scholarship resources on its Web site, www.salliemaefund.org, including a free scholarship search featuring 2.9 million awards worth more than $16 billion. In addition, The Fund offers two free scholarship directories specifically for African-American and Latino students. For these resources, a complete listing of 2008-2009 scholarship recipients and the schools they are attending, or for 2009-2010 scholarship information, please visit www.salliemaefund.org.

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Vision, Truth and Love Should Guide the Class of 2008, says Newark Mayor Corey Booker

Morehouse’s newest graduates should strive for greatness while at the same time using their success for the common good, said Newark, N.J. mayor Corey A. Booker.

“If you don’t manifest the truth in the world through your actions, you remain on a log, in a bog without getting anything done,” he said to cheers during the 2008 Summer Commencement ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on Saturday, July 19. “We are people who must live our authenticity through our actions…We are a participating democracy. Get off the couch, get off the sideline and get into the game.”

Sixty-one men of Morehouse became Morehouse men during the ceremony.

They had marched from Kilgore Campus Center, through the heart of campus before entering the chapel to cheers as exuberant parents, family and friends stood, yelled and clapped. One family had blinking red lights on their shirts. A group from Maryland had all dressed in white.

Once seated, the graduates were told to see the occasion not as a culmination, but as a beginning.

President Robert M. Franklin Jr. ’75 urged the graduates to continue striving to
become Renaissance men in his charge to the class.

“Four or more years ago you made a promise, gentlemen,” he said. “Now it’s up to you to make good on that promise…Know that the world will be watching. Always remember you are not average men. You are Morehouse men.”

The audience then heard from Booker, Newark’s mayor since 2006 and a former college football star at Stanford University, a Rhodes Scholar and a Yale Law School graduate. The New Jersey native once moved into a housing project to fight for tenants’ rights and better living conditions and went on a hunger strike in front of another development to protest drug dealing.

He said spiritual lessons in vision, truth and love for his community is what led him to a life as an activist and politician.

“I have been fortunate that there have been so many messengers who have come to me to help me in this value-based, character-based, continuous education in my life,” Booker said.

He said the vision each person had of themselves is stronger than the way the world will ever look at them; the graduates should be advocates of their own truths and that their love should be so deep that generations after them benefit.

“I challenge you now to set your sights high, unleash your truths and to love flagrantly and with abandon,” Booker said.

Booker and new Johnson C. Smith University President Ronald L. Carter ’71 were presented presidential citations in honor of their work.

Ellis Barney Freeman, a retired civil service examiner, was inducted into the Morehouse College National Alumni Association as an associate member of the class of 1933. Freeman entered Morehouse in 1929 but was forced to leave school in 1931 to help support his family during the Great Depression.

By Add Seymour Jr.

Morehouse Celebrates Summer Commencement July 19

Morehouse College will round out the class of 2008 when it celebrates Summer Commencement on Saturday, July 19, at 10 a.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr International Chapel.

Corey Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, will deliver the commencement address. He will also receive the Presidential Award of Distinction. Booker has been mayor of Newark since 2006 and is only the third person to govern the city since 1970. He is the founder of Newark Now, a grassroots leadership nonprofit founded to provide Newark residents with skills, tools, and support to transform their neighborhoods.

Booker received a B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University, a B.A. in modern history from Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar and a law degree from Yale University.

He has been appointed to sit on the boards for Integrity Inc., Yale Law School, Columbia University Teachers’ College, the Black Alliance for Educational Options, North Star Academy and the International Longevity Center.

Booker has been recognized by several well known publications, including Esquire, where he was named “one of the country’s 40 Best and Brightest;” New Jersey Monthly, which named him one of New Jersey’s top 40 under 40; Black Enterprise, which named him on the Hot List, America’s Most Powerful Players under 40; and Time magazine.

Also receiving the Presidential Award of Distinction is alumnus Ronald L. Carter, Morehouse class of 1971. Carter is currently the 13th president of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., and has been an educator for more than three decades. In fact, his career in education has taken him from South Carolina to South Africa.

Carter graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Morehouse with a B.A. in sociology and philosophy and continued his education at Boston University, where he earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in religion. While at Boston, he served as director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Career, Educational and Counseling Services; was appointed the school’s youngest dean of students; and was senior editor of Debate and Understanding, a scholarly journal for the study of minority Americans’ economic, political and social development.

Morehouse expects to graduate more than 65 students during the summer convocation.