Greetings to our extended Opportunity Scholarship Teams,
As we look to the beginning of the 2017-18 academic year, we want to provide you an update on our Opportunity Scholarship Program. Attached is an overview; we have included highlights below.
In many thanks to the incredible support of Eastern Connecticut State University and Delaware State University, our first cohort of 76 Scholars are thriving! 100% of these Scholars have renewed their scholarship to enroll in Fall of 2017.
For our 2017-18 scholarship round, we added three additional Partner Colleges – Trinity Washington University (Washington DC), Christian Brothers University (Memphis, TN), and Western Oregon University (for DREAMers in the Western States). Despite the uncertain political climate, we more than doubled the number of applicants and 177 Opportunity Scholars have accepted the award to start in the Fall of 2017. In addition, we have awarded Scholarships to fund 55 National Scholars attending your colleges. In total, this is $21.9M in committed funds.
We are now looking toward our 2018-19 scholarship round. Our goal is to add at least another 175 awardees. This puts us well on our path to funding over 500 Opportunity Scholars. We do not expect to add any additional Partner Colleges and, at least for the moment, it appears that the locked-out states will remain the same (with the possible exclusion of Idaho which is now offering in-state tuition).
We will continue to keep you in the loop and update you as these issues develop. For now, let us thank you for your bold and courageous support for DREAMers both in and outside of your states. Beyond changing the lives of these Scholars and their families, you send an important message to our nation’s leaders that all students – regardless of their immigration status – deserve the opportunity of a college education.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
In gratitude,
TheDream.US