New $5 million fund to aid needy students
A $5 million gift has created a scholarship program to help students with financial need attend KU.
The Ernst F. Lied Foundation of Las Vegas, Nev., established the scholarship to encourage students with financial hardships and other challenges to attend KU. Known as the Christina M. Hixson Opportunity Awards, the scholarship program will offer $5,000 scholarships to qualifying students from across Kansas.
Candidates for the awards must be graduates of Kansas high schools who, due to life challenges or lack of resources, might not consider pursuing a college education. Recipients must demonstrate financial need and qualify academically for admittance to KU.
The program will offer the first 10 awards to freshmen admitted for the 2007-'08 academic year. It will continue to add 10 more scholarships per year until the program supports renewable scholarships for 40 students.
Christina Hixson, the trustee of the Lied Foundation, grew up in Clarinda, Iowa. She did not have the chance to attend a four-year university. Her goal is to reach out to students who, like her, lack opportunities for a college education.
"I'm interested in giving students a chance," Hixson said. "This scholarship will support a lot of first-generation college students, and students who didn't think that they could afford KU. That's my hope, to make a difference to them."
KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said the new program would be an important addition to the more than $20 million in privately funded scholarship aid given to about 5,000 KU students each year.
"The Hixson Opportunity Awards will make available educational opportunities for students who might not otherwise believe it possible to pursue a college education," Hemenway said.
The Christina M. Hixson Opportunity Award Fund will be managed by KU Endowment, the official fundraising and fund-management organization for the University of Kansas. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.
