Gates Scholarship To Fund College For 300 Students Of Color

ANNAPOLIS, MD -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is offering full scholarships to 300 students of color. The scholarship requires recipients to meet certain standards and to fill out paperwork, as well as writing an essay.

Applications opened on July 15 and students have until Sept. 15 to apply. It is a new program, just launched this year in conjunction with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

The scholarship will cover tuition, fees, housing, books and other costs, the Education Writers Association reported. They will select 300 students a year for ten years, bringing the total to 3,000 students.

The qualify, applying students must be non-white, from low-income backgrounds and must have strong leadership credentials. Hispanic Scholarship Fund president and CEO Fidel Vargas said the students “will be selected from a diverse, competitive, and national applicant pool. We expect the demographic profile of each class to mirror the diversity of the targeted communities served by the program," the Education Writers Association reported.

Vargas said most applications remain unfinished, at a rate of over half, in many cases. He recommends students simply focus on finishing the application.

Winners will be selected based on their academic record, leadership qualities, essays, recommendations and interviews.

For more information, visit the Gates Scholarship website or the Hispanic Scholarship Fund website.

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