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| Image from yourwordstoday.org, a joint effort of the Ad Council and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund |
The Hispanic Scholarship Fund is encouraging Latino/Latina Tennesseans in their senior year of high school, in undergraduate school, and in graduate school to apply for scholarships that opened up September 1 and that will close around December 15 (deadlines may vary from scholarship to scholarship).
Latinos in Tennessee have been receiving scholarship awards through HSF since 1975, with 183 students receiving a total of $502,259. Most of the colleges and universities in Tennessee have had an HSF award recipient among their students, including Aquinas, Austin Peay, Belhaven, Belmont, Bethel, Chattanooga State, Christian Brothers, Cumberland, ETSU, Fisk, Freed-Hardeman, Lee, LeMoyne-Owen, Memphis, MTSU, Rhodes, South, Southern Adventist, Strayer, TSU, Tech, Trevecca, UTK, UTM, Vanderbilt, and Watkins.
Last year, HSF helped grant scholarships to 14 students in Tennessee, for a total award amount of $38,509. That is down from $61,570 awarded for 20 Tennessee scholarships in 2009, and $65,861 awarded across 21 scholarships in 2008.
"We would love to see more applications from Tennessee," said David Precise, HSF's National Director of Development, Southeast. Precise, who operates out of Birmingham, has been visiting the Volunteer State this year to get the word out about the scholarship opportunities to students here. Nationwide, HSF supported close to 4,500 awards valued at $29.8 million in 2010. Over its 36-year history, HSF has helped connect more than 100,000 Hispanic American students to over $335 million.
Students interested in scholarships can begin the process at the HSF website - http://www.hsf.net/innercontent.aspx?id=34 - and the recommendation is to start preparing the materials now. Applicants who start too close to the deadline may not be able to gather everything they need in time.
