West Virginia residents looking to attend college soon might find financial assistance through the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation.
The Charleston-based organization is accepting applications now through Feb. 1 for $1.5 million in scholarships available for the upcoming 2023-24 academic year.
New this year, the foundation is offering students $5,000 from the Pritt Family Scholarship.
Frank Pritt grew up on Charleston’s West Side and was a 1958 graduate of Stonewall Jackson High School. He worked at Union Carbide, IBM and the Harris Corp. before founding Attachmate Corp., a successful software engineering company.
Pritt died in 2015 at age 75.
The scholarship in Pritt’s name is based on financial need and is open to graduating seniors and those attending a public college or university in West Virginia. The fund will distribute $5,000 scholarships to about 100 students, said Michelle Foster, president and CEO of the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation.
“Our typical scholarship is $1,000 or $2,000, so this really is a game-changing scholarship opportunity for students from all over our state who want to go to a public school within West Virginia,” Foster said.
The 100 scholarships from the Pritt Family are in addition to the approximately 375 scholarships the foundation gives out in a typical year, Foster said.
“So this is really an opportunity to help a student out there who needs that extra help to support him or her as they get out and pursue post-secondary education,” Foster said.
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“As you know, our education levels are low compared to other states and other neighboring states,” she said. “The number of people with bachelor’s degrees is kind of low compared to neighboring states, and overall compared to the nation at large. So, here’s an opportunity for us to really change that statistic by getting more students into college and then into the workforce.”
Foster said the foundation has 120 scholarship funds. While the scholarships are competitive, they each have different sets of criteria. Not every scholarship gets applicants.
Also this year, the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation added the Ester & Inez Cyrus Multicultural Fund, established for Black students with a 3.0 to 4.0 GPA and community service.
Students from Riverside High School looking to attend any accredited post-secondary school in West Virginia are eligible to apply for the Susie Gartley Fund.
TGKVF Scholar Fund was established this year for students in Boone, Clay, Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln, or Putnam counties applying to a four-year accredited undergraduate program in West Virginia. With the fund, two students will receive $3,000 to $5,000 each. The scholarship is renewable for four years.
The foundation will host an in-person information session about scholarships Jan. 12 at the Kanawha County Public Library, at 123 Capitol St., but Foster said students and parents can find the information online now.
“All the information is ... is currently on our website,” Foster said. “So, they can go to tgkvf.org, go to the scholarships page on our website and get the information that they need to apply, and everything’s online. So, they can start an application and come back to it later.”
For more information and to apply for scholarships, visit www .tgkvf.org or contact Scholarship Program Officer Susan Hoover at shoover@tgkvf.org.
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