Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund

Emma Miller announced the development of the first ever Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund. Emma reports: “I thought about it many times during the years I was studying and I'd mention it and people were very encouraging. On my graduation day I vowed I would do my best to get it started and I reached out to two other former-Amish who are in college and the three of us put it together. I kept a blog of the process so you can see it took us very long to get this far! www.adsfund.blogspot.com/ .

The Scholarship is called Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund and the money would be deposited directly through the student's financial aid at the university. Usually they apply that to tuition first and if there is any left over, it can go towards books etc. The majority would likely to tuition. We don't know how much the scholarship will be yet. We have to raise the money. Hopefully we'll have an estimate by May. We would like to first help those who came directly from an Amish background and have Amish parents who are not supportive of their decision to study. We feel like those are the ones who need the most support and encouragement.

The money will be kept at The Mennonite Foundation in Goshen Indiana and the scholarship winner will be chosen based on grades, need, and a written essay. The money will come from donations, which we are still working on. There has been some interest from sponsors, but we haven't locked in a large amount yet. We have faith that we can at least raise enough money to give one scholarship by June and then lock in some sponsors who can donate annually so we're not starting from scratch each year. I am planning on donating as well, especially once I'm working full time again. (I'm finishing up a Masters degree in May)

Our plans are to award the first one around June/July of this year which would go towards the fall semester. Potential applicants should keep an eye on the website at http://adsfund.weebly.com/scholarship-application-information.html. We will update the information as soon as we're ready to take applications. They will have to fill out a form and write a short essay and supply copies of their grades (either GED or college grades) and their proof of acceptance or enrolment at a college. There is a form to fill out on the website which will go to me or they can email me directly at emmamiller.adsfund@gmail.com

Our website is : http://adsfund.weebly.com/index.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Amish-Descendant-Scholarship-Fund-ADSFund/132258213452458 .”


If you’d like more information about how to donate to the fund or how to apply for the scholarship, please contact Emma at: emmamiller.adsfund@gmail.com



1 comment:

Joanne Sher said...

Wonderful idea - praying many help, and many ARE helped!