What is the Students for Life at MSU Endowment Project?

By now, you hopefully have heard about Students for Life at MSU’s Endowment Project. If you aren’t familiar with what exactly this project is, keep reading because you are in the right place to find out!

The basis for this project came about when our club was discussing raising the money for a scholarship for pregnant and parenting students at Montana State. During this discussion, one of our members brought up the idea of endowing a scholarship. After a little research on endowments such as what they are and how they work, we decided this was something we wanted to do for our campus community, and determined that the minimum amount we needed at Montana State University is $25,000.

Okay, but what is an endowment scholarship? Merriam Webster defines endowment as “the part of an institution’s income derived from donations,” and that is exactly where the scholarship money will come for. Once we get to the $25,000 amount, we will donate the money to the Montana State University Alumni Foundation, and they will create and maintain an investment for us.

The interest from this investment will provide a $1,000 return every year, perpetually. That money will be given out yearly as a $1,000 scholarship for a pregnant or parenting student that meets our pre-set requirements. These requirements will be factors like whether or not the student is full-time, if there is financial need, and so on. Each year, the Alumni Foundation will send the money on to the Office of Financial Aid, who will then review their data and match the scholarship with the student that best meets our requirements.

So now that you have a better understanding of what this project is and how it works, you likely have a few questions. I am adding a FAQ section below but we also want you to feel more than welcome to reach out to us on our Contact page with other comments or questions you may have.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• What is the timeline for this goal?
  • Our absolute deadline from the Alumni Foundation is November of 2022, but I am confident we can reach our goal well before then. We are well over half way!
• What happens if you don’t reach $25,000?
  • We have five years from November of 2017 to reach our goal. Should we fall short, the money will be re-directed to a similar fund that will help students at MSU who are single parents.
• Is a $1,000 scholarship even enough to help a student?
  • Of course! While we wish that we had the resources to help these students pay their entire bill, we are starting with what we feel is a feasible, yet ambitious goal. $1,000 can easily cover a full-time student’s books for the entire year, or it could take a chunk out of any tuition that is not covered by financial aid. Studies also show that many pregnant and parenting students move closer to their parents when they decide to continue school while raising children, resulting in a majority of these students qualifying for in-state tuition. In-state tuition at Montana State University is just under $7,000 per year, making a $1,000 scholarship very valuable.

Thanks for reading through this post and please keep track of our project on this blog or on our Facebook page! You can donate to our endowment fund here. Just enter “Parenting Student Endowment” or “93313” in the “Other” box when you follow the link above!

 

For Life,

Lindsay