Diversity Access fund to encourage variety
Holly McIntyre
Issue date: 12/6/02 Section: News
The university plans to offer a $500 to $6,000 Diversity Access Scholarship to incoming freshmen in the next school year to attract a more racially diverse group of students.
Mary Piccioli, director of financial aid, said this program is one of many steps the university plans to take to encourage greater diversity in the student population.
The university's Strategic Plan, which outlines the school¹s goals and values for the coming years lists encouraging diversity on campus as one of its priorities, according to Piccioli.
Applicants must be African American, Hispanic American, Native American or Asian American. They must also fulfill the university's entrance requirements and complete their application within the priority admissions time frame. Students then apply to regular scholarship programs based on their SAT/ACT scores and grades. The Diversity Access Scholarship may be given based on financial need and academic achievement, according to "Inside Bona's."
Students whose applications show an interest in values stressed at St. Bonaventure may be given special consideration, according to Piccioli. She said this might be determined by students' extra-curricular and leadership activities, their entrance essay or on-campus visits.
Piccioli said, "No other student's financial aid will be decreased because of this program."
"It will be a small portion of a significant grant/scholarship program already offered by the university from which students receive grants/scholarships based on academic achievement, financial need, athletics, musical talent, sibling enrollment and parish affiliation," she said.
Funds for the Diversity Access Scholarship come from tuition revenue with the money for other scholarship program.
Piccioli said this program is not the first of its kind at the university. "A number of years ago the university did have a small scholarship fund for students of color. It was made available when a full-tuition scholarship used for a particular high school was converted to a minority scholarship after the high school closed. It was phased out a few years later," she said.
According to Piccioli, the university does not currently have plans to develop more programs like this.
Piccioli said the university distributed brochures for the scholarship to visiting students and in the New York City area when representatives from campus visited high schools "where there are larger populations for students of color," she added.
She said colleges comparable to St. Bonaventure, like Canisius College and Nazareth College, offer scholarships similar to the Diversity Access Scholarship, but the university "started the program because it's the right thing for St. Bonaventure to do," not because of what other colleges offer.
Mary Piccioli, director of financial aid, said this program is one of many steps the university plans to take to encourage greater diversity in the student population.
The university's Strategic Plan, which outlines the school¹s goals and values for the coming years lists encouraging diversity on campus as one of its priorities, according to Piccioli.
Applicants must be African American, Hispanic American, Native American or Asian American. They must also fulfill the university's entrance requirements and complete their application within the priority admissions time frame. Students then apply to regular scholarship programs based on their SAT/ACT scores and grades. The Diversity Access Scholarship may be given based on financial need and academic achievement, according to "Inside Bona's."
Students whose applications show an interest in values stressed at St. Bonaventure may be given special consideration, according to Piccioli. She said this might be determined by students' extra-curricular and leadership activities, their entrance essay or on-campus visits.
Piccioli said, "No other student's financial aid will be decreased because of this program."
"It will be a small portion of a significant grant/scholarship program already offered by the university from which students receive grants/scholarships based on academic achievement, financial need, athletics, musical talent, sibling enrollment and parish affiliation," she said.
Funds for the Diversity Access Scholarship come from tuition revenue with the money for other scholarship program.
Piccioli said this program is not the first of its kind at the university. "A number of years ago the university did have a small scholarship fund for students of color. It was made available when a full-tuition scholarship used for a particular high school was converted to a minority scholarship after the high school closed. It was phased out a few years later," she said.
According to Piccioli, the university does not currently have plans to develop more programs like this.
Piccioli said the university distributed brochures for the scholarship to visiting students and in the New York City area when representatives from campus visited high schools "where there are larger populations for students of color," she added.
She said colleges comparable to St. Bonaventure, like Canisius College and Nazareth College, offer scholarships similar to the Diversity Access Scholarship, but the university "started the program because it's the right thing for St. Bonaventure to do," not because of what other colleges offer.
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