The University of Colorado at Boulder will expand a need-based scholarship program designed to attract and retain non-traditional students through an $80,000 Daniels Opportunity Scholarship grant from the Daniels Fund beginning in 2007.
"We are deeply honored to be awarded our second Daniels Opportunity Scholarship," said CU-Boulder Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson. "This grant will increase access to students who historically have struggled to overcome financial barriers to a college education. As a result, we will be able to double the number of worthy students who can realize their academic goals at CU-Boulder," Peterson said.
Recruitment efforts will target adult learners, GED recipients, foster care youth and returning military personnel. A committee will select the scholarship recipients who will participate in academic neighborhood programs and student clubs and organizations, besides regularly meeting with key program faculty.
In addition to academic success, the program's goal is to promote skills that will prepare students to become community leaders who recognize societal needs and realize their own potential to give back to the community, both at home and globally.
In December 2007, seven of the eight current Daniels Opportunity Scholarship recipients will have graduated from CU-Boulder. As transfer students from non-traditional backgrounds, scholarship funds were critical to their success.
"Before I received the scholarship, I was working a lot and always worrying about how to pay tuition and living expenses," said Kevin Owens, a current Daniels Opportunity Scholarship recipient scheduled to graduate in May. "I was ecstatic when I found out I would receive scholarship money for three years. It was a huge relief and I could finally concentrate on my studies."
The Daniels Fund operates the Daniels Fund Scholarship Program and the Daniels Fund Grants Program in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The Fund was established in 1997 by Bill Daniels, a pioneer in cable television known for his kindness and generosity to people in need.
Recognized as one of the top public universities in the United States, the flagship CU-Boulder campus has five colleges and four schools, four Nobel laureates and seven MacArthur fellows. Thirty-three faculty are members of the prestigious National Academies.
CU-Boulder was ranked 34th among the nation's public universities offering doctoral degrees in the U.S. News & World Report 2007 Best Colleges edition. In the 2007 edition of America's Best Graduate Schools, three physics graduate programs were ranked in the top 10 in the nation, including a No. 1 ranking for atomic, molecular and optical physics.