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Foresters Financial has named this year’s recipients of the insurance company’s competitive academic scholarships.
The company has awarded 250 renewable tuition scholarships each year for decades. In total, $621,500 was awarded across this year’s 250 recipients. A breakdown reveals that 171 are from the US, while 79 are from Canada.
According to a release, this year’s recipients had an average of 590 hours of volunteer service. In addition, they also had an average high school GPA of 3.8. Most of them are going into their first year this fall, and all of them are pursuing post-secondary education at an accredited university, community college, or trade program.
Notably, a good portion are also entering programs focused on helping others – such as healthcare, teaching, and social work, while five were recognized with the Ken Peterson Award for demonstrating exception leadership. Those awardees were given larger scholarship amounts.
The award’s namesake, Ken Peterson, served as Foresters International fraternal president from 1996 to 2000. He was instrumental in establishing Foresters charitable initiatives focused on children.
“At Foresters, giving back is in our DNA, and our annual scholarships are one manifestation of that. It was amazing to see so many strong contenders apply for our scholarships, and I sincerely congratulate this year’s winners,” commented Foresters Financial global chief membership officer Nicole Gourley.
To apply for the scholarship, applicants had to meet criteria such as: being a Foresters member (or being a member’s spouse, child/grandchild, or be under the legal guardianship of one); complete at least 40 hours of volunteer work and have a GPA of 2.8 and/or a minimum grade of 70%; be enrolled in a minimum two-year undergraduate program of study at an accredited college/university or vocation/technical school in the fall of 2019.
