Contact: Scholarship Department, (212) 613-1358 or scholarship@hias.org
HIAS SCHOLARS 2011 COMPETITION OPENS
Application Deadline is March 15, 2011
NEW YORK, NY, February 2, 2011 – The annual scholarship competition sponsored by HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, has opened and is accepting applications for 2011. HIAS-assisted refugees who immigrated to the United States are eligible to apply.
This year, the HIAS scholarship program, first introduced in 1974, has become HIAS Scholars, a program devoted to advancing participants’ higher education goals while engaging them in community building.
According to Gideon Aronoff, President & CEO of HIAS, “The introduction of HIAS Scholars has completely transformed the goals and implementation of the HIAS scholarship program. We want to give scholarship winners the tools they need to compete in our very connected world, while encouraging them to give back to their community. This approach represents a much more intensive engagement than our former program, and creates a win/win situation – both for the winners and their communities.”
HIAS Scholars will include both community-service and leadership development components. Awardees will participate in community building projects serving local immigrant communities. Additionally, participants will develop important leadership skills through targeted training and educational programming, both online and in person, that will address Jewish perspectives on contemporary immigration issues, advocacy skills building, genealogy and career development.
Each grantee will receive an award of $4,000 toward his or her higher education and will automatically become a member of HIAS Young Leaders, a community of young professionals and students devoted to furthering HIAS’ mission of helping migrants and advocating for fair and just immigration laws.
Since its establishment, the HIAS scholarship program has helped immigrants fulfill their dreams of advanced education, by providing financial assistance to HIAS-assisted individuals in the U.S. and olim in Israel who are pursuing college or graduate degrees.
Last year, awards were given to 118 deserving U.S. students; the awards are made possible by generous donations from individuals around the world, many of whom were personally helped by HIAS.
HIAS scholarships are intended for high school seniors who plan to pursue post-secondary education and students of all ages already enrolled in college, professional, vocational, university or graduate school programs. All applicants must demonstrate at least one year’s attendance in an American high school (12th graders only), college, or graduate school. Recipients are selected on the basis of academic excellence, financial need and community service.
Applications are available online only. Eligibility requirements and the application form can be found at www.hias.org/scholarship. The online application must be submitted by midnight EST on March 15, 2011. HIAS also awards scholarships in Israel; for more information, please visit www.hias.org.
