LAKE CITY– The Meeting Street Scholarship Fund, aimed at helping high-achieving graduates pay for college, recently announced a partnership with The Darla Moore Foundation. This remarkable philanthropic commitment by The Darla Moore Foundation expands the Meeting Street Scholarship beyond Charleston County to include eligible students in eight additional South Carolina counties in the Pee Dee Region beginning with the 2021-2022 scholarship cycle. Eligible counties include: Clarendon, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, and Williamsburg.
“With a shared mission of expanding access to quality higher education in South Carolina, partnering with the amazing Meeting Street Scholarship Fund was an obvious choice for our Foundation,” says Darla Moore, founder of The Darla Moore Foundation. “We know higher education is a key element for success later in life and the cost of a college degree grows every year. We must make higher education available to every deserving student who wants it, but without burdening them with student loan debt far into their adulthood.”
Scholarship recipients can receive up to $40,000 in college scholarships, with awards up to $10,000 annually for four years.
“We are incredibly humbled and excited to partner with The Darla Moore Foundation. It is through generous philanthropic efforts like this that we can offer this scholarship resource to more students across South Carolina,” says Ben Navarro, founder of the Meeting
Street Scholarship Fund. “We are proud to partner with Darla Moore, a visionary leader in our state, as we commit to provide deserving students access to South Carolina’s best colleges.”
The simple Scholarship application is now available on the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund website at meetingstreetscholarshipfund.org.
The scholarship is designed to identify academically high-achieving students with limited ability to afford college tuition and support their aspirations in attending college without accruing crushing student loan debt.
2022 high school graduates who meet the following criteria are eligible to apply for and receive the scholarship:
• Reside in one of the following counties: Charleston, Clarendon, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, or Williamsburg
• Graduate in 2022 from a public high school or eligible charter high school located in one of the above counties
• Earn an SC LIFE or Palmetto Fellows Scholarship
—For SC LIFE Scholarship, must meet two of the following three requirements:
-Earn at least a 3.0 GPA in high school
-Score at least 1100 on SAT or 24 on ACT
-Rank in the top 30% of their graduating class
• Qualify for a Federal Pell Grant by completing FAFSA
• Attend one of the eligible SC colleges and universities
“The Meeting Street Scholarship Fund is perfectly aligned with The Darla Moore Foundation’s mission and goals,” said Harry Lesesne, The Darla Moore Foundation’s executive director. “The Foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of life of people in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. This scholarship will do exactly that.”
The first application cycle of the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund awarded scholarship funding to 94 scholars in Charleston County this past year. With the addition of the Pee Dee Region, the Fund estimates that more than 200 students could earn a scholarship during the upcoming application cycle.
To learn more about the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund, visit www.meetingstreetscholarshipfund.org.