The University of Missouri – St. Louis (UMSL) is offering a new full-tuition scholarship in effort to recruit and retain more talented St. Louis students from under-represented backgrounds.
UMSL leaders said the Dr. Donald Suggs Scholarship honors Suggs, the publisher and executive editor of The St. Louis American and president of the St. Louis Foundation, which has facilitated the awarding of $4.5 million in scholarships and community grants since its inception in 1994.
The $12,000 scholarship covers tuition and fees for 30 credit hours per year and provides $1,000 per semester for books & supplies.
Candidates must be graduates of a high school in the St. Louis metro area or current high school seniors, starting college in the fall semester following the application deadline. They also must meet two of these three criteria: rank in top 10 percent of high school class, have earned a 3.5 cumulative high school GPA, or have a composite ACT score of 26 or higher (or SAT equivalent).
Candidates also must have demonstrated involvement and potential for leadership through extracurricular activities or community service. Preference will be given to first-generation college students and/or underrepresented minority students.
Students must apply through UMSL’s online scholarship application, and the deadline for submission is Friday, December 23. A scholarship committee will review the application materials and select the recipient for fall 2017, as well as an alternate.
The scholarship is renewable for three additional years. Recipients must successfully complete 24 credit hours per academic year and maintain a 2.5 GPA or higher.
Alan Byrd, UMSL’s dean of enrollment services, said he is excited that the recipients will be assigned to a “student success coach” in the Office of Multicultural Student Services (MSS). Recipients are also expected to actively participate in MSS programs and activities.
“We are trying to develop the scholars into leaders on campus and leaders in the community,” he said.
The scholarship is unique to others that UMSL offers because it focuses on first-generation college students, low-income students and students of color who have excellent grades but don’t have financial means to attend a university, he said.
“This will remove the financial barriers so they can focus on school and reach their full potential in the classroom,” he said.
Byrd said that he has been working towards establishing the scholarship since he arrived at UMSL in 2009 as director of admissions. Now, as dean, he is in charge of all recruitment initiatives, financial aid and enrollment. He said many local students rely on UMSL, and 70 percent of their graduates stay in St. Louis.
“We are vital to the region,” he said.
UMSL’s Bridge program strives to establish a partnership with students in disadvantaged school districts starting from fifth grade and all the way through high school. Byrd believes their outreach efforts are working. This year, UMSL graduated the largest class of students of color in the university’s history with 632. It far exceeded the goal of 500 graduates of color set in UMSL’s strategic plan.
“Now we are definitely making some good progress,” Byrd said. “I’m really excited about the direction we are headed. The number one reason students leave our institution is financial barriers. The scholarship is a win-win for us and the community.”
Byrd wants for UMSL to name the scholarship after Suggs – as a number of other universities also have done, working with the St. Louis American Foundation – because of his personal example of leadership. Suggs worked his way up, from working-class family in Jim Crow America, to be an oral surgeon, newspaper publisher, philanthropist and civic leader.
“Dr. Suggs has such a compelling story for young people,” Byrd said. “There are not enough role models in African-American community. You don’t meet many African-American surgeons, especially those who are so engaged in the community and have done so much to improve education.”
