Posted 11:23 pm Tuesday, August 31, 2010
$5 Million Given To Help Fund Home-Schooler Scholarships
By EMILY GUEVARA
Staff Writer
A $5 million donation to LeTourneau University will provide scholarships to home-schooled high school graduates.
Staff Writer
A $5 million donation to LeTourneau University will provide scholarships to home-schooled high school graduates.
University officials announced the gift last week and it is believed to be the largest endowment ever formed solely for home-school student scholarships, according to a university statement.
The gift, made by an anonymous donor, will fund $3,000 scholarships awarded annually. Fifteen students already have been selected as recipients this year.
Renewable over four academic years, the scholarships will be awarded to freshmen who demonstrate both financial need and solid academic achievement.
University President Dr. Dale A. Lunsford said that scholarships like this are critical in a day and age when families need all the help they can get to make college more affordable.
He said that by nature, home-school families tend to have more financial need than others because they typically are one-income households.
"I expect the number of home school students might grow some," Lunsford said speaking about the effect of the scholarships. "I think the quality of students going here might increase as well because of the aid."
In the past 16 years, the number of home-school students entering LeTourneau as freshman has grown more than tenfold, according to figures provided by the university.
Four home-schooled students entered the university as freshman in 1994 compared with more than 60 this fall.
Overall, home-schoolers make up roughly 19 percent of the university's 1,300 students at the Longview campus.
LeTourneau is an interdenominational Christian university located in Longview. It also has graduate and undergraduate degree programs for working adults online and at education institutions in Austin, Bedford, Dallas, Houston and Tyler.
