Grantmakers in the News

Textile heiress Mignon C. Smith is providing scholarships to Alabama students who, while they may not have a high grade-point average, have a record of service to family and community.

First in Family Scholarships, a $10 million scholarship program endowed by Ms. Smith, is unusual at a time when competition for college scholarships has become so intense that often only straight-A students are considered. Ms. Smith believes that, although these straight-A students have plenty of opportunities, those whose high school grades suffer because they must help raise siblings or hold down jobs do not have those same opportunities.

Many experts agree. In the last academic year, scholarships financed by colleges and universities nationwide amounted to $23 billion , while federal grants totaled $17 billion and state grants close to $6 billion, said Jamie Merisotis, president of the DC-based Institute for Higher Education Policy. All three of these scholarships types are awarded primarily on the basis of straight financial need or academic merit, he said.

“What’s interesting about private scholarship aid is that some of it is used to promote innovation, like this one down in Alabama that is supporting community service,” he said. “That’s a valuable idea.”

The First in Family Scholarship program will be administered by the Birmingham-based J. Craig and Page T. Smith Foundation, named for Smith’s parents. It is not a requirement that applicants be the first members of their families to attend college, but the foundation will probably give preference to those who are, according to Ahrian Davis Tyler, the lawyer who helped to establish the foundation and will administer the scholarship program.

“Mignon wants to make sure that education becomes a leveling of the playing field between the rich and the poor,” said Ms. Tyler. “But this scholarship is not for slackers. It’s for the child raised by a single mom who’s been helping with siblings and working part-time and doing volunteer work in a nursing home.”

Beginning in fall 2005, the foundation will provide full tuition, room, board and books for 10 Alabama students who enroll at any of Alabama’s public or private four-year colleges. The average cost of attending one of Alabama’s public universities is $12,500, according to Ms. Tyler.

In addition to the scholarship program, Ms. Smith announced in December that she would donate $5 million to the University of Alabama to fund the J. Craig Smith Endowment Chair for Integrity in Business.