National Group Awards IUPUI Scholarship Provider of the Year Award

INDIANAPOLIS – FastWeb and the National Scholarship Providers Association (NSPA) announced on October 25, 2006 at the NSPA conference in Atlanta, GA, that the Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has been awarded the 2006 NSPA College and University Providers Scholarship Provider of the Year award. This prestigious award, sponsored by FastWeb, recognizes scholarship providers that demonstrate exceptional leadership, efficiency, and impact in their support of higher education. IUPUI will receive a monetary award of $2,500 designated for their general scholarship fund.

IUPUI is an urban post-secondary school whose mission is to educate the citizenry of Indianapolis and greater Indiana. Of all Indiana state schools, IUPUI enrolls the largest number of Indiana residents – 97% of those enrolled are state residents. Due to this, they award more scholarship aid to in-state students than any other Indiana state institution. Additionally, IUPUI enrolls the highest number of first generation students in the state of Indiana. Typically, approximately 60% of any incoming freshmen class is first in their families to attend college.

In 2006, the total number of students in the scholarship program is 5,651, with an average dollar amount per student just shy of $2,200. The total dollar amount of scholarships offered reached 12.4 million (this includes institutional, foundation and private sector based scholarship aid). Scholarships are awarded to not only incoming freshmen, but to continuing students in recognition of academic achievement, leadership and, more recently, community service initiatives. During this past year, the Scholarship Office led the effort to bring 49 displaced college students from Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida who had gone through Hurricane Katrina, to the campus for the Fall 05 semester. More information about IUPUI can be found at http://www.iupui.edu/.

FastWeb, the Internet's leading scholarship search service, helps students make the decisions that shape their lives: choosing a college, paying for college, and finding jobs and internships. FastWeb is a free service and can be found at www.fastweb.com.

The NSPA’s mission is to advance the collective impact of scholarships by informing policy, and to provide opportunities for professional development and the exchange of best practices among scholarship providers. The NSPA is a membership association representing over 200 scholarship providers including private, community, and corporate foundations, colleges and universities, and affiliate organizations engaged in the field of higher education scholarships.