Fund Initiatives

African-American Initiative

According to research from the U.S. Department of Education, white Americans are nearly twice as likely as black Americans to have earned a bachelor's degree by the age of 29. If current trends continue, of every 100 African-American kindergarteners today, only 20 will achieve a bachelor's degree by age 29, compared to 36 out of 100 white students.

To help gain insight into this trend, the United Negro College Fund's (UNCF's) Patterson Institute conducted a survey, commissioned by The Sallie Mae Fund®. The Institute interviewed African-American students and parents in five cities nationwide concerning their preparation for college. The research showed that African-American families have high aspirations for college but do not know enough about how to pay for it.

In response, The Fund created the African-American Initiative, a multipart campaign designed to improve higher education access among African-American students. The campaign began in fall 2005 with workshops presented to African-American families across the country. Other components of the campaign include:

    Black College Dollars
  • A scholarship directory to provide African-American students and their families with easier access to hundreds of college scholarships and millions in scholarship dollars. Sponsored by The Fund and BET Networks and produced by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, "Black College Dollars," available at www.blackcollegedollars.org, offers a free, comprehensive listing of more than 300 scholarships designed for African-American students.
  • The Fund and ESSENCE Magazine collaborated on the Generation Next Scholarship Program to award five African-American women each a $5,000 scholarship and an opportunity to participate in ESSENCE events.
  • The Fund and BET Networks collaborated to reach BET's 85 million viewers and Web users with information about scholarships for college. The Fund and BET also offered a scholarship program to promote awareness that scholarships are more widely available than most students realize. The Fund will also work with BET to conduct Paying for College workshops in 2008.
  • In partnership with the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), The Fund launched the Writers of Passage Scholarship. This program involved an essay competition that awarded winning students from a Historically Black College or University, or a predominantly black college, with a $5,000 college scholarship. Universities that scholarship winners were attending received a $20,000 grant from The Sallie Mae Fund. Through 2008, a total of $60,000 in scholarships has been awarded to 12 students.

In addition, since 2003, The Fund has offered the American Dream Scholarship Program. Established in partnership with the United Negro College Fund, this program is open to African-Americans with financial need. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, with a minimum 2.5 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale), who meet Pell Grant eligibility criteria, and are enrolled full time at approved, accredited, undergraduate institutions. Scholarships range from $500 to $5,000. Through 2008, a total of $3,006,000 in scholarships have been awarded to 1,118 students.