IUAA offers 33 scholarships

The IU Alumni Association will award 33 $1,000 scholarships this year through the IUAA Scholars program, according to a press release. To be eligible, a student must be a son or daughter of an IUAA member. Student leaders within the organization are also allowed to apply.

IUAA Deputy Executive Director Debbie Lemon said IUAA currently has more than 60,000 members, so it is not known how many students are eligible for these scholarships.

The program is entirely funded through the sales of IU vanity license plates, Lemon said. For each license plate bought through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, a portion of the revenue goes straight to IUAA scholarship programs. There were 48,000 plates issued in 2012.

“It’s grown considerably over the past few years,” she said.

While the Indianapolis Colts or the Nature Conservancy usually top the list of most popular license plates, IU consistently remains in the top five, Lemon said, even as many other universities and organizations have begun selling license plates through the BMV.

The IUAA Scholars program has existed for 19 years, Lemon said.

“When the state legislature started thinking about the license plate program because other states began doing it, the University and alumni worked together to submit these requests,” Lemon said.

Scholarships are awarded on the basis of financial need and academic achievement as determined by the Office of Student Enrollment Services, according to the press
release.

Preference is given to first-time recipients of the scholarships.

The 2013 application is available online. Some named scholarships include the Charles and Jo Ann Linsmith Scholarship and Jerry Foster Memorial Scholarship. The Charles and Jo Ann Linsmith Scholarship seeks applicants who are IUAA children or grandchildren, student leaders of IUAA-sponsored organizations or student employees of IUAA. The Jerry Foster Scholarship seeks applicants who are children of any IUAA chapter leader who currently serves as an officer or board member.

Two scholarships are reserved for each of the eight IU campuses. If one of the campuses does not have any applicants or any applicants who meet the criteria, then those scholarships become part of the at-large pool. Scholarships in the at-large pool can be awarded to students at any of the IU campuses and are not limited to one campus in particular.

Applications are due March 29 and can be found at alumni.indiana.edu/students/scholarships/iuaa.html.