UGA announces need-based scholarship matching program

The University of Georgia will offer an additional 400 to 600 annual scholarships, thanks to a new program based on the financial needs of students.

UGA president Jere Morehead announced the Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program during his State of the University address Wednesday.

The UGA Foundation will match any gift to the university in the amount of $50,000, $75,000 or $100,000 to establish an endowment for the need-based scholarships.

“Scholarships are life-changing,” Morehead said in UGA’s news release. “They remove barriers and open doors. They create for our students and their families pathways to futures that would otherwise be unreachable.”

Morehead thanked the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation for its “transformative” gift of $30 million for need-based scholarships as the university announced its $1.2 billion Commit to Georgia campaign in November. He said he hopes this gift inspires alumni and friends of the university to reach new levels of support for need-based aid.

“This outstanding new initiative will help to keep our best and brightest students here in Georgia,” alumnus Dan Amos, a UGA Foundation trustee and chairman and chief executive officer of Columbus-based supplemental insurer Aflac said in the release. “It also will go a long way in ensuring that the students who enroll at UGA have the greatest possible learning experiences.”

Morehead said, “The university is more invested now than ever before in the communities of this state.” He noted the Small Business Development Center helped create more than 3,300 new jobs last year and UGA’s annual economic impact on the state is an estimated $5.25 billion, including $57.4 million in the Columbus metro area, with $8.7 million coming from research and service and $48.7 million as a direct impact from alumni living in the region.

This story was originally published January 25, 2017 at 4:32 PM with the headline "UGA announces need-based scholarship matching program."