Scholarship Student Stories
BNSF Railway Foundation Scholarship
The BNSF Railway Foundation Scholarship was established by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Foundation to support students from underrepresented populations, preference being students from a community of color, with substantial demonstrated financial need. For more than 150 years, BNSF Railway has been quietly delivering cars, coal, clothing, games, and nearly anything else found in homes and businesses. Today, their focus is on using speed, agility, and resourcefulness to help expand the global marketplace for goods and services. Recipients are to be students majoring in disciplines that align with BNSF Railway’s business focus, such as engineering and related sciences, economics, marketing, and communications, etc.
Carpenter Foundation Scholarship
The Carpenter Foundation, located in Medford, Oregon, established the Carpenter Foundation Annual Scholarship through the Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges & Universities (OAICU) in 1998.
The Carpenter Foundation's mission is to add opportunity, choice, enrichment, and a climate for change for those living in the Rogue River Valley. This scholarship supports students from Jackson or Josephine Counties located in southern Oregon with demonstrated financial need. The majority of grants funded by the Carpenter Foundation are focused in education, constituting over 30% of the foundation's total donations.
Costco Wholesale Scholarship
The Costco Wholesale Annual Scholarship was established by Costco Wholesale through the Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges & Universities (OAICU). The Costco Wholesale Scholarship supports students from underrepresented populations, preference being students from a community of color, with substantial demonstrated financial need.
Costco is a Washington corporation, publicly traded under the Nasdaq ticker symbol "COST", with its home office in Issaquah, Washington. Annual revenues are approximately $72.5 billion with 557 warehouses worldwide. Costco Wholesale Corporation operates an international chain of membership warehouses, mainly under the "Costco Wholesale" name, that carry quality, brand name merchandise at substantially lower prices than are typically found at conventional wholesale or retail sources. Additionally, Costco Wholesale Industries, a division of the Company, operates manufacturing businesses, including special food packaging, optical laboratories, meat processing and jewelry distribution. These businesses have a common goal of providing members with high quality products at substantially lower prices.
E3 (Earn, Educate, Empower)
E3 is an innovative, need-based matched savings program that pairs resources with eligible students pursuing a college education at one of Oregon’s leading private colleges and universities. E3 makes college more affordable by matching savings at a 6:1 ratio, giving students, who have saved $500, up to $3,500 to use for tuition or approved educational expenses per enrollment year!
E3 was developed in collaboration with CASA of Oregon, The Alliance, and their member institutions. To date since March 2010, 819 students at Alliance member institutions have participated in the Alliance Education IDA program. The aggregate total of participating students' savings to date is $841,589, and the total matches tendered to the member colleges on these students' behalf is now $4,714,250.
E3 es un programa innovador de ahorros igualados basado en las necesidades, que combina recursos con estudiantes elegibles que cursan una educación universitaria en uno de los colegios y universidades privados más importantes de Oregón. E3 hace que la universidad sea más asequible al igualar los ahorros en una proporción de 6:1, brindando a los estudiantes que han ahorrado $500, hasta $3,500 para usar en la matrícula o gastos educativos aprobados por año de inscripción.
E3 fue desarrollado en colaboración con CASA de Oregon, The Alliance y sus instituciones miembros. Hasta la fecha, desde marzo de 2010, 819 estudiantes de instituciones miembros de la Alianza han participado en el programa IDA de Educación de la Alianza. Hasta la fecha, el total de los ahorros de los estudiantes participantes asciende a $841,589, y el total de igualaciones ofrecidas a las universidades miembros en nombre de estos estudiantes es ahora de $4,714,250.
Lonza Bend Inc. Scholarship
The Lonza Bend Inc. Scholarship supports chemistry majors who have demonstrated financial need, a strong GPA, and a record of academic achievement.
MDU Resources Foundation/
Knife River Corporation Scholarship
The MDU Resources Foundation/Knife River Corporation Scholarship supports Oregon students from underrepresented populations, preference being students from a community of color, with substantial demonstrated financial need. Recipients are students majoring in disciplines that align with Knife River Corporation’s business focus, such as economics, business, finance, marketing, science, engineering, or related disciplines.
The NW Natural Annual Scholarship was established in 2006 by NW Natural through the Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges & Universities (OAICU). The NW Natural Scholarship supports underrepresented students, preference being students from a community of color, who are graduates of Oregon or SW Washington high schools with substantial demonstrated financial need. Recipients are students majoring in disciplines that align with NW Natural’s business focus, such as engineering and related sciences, economics, marketing, and communications, etc.
NW Natural and its predecessors have been providing gas service to the Pacific Northwest since 1859. Though the company's headquarters is in Portland, NW Natural also serves customers in Albany, Astoria, Coos Bay, Eugene, Lincoln City, Salem, The Dalles, and Vancouver. NW Natural is committed to enhancing the quality of life in its service area through environmental protection. Since natural gas produces substantially less pollution than either oil or coal, the wise use of natural gas is one of the most practical means of addressing the nation's air quality problems.
OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation Scholarship
The OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation Scholarship supports students with substantial demonstrated financial need from underrepresented populations, such as students of color or students who are the first in their families to attend college.
PCC Structurals Scholarship
The PCC Structurals Scholarship was established in 2006 by PCC Structurals through the Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges & Universities (OAICU). This scholarship supports Oregon students from underrepresented populations with substantial demonstrated financial need. Recipients to be students majoring in disciplines that align with PCC Structurals’ business focus, such as engineering and related sciences, economics, marketing, and communications, etc.
PCC Structurals manufactures large and small castings in stainless steel, nickel-based superalloy, titanium, and aluminum for aerospace, land-based turbine, airframe, armament, automotive, medical, nuclear, locomotive, and other general industrial applications.
PGE Foundation Scholarship
Portland General Electric (PGE) established the PGE Foundation Merit Scholarship in 1997 through the Oregon Alliance of Colleges & Universities (OAICU). This scholarship supports students who are Oregon residents from underrepresented populations, preference being students from a community of color, with substantial demonstrated financial need. Strong emphasis on students majoring in STEM subjects that are traditionally underserved in CTE-STEM fields. STEM fields include science, technology, engineering, math as well as liberal arts degree focuses in economics, environmental sciences, and business.
PGE Foundation was originally formed to support the communities it serviced. Now, PGE Foundation funds programs across the state of Oregon. Since its inception in 1997, the foundation has awarded millions of dollars in grants, ranging from programs that give children healthier lives, efforts that bring the arts to rural communities and to educational projects for students from pre-school through college.
Council of Independent Colleges/
UPS Foundation Scholarship
The Council of Independent Colleges/UPS Foundation Scholarship supports full-time undergraduate students with substantial demonstrated financial need and whose background reflects one or more of the characteristics of the student population of highest priority to the UPS Foundation: first generation, low-income, minority, or new American students.