Joan and Wade Webster, center front and back, pause for a photo with recent Joan and Wade Webster Scholarship recipients. From left are Olivia Waters, Jackson Sacha, Joseph Hutchinson, Alora Orr, Ella Maldonado, Joan Webster, Wade Webster, Hope Dobbelaere, Julia Herrin, Ryan Andrews, Anthony Senouillet and Hayden Bird.
The astronomical cost of higher education is on the minds of every high school student interested in attending college, along with their parents. At the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry, we are honored to provide students with opportunities to help alleviate the financial toll a college education can have on a family.
Since 1995, CFL has been a trusted scholarship resource for students in Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton and Colleton counties. We have the unique privilege of helping generous donors set up scholarship funds, and providing guidance to students throughout the application process.
CFL currently has more than 50 scholarship funds – each one unique. Our experienced team can help a donor launch a new scholarship or expand an established scholarship. We handle the majority of the administrative work for the scholarship funds and schedule scholarship committee meetings to review student applications.
For the upcoming 2022-23 academic year, the Community Foundation distributed 200-plus scholarship awards to more than 150 students. The total amount awarded was more than $790,000. CFL staff had the honor of attending various high school senior award ceremonies to announce the scholarship awards.
While many of the Foundation-managed scholarship funds are limited to students residing in Southern Beaufort County, the Community Foundation has made donors aware of the extreme need for financial aid in neighboring Jasper, Colleton and Hampton Counties. One of our new funds, Promise of the Lowcountry Scholarship, awarded its inaugural scholarships this spring to a Hampton County student and a Jasper County student.
A select group of scholarships administered by CFL look beyond four years of college and help students prepare for adulthood. In 1996, the Joan and Wade Webster Scholarship Program was created to not only help Southern Beaufort County students defray the cost of higher education but also to teach the recipients financial wisdom through required readings, a yearly in-person financial planning class taught by Wade Webster, and investment news and information. The Webster Scholarship students, which included new and returning scholarship recipients, recently took part in the class at the Foundation offices.
To learn more about Community Foundation scholarships, visit cf-lowcountry.org.
Scott Wierman is the president and CEO of Community Foundation of the Lowcountry.
