600 Maine Community Foundation scholarships up for grabs

Editor’s Note: This article appeared in Mainebiz and can be accessed at https://www.mainebiz.biz/article/600-maine-community-foundation-scholarships-up-for-grabs.
 
More than 600 scholarships are up for grabs in 2020 from the Maine Community Foundation, the nonprofit announced on Thursday, January 3, 2020. Scholarships support students pursuing studies in a wide variety of fields including music, journalism, teaching, horticulture, technology and the arts, and are offered to those attending secondary, post-secondary or graduate schools, as well as non-traditional programs.

In 2019, the organization awarded nearly $3.4 million in scholarships to more than 1,200 Maine students attending schools in the state, across the country, and around the world. A spokesman told Mainebiz the group expects to award about the same amount in 2019, since most of the scholarships are endowed.

Helping adult learners navigate the road back to school is a priority for the Maine Community Foundation, which estimates that around 200,000 Mainers who started college never completed their degrees. The organization is a supporting member of the MaineSpark coalition, a 10-year commitment by education, nonprofit, philanthropy, and business leaders to ensure Maine’s workforce is productive and competitive. MaineSpark aims to ensure that by 2025, six out of 10 Mainers will hold education and workforce credentials.
 
About the Maine Community Foundation: The Maine Community Foundation, headquartered in Ellsworth, with additional staff in Portland, Dover-Foxcroft and Mars Hill, operates a wide variety of charitable giving programs aimed at improving the quality of life for all Maine people. Find a full list of available scholarships online at https://www.mainecf.org/find-a-scholarship/available-scholarships.