STG Announces 2020-21 Grants
June 8, 2020
On May 27th, 107 graduating seniors and alumni of Staples High School were awarded over $374,000 in grants which will applied to tuition, room and board for the 2020-21 academic year at 74 different institutions of higher education. This is a record amount, and a substantial increase over last year’s total grant pool of $308,000. The total this year includes over $108,000 in funds raised this spring via the STG Covid-19 Community Challenge. This campaign was started in April by a small group of generous, anonymous donors who committed $50,000 in funding, with a challenge to the Westport Community to match that total. The funds from the Challenge were awarded to grant recipients who demonstrated additional financial need specifically from the Covid-19 crisis, and were added to whatever grant they would have otherwise received.
Our mission is to support the dreams of hundreds of local community students and their families by helping them close the gap between what they can afford and the ever increasing costs of tuition, room and board at institutions of higher learning. This year, that gap is suddenly wider for so many of our recipients, who have been negatively affected by the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of our students, their parents and guardians have lost income, employment and summer job opportunities, or have had college savings severely impacted. We are extremely grateful to our generous donors for recognizing this need, and stepping up to help our Staples graduates and their families meet these new financial challenges.
Our hope for this year’s STG grant recipients – and for ALL students – is for some return to normalcy, in-person education and student activities, and we wish our recipients the best of luck in the year ahead!