Lehigh receives $100,000 Hearst grant

The William Randolph Hearst Foundations recently awarded Lehigh University $100,000 to fund scholarships for African-American and Latino students. This recent award doubled the existing William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship Fund, established in 1999, to $200,000.
Lehigh's outstanding stewardship of the Hearst Fund, the exceptional caliber of Hearst Scholars, and Lehigh’s overall commitment to advancing access to quality higher education in today's global society remain leading factors for the Foundations' sustained support, says Robert M. Frehse Jr., executive director of the William Randolph Hearst Foundations.
According to Bonnie Devlin, vice president of advancement, the strengthening of the Hearst Scholarship is exactly what Lehigh was hoping for in this midway point of Shine Forever, a comprehensive campaign focused on endowment. “We recognize the vital role that financial aid plays in making a Lehigh education possible for underrepresented students,” she says. “The continued support from the Hearst Foundations will allow us to open the doors of opportunity for all students of intellectual curiosity and academic ambition.”
The Hearst Foundations’ gift is one way that Lehigh is working towards making its campus community more diverse.
“Academic excellence requires a learning community in which people of different backgrounds and perspectives join in the pursuit of knowledge and truth,” says Mohamed El-Aasser, provost. “We are determined here at Lehigh to prepare students to succeed in a world where multiple viewpoints offer challenges and enrich our lives. The William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship Fund will help us reach our goals.”
This year’s recipient, Dylan Coonrad ’09, an architecture major, says that being a recipient of the Hearst Scholarship has been an honor for him and has allowed him to continue his studies at Lehigh without the overbearing load of college debt.
“To be a Hearst Scholar,” says Coonrad, “is to be content with where I am in life, in what I'm doing, and in what I will become.”
“I hope,” he says, “to live up to its impressive standards so as to continue to excel in the Lehigh community.”
Philanthropist William Randolph Hearst founded The Hearst Foundation, Inc. and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation in 1945 and 1948, respectively. The charitable goals of the two Hearst Foundations are essentially the same and reflect the philanthropic interests of their founder within the fields of Education, Health, Culture, and Social Service. Both foundations are national, independent, private philanthropies operating separately from the Hearst Corporation. The foundations are governed by the same Board of Directors, and operate out of their New York headquarters and a San Francisco office.
--Sarah Cooke