Scholarship Endowment

2022-23 Scholarship Benefactor Breakfast

Ursuline’s commitment to maintaining diversity and recruiting exceptional students means increasing endowment for scholarships, both need and merit based, must remain a strategic priority.


What is an endowed scholarship and how can it help?
An endowed scholarship is one in which the principal remains intact and only the interest is awarded each year. Endowment creates a permanent funding source designed to support deserving students now, as well as in the future. Endowed scholarships are established with a single major gift or one pledged over a multi-year period.

The minimum amount required to establish an endowed scholarship is $50,000. Once an endowed scholarship has been established, additional donations can be made, sometimes by friends and family members as well, to further grow the fund.

How are endowed scholarships awarded?
Most endowed scholarships are awarded to incoming or rising 9th graders during the admissions process. Upon acceptance, students are informed of available endowed scholarships and invited to apply. Criteria for consideration are provided and applicants are asked to address how they meet the criteria for a scholarship in a personal statement. The Scholarship Committee - composed of representatives from Administration, Admissions, Advancement and Faculty - selects the recipients of endowed scholarships.

Stewardship
All recipients of endowed scholarships gather for annual letter writing sessions led by the Advancement team. The thoughtful and heartfelt letters written by the students go a long way in assuring donors that they have invested wisely. Each June, we host a Scholarship Benefactor Breakfast where students have the opportunity to spend a morning, including Mass, with their generous benefactors.

Support Ursuline Students
Establishing a scholarship endowment can help provide the opportunity of an Ursuline education for qualified students who may need additional financial support in order to attend. Through these scholarships, donors also recognize and encourage interests and abilities that may have special meaning - such as service to others or potential in STEAM fields. In naming a scholarship, donors may choose to honor or memorialize alumnae, family members, admired administrators, or faculty.

The Christine MacMenamin Memorial Scholarship was established in 2013 to remember our dear friend who passed tragically in the summer of 1989. Each spring, we celebrate Christine with a fundraising reception to support the Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of many, CMMS is now one of Ursuline’s largest need-based scholarships, surpassing all of our expectations. Securing Christine’s legacy while providing an Ursuline education for deserving students who exemplify Christine’s spirit and character is so rewarding. I am proud and honored to support the Christine MacMenamin Memorial Scholarship each year. CMMS is where love, friendship and a strong community have joined together to cultivate an opportunity for young women to pursue a top-notch, Catholic education.”

- Shana Promuto ‘91