Charitable giving to the university has allowed Iowa State to offer new scholarship opportunities to help students fund their educations.

In fiscal year 2006, the ISU Foundation received $22.7 million in student support. This provided 103 new scholarship and fellowship opportunities for students, bringing the total to more than 3800 students receiving scholarships through private support.

Although many of these scholarships have not become available yet, the descriptions and application process will be available through the university’s financial aid Web site, said Ann Wessman, enrollment services adviser with the financial aid department.

“The 103 new scholarships are literally spread all over campus,” said Ann Wilson, senior communications director of the ISU Foundation.

Many do not require a separate application, but just require students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

“My best recommendation is that students file their FAFSA by March 1,” Wessman said. “This alone will get them considered for a large number of scholarships we administer.”

Applying for FAFSA is a requirement to receive scholarships through Iowa State’s financial aid office.

However, FAFSA itself is a federal loan program.

Filling out FAFSA is not a guarantee that a student will be awarded a scholarship. If students choose not to apply for scholarships or aren’t awarded any, the federal loans they take out must still be repaid.

Wessman said individual colleges are able to offer scholarships for the college as a whole as well as at the departmental level. Along with the financial aid office, each college has its own scholarships, deadlines and processes.

Approximately 1,100 scholarships were awarded by the Office of Student Financial Aid for the 2006-07 academic year. The total amount awarded to date is $1,650,935.

Wessman said students should continue to check the financial aid Web site for new scholarship opportunities.

“It gets updated frequently throughout the year,” Wessman said.

The ISU Foundation works with donors and creates a gift agreement that will give the award’s details and criterion. The criterion is usually categorized as financial need, talent or merit of the student. The minimum requirement to endow and name a scholarship is $25,000.

The increase in donations has made several new scholarships available.

Some of the largest donations funded scholarships such as the Carlson Endowed Business Scholarship, a total gift of $210,526, and the Neil Alexander and the Orva Stanford Alexander scholarships.

The latter two will be available for the 2007-08 academic year and are gifts of $105,000 each.

Cynthia Johnson, senior in management, was the recipient of the Carlson Endowed Business Scholarship for the 2006-07 academic year.

“The scholarship helped me to move off campus for the first time,” Johnson said.

“I’d been a community adviser for two years and this was the first year I could afford to move elsewhere. It also allowed me to focus on academics more than my job.

“I think scholarships are great for students because many students have large student loan debts. If you can apply for any scholarships, I’d definitely recommend it.”