A new $1,000 scholarship is now available to ISU students after the ISU Foundation received requests from donors to create the award.

Crystal Castro, freshman in materials engineering, received the scholarship this year on Oct. 6 at the Order of the Knoll.

The scholarship is the result of the Campaign Destiny’s commemorative fund which was set up to honor the donors of the five-year fund-raising project. The campaign ended on June 30, 2000, and raised $458.6 million dollars.

“We had an extraordinarily successful campaign that was focused on helping college students here at ISU,” ISU Foundation President Thomas Mitchell said. “We feel very, very good when we have the opportunity to help students. It’s the fundamental purpose of what we do.”

The fund for the scholarship has been set up as an endowment so that money can be taken every year for a scholarship and more money will be there the following year, said Phyllis Lepke, vice president for the ISU Foundation. As the endowment grows, more and larger scholarships will be given from it.

Lepke said each year a $1,000 scholarship will given to a high-ability minority student with financial need. She said preference will be given to first-generation female Hispanic students, who will be chosen by the Office of Student Financial Aid.

The money was raised with the help of donations of ISU alumni and other donors for projects to help enhance the university.

The scholarship is not only for students, Lepke said.

“At the end of the campaign, we wanted to do something commemorative for the donors,” she said. “The suggestion was made by the donors, ‘Don’t give back to us; give the students something.'”

Lepke said this brought the ISU Foundation to create a new endowment for a select scholarship fund from the commemorative money.

“The donors were delighted with how we chose to use the money that was set aside to honor them,” she said.

Mitchell said the awards night was a special time for all the donors and volunteers who attended.

“It was very emotional for campaign volunteers to be able to offer the funds to an ISU student in need,” Mitchell said.

After the scholarship was presented to Castro, she then had the opportunity to thank the audience of supporters, Mitchell said.

“We are touched deeply by the expression of gratitude that students share with us in how meaningful scholarship support is to them,” he said.