Scholarship Funds

The San Diego Foundation's scholarship program brings together students in need and individuals who care about education to enable more students to reach their educational goals. We believe that an investment in area students is an investment in our community -a positive impact that will be realized long beyond a four-year degree.

College tuition has been on the rise for decades. To help students with their academic pursuits, The San Diego Foundation's scholarship program offers the following services:

• How to Establish A Scholarship Fund
• Scholarship Need
• Scholarship Administration Services
• Scholarship Testimonials

How to Establish a Scholarship Fund

You can determine the purpose and criteria for a scholarship at the time it is created. The steps are as follows:

Step 1: Choose whether the fund will be an endowment or non-endowment

Endowments are permanent funds where only a portion of earnings are available for granting. Learn more about the Power of Endowment Funding.

Non-Endowments funds are funds where both earnings and principal are available for granting.

Step 2: Determine the amount of your initial contribution

There are several ways to give your initial contribution and your regular contributions to your scholarship fund. You will also need to determine the amounts your new scholarship fund will provide to each recipient.

Step 3: Determine selection criteria in order to define the requirements for your scholarship.

The criteria may include:

• High school or college transcript -- as a measure of academic performance and achievement potential
• Extra-curricular activities -- as a measure of student's involvement, socialization and participation in community service
• Letters of recommendation -- as a means to evaluate student's strengths and weaknesses through work and/or school relationships with associates, teachers, employers, coaches, or mentors
• Volunteer or work experience -- to assess whether the student has some experience in a chosen career field
• Career and educational goals -- are clearly stated as a way to evaluate the student's commitment to goals and clearly stated path to achieve them
• Unusual circumstances -- as a way to determine whether extenuating circumstances - personal, family or financial - necessitate further consideration for the applicant
• Demonstrated financial need

For personal assistance in establishing a scholarship fund, please contact us at scholarships@sdfoundation.org

Scholarship Need

Does San Diego need more scholarships? Consider these statistics cited by the San Diego Union-Tribune February 10, 2000:

In the U.S. over the past ten years:

• The overall cost of attending college has multiplied by more than 50 percent.
• Tuition at public colleges increased by 53 percent; 41 percent at private four-year colleges.

Incomes have only risen 10 percent over this same time span, and future tuition costs are anticipated to outpace inflation rates by one or two percent. This means that many young students have been forced to find alternative means of financing their education, or worse, have been unable to pursue their dreams of a better education. These statistics also indicate that without outside assistance even more hopeful students will be priced out of the education they'd planned on.

Scholarships provide opportunities for students to get ahead and stay ahead. Used in conjunction with stipends, grants, work-study, and student loans, scholarships help fill the gap where the student's educational costs exceed the financial aid he/she receives.

San Diego Foundation Scholarship Administration Services

Preliminary Services

• Assist in establishing criteria appropriate to donor's wishes
• Assist in creating an advisory committee, if necessary
• Design application and appropriate language for promotional materials

Applicant Outreach and Intake

• Promote scholarship through mailing to county high school and press release
• Receive application materials - most funds require personal statement, letters of recommendation, transcripts, and financial form
• Prepare physical and computerized applicant files

Decision Making Services

• Conduct preliminary screening of applicant pool to establish basic eligibility
• Prepare applicant spreadsheet for committee to review
• Prepare budget of available income for distribution
• Provide necessary copies of prescreened applications to donors, advisors, and advisory committees

Post-Decision Services

• Send notification to all applicants with request for enrollment verification
• Facilitate the signing of a Student Agreement Form with recipients
• Request checks and distribute awards to schools bi-annually
• Secure progress reports from recipients and conduct qualitative evaluation on scholarship awards
• Hold annual recognition event for scholarship recipients, donors, advisors, and advisory committees

Miscellaneous

• Distribute any Thank You letters from grantees
• Maintain three years of applicant files

Scholarship Testimonials

James R. and Geraldine F. Bertelsen Scholarship
Mrs. Geraldine F. Bertelsen was a parishioner of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Carlsbad from 1955 until her death in 1994. She was a devout Catholic who valued her education at Catholic grammar and high schools. Mr. James R. Bertelsen was a retired Marine Master Sergeant, and, though not a Catholic, he always drove his wife to mass at St. Patrick's until his death in 1992.

The Bertelsens were married August 3, 1946, at the San Gabriel Mission and were a very devoted couple who had hoped to raise their children in Carlsbad. The Bertelsens were unable to realize that dream and remained childless throughout their lives, although their love for children continued to grow.

The Bertelsens believed that faith and education are the cornerstones in every successful community. To build upon their belief and to honor their love for children, the Bertelsen estate established this scholarship in their family name to assist college-bound students in need, preferably practicing Catholics. The Bertelsen scholarship assists students with a minimum 3.0 grade point average, who are residents of Carlsbad and have applied to, been accepted by, or are attending a Catholic college or university. Due to Mrs. Bertelsen's exceptional generosity, the scholarship program will continue to grow indefinitely, and the couple's dream will be realized.

Jean Wright-Elson Scholarship
Ms. E. Jean Wright-Elson gives to a great many charities throughout the year. She sees her scholarship fund, however, as her living legacy to the San Diego community and its children.

"I have no children of my own," she explains, "but I've worked hard all my life, and this is a way of having my name attached to a fund that will provide education to deserving young people, a living legacy. A friend of mine brought The Foundation to my attention. I looked at the materials and talked with people who also had funds there, and I knew that my money would be used well."

The objective of the Jean Wright-Elson Scholarship Fund is to give financial assistance to any young person who wants to go into any aspect of the health care field. "I am not limiting it to 'A' students," chuckles Ms. Wright-Elson, who says she was never an "A" student herself. "We are looking for a young person who is motivated and serious about education."

The Wright-Elson family came to San Diego from New England in 1941. She took her nursing training at Mercy College of Nursing before joining the Air Force and being stationed away from San Diego for 20 years. She returned 15 years ago and has been involved in many volunteer activities here. She has planned for a portion of her estate to go to the San Diego Hospice, where she volunteered to the Zoological Society, Canine Companions, San Diego Special Olympics, and the Make A Wish Foundation.