Scholarship America Celebrates Student Success at Dreams to Success Event

While college enrollments decline, Scholarship America, donors and sponsors show a strong commitment to supporting scholars

Student success and achievement were honored at Scholarship America’s recent Dreams to Success event in Washington D.C. Now in its eighth year, Dreams to Success demonstrates the impact a strong support system has on helping students overcome barriers, challenges and inequities on the path to their college dreams. Scholarship America — a non-profit organization that helps students fulfill their college dreams and the nation’s leading provider of private scholarships — hosts the event.

“We’re deeply thankful to our generous sponsors and donors who’ve made it possible for us to support students even in the face of continuing challenges in education,” said Mike Nylund, president and CEO of Scholarship America. “All of the students we recognized and stories we heard highlighted the difficulties, obstacles, financial need, and setbacks students face in their pursuit of a college education. Everyone who joined us in the room and online for this event is proud to support them with scholarships, emergency grants or any other assistance we can provide to students to access, persist and complete their education.”

The event featured musical performances by Shana Tucker, ChamberSoul Cello Singer Songwriter; an impassioned keynote from Dr. Meria Carstarphen, Senior Scientist at Gallup, the first-ever in education; heartfelt stories from students and alumni, including Victoria Doan, Andrew Rocha, Jacoby Barry and Oyuky Aragon-Flores; and was emceed by Keith Chow, editor-in-chief of the pop culture blog Nerds of Color, co-editor of the comic anthologies Secret Identities and Shattered and host of the podcasts Hard NOC Life and Southern Fried Asian.

This year’s event also celebrated the accomplishments of the twenty 2022 Dream Award Scholars, showing the impact scholarships have made on the lives of students and illustrating the challenges and barriers that stand in the way of their dreams. Since the first Dreams to Success Celebration in 2014, Scholarship America has provided scholarships, emergency grants and other financial assistance to more than 800,000 students across the country and around the world. Those include Dream Award Scholars—the 150 recipients of Scholarship America’s flagship renewable scholarship award, who have earned more than $3 million in scholarships and seen a 100% graduation rate.

This year, the Dreams to Success event raised $575,000 to support Scholarship America through the generosity of Presenting Sponsors Plastipak and The Young Foundation. Other key sponsors included Voya Financial, Edward and Dorothy Simon Foundation and World Journal.

For a recording of Dreams to Success, a full list of sponsors and donors and more information, visit https://scholarshipamerica.org/dreamstosuccess. To donate, visit https://scholarshipamerica.org/give/.

Contact:
Joan Cronson
952.830.7308
jcronson@scholarshipamerica.org