Limestone College launches scholarship to attract female students

Published: Friday, January 11, 2013 at 10:20 p.m.

Last Modified: Friday, January 11, 2013 at 10:20 p.m.

Limestone College is launching a new scholarship designed to attract female students.

Despite being a women's college until 1969, Limestone's gender divide has swung in the opposite direction in recent years. Women earn about 60 percent of the post-secondary degrees in the country, but Limestone has a student population on campus of 58 percent male and 42 percent female.

The gap has the potential to increase in the fall when Limestone College adds football to its athletics program.

"We're trying to maintain gender balance," said Mark Reger, associate vice president for academic affairs. "With bringing in 100 to 150 young men for football, we certainly have room for young women as well."

The Dr. Montague McMillan Scholarship is available to South Carolina female freshman or transfer applicants to Limestone College. The scholarship is non-competitive and worth $8,000 annually for up to four years. All scholarship recipients are required to have a high school grade point average of 3.0 or greater.

To receive the scholarship, the young women must have attended the Women in Technology and Sciences Conference sponsored by Limestone College, or commit to majoring in early childhood education, elementary education, professional communication, music, art, theater, English or history.

"We have such a long history of educating women and we're excited about the opportunity to educate bright young South Carolina women," said Karen Gainey, vice president for academic affairs.

The specified majors were chosen in careers that are typically attractive to women and that female students have shown a large degree of success in, Reger and Gainey said. By offering the scholarship to participants in the Women in Technology and Science program without any restriction on major, the school is also helping to develop its commitment to furthering education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, they added.

"With each of these departments we have plenty of faculty who can provide plenty of assistance for them without losing focus," Gainey said.

So far, 42 of Limestone's applicants for the fall of 2013 are eligible for the McMillan Scholarship and the college is still reaching out to other potential recipients, Reger said. When the scholarship was being developed, the goal was award it to at least 30 to 35 students, a target that was surpassed in the scholarship's first month.

"Now we're ready to be surprised," he said. "That's part of the excitement is to see how many we get."

The scholarship is funded through the school's foundation and there is no limit on the number that can be awarded. The scholarship would cover about 38 percent of Limestone College's $21,000 annual full-time tuition.

Reger said he hopes the scholarship opportunity will help ease the financial burden for young women considering Limestone College.

Source: http://www.goupstate.com/article/20130111/articles/130119901

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