Full College Scholarship For Any Student Graduating From A Williams County High School -- October 24, 2014

This is really cool.  A read saw the article and sent me the link. The Williston State College, from their website:

Williston State College operates as a two-year public community college in the North Dakota University System. The college is one of eleven institutions under the jurisdiction of the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education.

Williston State College offers transfer programs leading to Associate in Arts and Associate in Science Degrees. Students can complete the first two years of many majors and transfer with junior status to most four-year colleges and universities.

Apparently anyone with a high school diploma from any high school in Williams County qualifies for a full scholarship to Williston State College. I say "apparently" because that's how I'm reading the Williston Herald article. If accurate, this is really quite incredible:

Williston State College has announced that all Williams County high school graduates will be able to go to WSC for free through a scholarship.

The scholarship, announced Thursday, will pay for all tuition, books and fees. The program will start in the fall 2015 semester and is open to any full-time student with a diploma from an accredited Williams County high school.

The scholarship money is coming from the Alva J Field Trust, WSC Foundation and the N.D. Higher Ed Challenge Fund, which was made to stimulate the spirit of philanthropy for North Dakota's colleges and universities. The fund allows for every $2 in eligible private donations to be matched with $1 of state funding.

The Alva J. Field Memorial Trust donated $1 million in scholarship funds. The state matched with $500,000.

The Alva J. Field Memorial was established by widow Maude Field in memory of her late husband Alva J. Field. In her will, she placed her farm land in a trust for the proceeds to be used to help educate young adult graduates from Williams County. The farm's land value has grown exponentially with Bakken oil production. Rising land value has allowed the trust to donate vast amounts of money to Williams County students.

The scholarship can be used by potential students no matter how long ago they graduated from a Williams County high school. High school GPA will not factor into receiving the scholarship. While attending WSC, Williams County scholarship students must keep a 2.0 GPA to keep the scholarship and have a minimum of 12 credits a semester.

Both my brother and I benefited from low-interest rate loans from the Alva J. Field Memorial Trust many, many years ago.