YORK COUNTY — Thomas Nelson Community College, soon-to-be Virginia Peninsula Community College, offers a scholarship fund designed to assist full-time or part-time students who have resided in York County and graduated from a York County public high school.
Established in 2008, the Rodgers & Elizabeth Smith Scholarship Fund awards $1,500 to around 20-30 students annually and has received state recognition by Virginia’s Community Colleges System.
Elizabeth Smith was a native and lifelong resident of York County who served on the Local College Board for Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) for eight years.
According to the college’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement Cynthia Callaway, the Smiths made the decision to make a planned gift of their estate to the school in order to establish the scholarship once they both passed away.
Mr. Smith died first, and upon Mrs. Smith’s passing in 2006, the couple’s estate was sold, which made up the corpus which is generating the funding for the scholarship.
“Their desire was to create a scholarship fund that would make it possible to be able to provide some funding for pretty much any student from York County who chooses to attend the College,” Callaway said.
To be eligible for the scholarship, students must have resided in York County, have graduated from a York County public high school, have a minimum 2.0 grade point average (GPA) and are able to present their official or unofficial high school transcripts as proof.
Callaway said that students who apply for the scholarship do not have to be immediate high school graduates.
“They can be students who graduated several years ago and are now coming to college,” she said.
Callaway also noted that the scholarship is not specific to a program or degree in which the students are enrolled in.
Incoming students who apply for the college’s scholarships can upload their high school transcripts into the system and it will match them specifically to eligible program based on certain criteria. To be matched to the Rodgers & Elizabeth Smith Scholarship, the student or potential student must upload their York County high school transcripts.
“This one is specifically very well-funded and allows us to award many students an opportunity to attend Thomas Nelson annually,” Callaway said. “It’s just a great advantage for York County students.”
