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Image: Image for News Item: Education Grant applications now available

Education Grant applications now available

For Immediate Release

Grand Rapids, Minn – Itasca area students can apply much earlier for Blandin Foundation Education Grants than in past years. The Foundation is already accepting applications for the 2017-18 school year, possible because of changes in federal student aid programs. 

Blandin Foundation awards Education Grants based on student need, and only for Itasca area students.

Grant amounts are based on the Federal Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) formulas. Other factors considered include total cost of attendance (tuition, fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation and miscellaneous expenses), family income, and number of siblings also attending college. Students can receive $1,000 to $4,500, and must reapply each year. The Foundation’s education grants are available for a variety of forms of post-secondary (after high school) education, including college and university, tribal, community and technical colleges, and certificate programs.

Grants are available to local students who attend, or have graduated from, one of the following high schools: Grand Rapids, Bigfork, Deer River, Hill City, Greenway, Nashwauk-Keewatin, Remer, Blackduck, Northome, Bug O Nay Ge Shig, Northern Lights Community School, and home-schooled students who would have attended school in the greater Itasca County area. To be eligible, students must be under the age of 25 as of September 1, 2017, be registered as a full-time student (12 credits per semester) at any accredited trade school or two-year or four-year college or university, and make satisfactory academic progress toward their degree program (at least a 2.0 GPA or higher).

“Our education grant program has a strong and important history with Itasca area communities,” said Kathy Annette, president of the Blandin Foundation. “For 60 years we have worked with area students to help achieve their dreams of further education. Achievement of our young people was a great passion of Mr. Blandin’s, as it is for the Foundation still today.”

The education grant program is the longest-running program of the Blandin Foundation, with the first awards given in 1956 by founder Charles K. Blandin. Since then, more than 18,000 area youth have received scholarships totaling more than $26 million.

Applications are available three ways. Students can pick them up at local high school counseling offices. They can be downloaded it from the Foundation’s web site (https://blandinfoundation.org). Or they can be requested from the Foundation directly by calling 218-326-0523 or emailing educationgrants@BlandinFoundation.org. Deadline to submit an application is March 1, 2017.

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