Piedmont Virginia Community College will offer full tuition, two year scholarships to valedictorians of public and private high schools in its service area.
The plan will establish $10,000 scholarships funded by local businesses. The money will be offered to the graduating valedictorians of all high schools in PVCC’s service area for two years. If the valedictorian declines the offer, the scholarship will be offered to the salutatorian, then the third highest graduate, and so on.
This has long been the dream of PVCC President Frank Friedman, said Jim Ross, PVCC vice president for institutional advancement. Ross said he thought the new effort would draw many valedictorians to the college.
“We anticipate that many valedictorians will take advantage of this — to be able to stay close to home and save a lot of money," he said.
Sponsors will be able to put their names on the scholarship, an incentive Ross hopes will encourage local companies to participate. Friedman will reach out to regional financial institutions.
During the last decade, the state portion of PVCC funding per full time student has declined. This has pushed the college to look to other sources of revenue, Ross said. This is a new norm for higher education, he said.
“[Fundraising] is something that I think that the community expects public higher education to become more involved with in order to best serve our students due to declining state revenues," Ross said.
Enrollment has also declined in recent years as the country and state have recovered from recession, a trend seen nationwide. Still, the scholarship is not a direct response to this trend, Ross said.
For students who accept the new scholarship, Ross said he thought many would go on to schools like the University for an additional two years of college.
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