August 23, 2022
On July 31, we hosted our 2nd annual Scholarship Award Celebration to honor 179 outstanding students who will receive the Meeting Street Scholarship for the 2022 – 2023 school year. These students achieved incredible academic success, and navigated the college and scholarship application process at the same time. We are so proud of the students; it was an honor to celebrate them.
The Meeting Street Scholarship Fund was designed to bridge the gap between college costs and what a family can reasonably afford. With these scholarships, we hope to relieve financial stress to help students graduate college with less debt and pursue their passions.
Alexis Pinckney, an inaugural Meeting Street Scholarship recipient, summed it up perfectly in her welcoming address: “The Meeting Street Scholarship made it easier to get onto a college campus. It meant not worrying about how I would find another thousand dollars by the start of the semester. It meant not worrying about money when I should have been thinking about my schoolwork. It meant not worrying about whether I could afford to live in my dorm next semester. It meant keeping my dreams in focus.”
Ben Navarro, founder of Meeting Street Scholarship Fund, told the students, “This scholarship is all about appropriate access. You did the hard work to earn this scholarship, which makes me so proud to be here with each of you, because I know how difficult it is. I couldn’t be more pleased to have the opportunity to make college a little bit easier for you.”
Darla Moore, founder of the Darla Moore Foundation and a Meeting Street Scholarship Fund partner, believes that investing in education and in people who are willing to work hard are paramount for counties to succeed and thrive. “The better educated a population you have, the better culture and society will become. The more we can educate students, the better society will be,” she told the students. Thanks to her generosity, students in eight counties of the Pee Dee region are now eligible to apply for the scholarship.
“Opportunities like this don’t often come to Dillon. Even for students like me and many of my classmates who put in the work, made the right choices, and achieved success in school,” said scholarship recipient Mo’Nazia Sowells in her closing address. “I remember the day my high school counselor invited me and a few other seniors to her office and told us about the Meeting Street Scholarship… I remember thinking to myself that this couldn’t be true. That’s how rare opportunities like this are in Dillon.”
We are honored to be able to offer college scholarships to students in nine South Carolina counties and are excited to support this second group of Meeting Street Scholarship recipients in their dreams of higher education and beyond. We continue to seek other visionary philanthropists who will expand the scholarship to other deserving students across the state.
The Meeting Street Scholarship Fund is still accepting applications for the 2022 – 2023 school year and has no limit on the number of scholarships granted. Find out if you qualify and apply at www.MeetingStreetScholarshipFund.org. For updates, news, and more, follow us on Facebook and Instagram and sign up for our newsletter.
