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AT&T and the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund Provide Student Scholarships
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Dallas, TX, December 3, 2008 / -- DiversityBusiness.com /- AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) announced today that AT&T has made a contribution of $25,000 to the APIASF, the nations largest nonprofit organization that provides scholarships to exceptional Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (APIAs) with financial need.
Supporting the APIASF’s vision to provide students the opportunity to pursue higher education regardless of ethnicity, national origin or financial means, the contribution from AT&T will help make college a reality for deserving students. By promoting educational achievement, APIASF seeks to enrich the lives of APIA students, their families and the APIA community by contributing to a more educated U.S. workforce.
“While national scholarship organizations for Latinos and African Americans have existed for more than 30 and 60 years respectively, there was not a comparable organization for Asian Americans until this Scholarship Fund was founded in 2003,” said Neil Horikoshi, President and Executive Director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund. “With support from the public, professional leaders and corporations such as AT&T, we’ve been able to award 850 scholarships to high achieving high school seniors to make college more affordable.”
Contrary to popular belief, many Asian and Pacific Islander students struggle to attain a higher education. While more than 24% of all American adults hold a bachelors degree or higher, only 7.4% of Hmong, 9.1% of Cambodians, and 16.5% of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have attained a bachelors degrees.
“AT&T is proud to support the APIA scholarship fund, which this year alone will provide assistance to 285 deserving high school seniors to attend college,” said Anne Chow, Senior Vice President, AT&T Premier Client Group and a Founding Board Member of APIASF. “We need a labor force that is ready to work in a highly competitive and increasingly digital world. Ensuring students with the desire to continue their education can do so is critical to our future success in the global economy.”
The APIASF mission is to make a difference in the lives of APIA students by providing them with resources that increase their access to higher education which serves as the foundation for their future success and contributions to a stronger America. APIASF carries out their mission by:
- Providing scholarships to APIA students;
- Forging partnerships among corporations, foundations, community organizations and individuals to provide adequate financial and other resources to carry out our mission;
- Providing guidance, mentorship and programs to facilitate students’ academic success, leadership development and professional growth;
- Establishing strategic alliances within APIA and educational communities; and,
- Building a clearinghouse of higher education research on APIA high school and college students and continue to increase awareness of APIA education issues and challenges.
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