Latest News
More scholarships being awarded than ever before
During his tenure as president of Marshall University, Dr. Jerome A. Gilbert made it a priority to increase scholarship aid for the student body in the face of rising education costs, and thanks to the Marshall Rises campaign, scholarship aid has increased 44 percent over the last five years with 500 more students receiving aid annually.
Part of the increase has been thanks to the hard work by the university’s Office of Student Financial Assistance, which launched a brand-new way for students to apply for private scholarships through an online portal. Launched in January of 2020, the portal reduces the amount of time it takes both students and staff to find and apply for applicable scholarships.
“We were trying to find scholarships for students by looking at each individual guidelines for each scholarship,” said Tara Hensley, senior financial aid counselor. “And then we didn’t really have something set up to where we could view a GPA or ACT score or the major they’re in or anything like that. We just had to search. It was countless hours.”
Articles of Gratitude
Spring 2022
Events are back! Check out our complete coverage from the 83rd Alumni Awards Banquet and annual Scholarship Honor Brunch. Plus, find out how a new scholarship portal is changing the game at Marshall.
Read these stories and many more in the latest edition of Articles of Gratitude.
News
Marshall Foundation receives $25,000 grant from Truist West Virginia Foundation
The Marshall University Foundation announced it received a $25,000 grant from Truist West Virginia Foundation to support need-based scholarships at Marshall University. The grant will support scholarship recipients who are full- or part-time students who are residents of West Virginia and have need, as determined by the Office of Student Financial Assistance.
Donor Spotlight
Salem and Hamad establish two scholarships in honor of their children
Dr. Asad Salem and Ms. Ghada Hamad have recently established the Zaynab Salem Scholarship, named for their daughter, to support first-generation college students studying mechanical engineering at Marshall University’s College of Engineering and Computer Sciences.
Zaynab earned her Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Marshall in 2018. From there, she received her J.D. from Duke University, graduating in 2021. Zaynab is an associate practicing patent law at a global law firm in Austin, Texas. Asad said Zaynab’s background in mechanical engineering prepared her for a career in an area of law that is increasing in necessity.
“We established this scholarship because my wife and I want to support women in STEM fields” Asad said. Ms. Hamad is also an engineer, but she decided to go into education, and she is a high school math teacher at Huntington High. “Ghada and I both work to encourage and support female high school and college students who choose to pursue STEM to make these fields less male dominated.”
Scholar Spotlight
It’s a dilemma most aspiring college students who grow up in college towns face: Do I stay or do I go?
For Huntington native Tyler Spence, the idea of moving down the road from Covenant School to Marshall University wasn’t very appealing.
However, the idea of not having to take out a loan to attend college was very appealing.
“I went to Marshall originally because it was the only place I could go and not have to take out any loans, so it was purely financial,” Spence said.
Read Tyler’s story in the latest Scholar Spotlight.
