Twenty-five college and college-bound students in New York City will find the high cost of higher education a bit easier to bear thanks to the cash grants they received on June 22 from the Graphic Communications Scholarship Award and Career Advancement Foundation. The presentation ceremony at the Hearst Tower in Manhattan was the seventh such event since the Foundation, a group of uncompensated volunteers, began gathering and disbursing money for graphics education in 2002. To date, with the help of donations from corporations and individuals, more than $200,000 has been awarded to students enrolled in graphic studies degree programs at schools including Rhode Island School of Design, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. The Foundation, 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation, does all of its own fundraising and administers money turned over to it by several other print industry scholarship funds. Its selection committee picks recipients on the basis of SAT scores, grade-point averages, portfolios, letters of recommendation, and essays on their career plans. This year, the committee reviewed more than 70 applications. Students can reapply for scholarships, and of the 25 recipients on June 22, 15 are in their second, third, or fourth years of receiving grants from the Foundation. Each scholarship bears the name of a different sponsoring corporation, trade association, or memorial fund. David Luke (left), Foundation vice president, presents the Champion of Education Award to Guy Gleysteen, Time Inc. The ceremony also featured the presentation of the Foundation’s Champion of Education Award to Guy Gleysteen, senior vice president, production, at Time Inc. “Let learning be your motivation,” he urged the students in his acceptance remarks. Of the career-building value of academic degrees that they are pursuing, he said, “That credential, in today’s real-world marketplace, is everything.” We’ll post video interviews with Mr. Gleysteen and one of the student recipients shortly. For complete information about the scholarship program, visit www.gcscholarships.org. A recent article in Printing News tells the Foundation’s history in greater detail.