Above: A stage full of graphic scholars at the Hearst Tower on June 24. Below: scholarship fund trustees and officers, from left: Bill Dirzulaitis, Nick Patrissi, Steve Kennedy, Jack Powers, David Luke, Mark Darlow, Jerry Mandelbaum, and Richard Krasner. (not in photo: Diane Chavan, John Aaron, Linda Nahum, Jack Kott, Matthew Feldman, and Walter Sosnowski)



Twenty-five college and college-bound students from the New York City metro area will find the high cost of higher education a bit easier to bear thanks to the cash grants they received on June 24 from the Graphic Communications Scholarship Award and Career Advancement Foundation (GCSF). The presentation ceremony at the Hearst Tower in Manhattan was the eighth 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, $233,000 has been awarded to 75 students enrolled in graphic studies degree programs at schools including New York University, Rhode Island School of Design, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Parsons School of Design, University of Michigan, 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. Students can reapply for scholarships, and of the 25 recipients on June 24, 16 are in their second, third, fourth, or fifth years of receiving grants from the Foundation. Each scholarship bears the name of a different sponsoring corporation, trade association, or memorial fund. The students additionally received gift copies of QuarkXPress 8 from Quark and complimentary color guides from Pantone Inc. The professional network Partnership in Print Production (P3) offered the recipients free membership for one year. The ceremony also featured the presentation of the Foundation’s Champion of Education Award to Bob Sacks, a.k.a. BoSacks, publisher of Heard on the Web; and to Katerina Caterisano, president of Network Design and Communications. For complete information about the scholarship program, visit www.gcscholarships.org