Four PCHS students awarded scholarships from Community Foundation of NRV

The Community Foundation of the New River Valley (CFNRV) held its 2019 Scholarship Awards Dinner on May 9, 2019, at the German Club Manor in Blacksburg to celebrate the largest year of the program to date, awarding $80,908 in scholarships to 67 students from across the New River Valley. Over 200 guests attended the event, including scholarship recipients and their families, donors, principals, guidance counselors, and foundation volunteers.

Begun in 2002, the aims of the program are to support the educational aspirations of students so that they can achieve their full potential, to nurture a skilled workforce in the region, and to cultivate future community leaders. The program has grown steadily over the past 17 years, awarding almost $621,000 to 619 students from over 40 endowed scholarship funds. Funds are created by individuals, families, and NRV businesses, and are managed by the CFNRV.

The 2019 group of scholarship winners was one of the most diverse to date, with almost a quarter of the cohort comprised of first generation college students. Recipients will attend a wide range of colleges, many within the region and some ranging as far abroad as Rome. Virginia Tech (22 recipients) and Radford (9 recipients) were the most popular destinations in the 2019 cohort.

CFNRV board member John Muffo created a scholarship fund because of the impact scholarships had on his own education. Muffo said, “Why we decided to fund a scholarship is quite simple. Higher education has always been very important to me as a way to improve my life personally and professionally. My own undergraduate education was funded in part by a partial scholarship. I feel a responsibility to pass it on to another generation.”

CFNRV Executive Director Jessica Wirgau hopes more community members will support the program and help expand its impact. Wirgau said, “We were thrilled to reach a new milestone in 2019, awarding over $80,000 in scholarships to students from across the region. Every year the demand for scholarship funding goes up, and we are still only able to fund a fraction of the many qualified applications we receive. These scholarships benefit the individual students first and foremost, but they also benefit our broader region by helping to cultivate a qualified workforce, with many of our recipients staying right here in the NRV after graduation. We know that creating a scholarship fund puts a higher education within reach and supports the next generation of NRV leaders. Now we need more individuals, families, and businesses to help us meet the demand for funding by creating an endowed scholarship.”

Muffo agrees that benefits from the program accrue to more than just individual recipients. Muffo said, “The benefit to the Foundation and the community is also obvious. A scholarship is a hand up rather than a hand out. It helps a person become more self-sufficient as well as a better informed citizen.”

A complete list of scholarship winners is below. The 2020 scholarship application will open online in October 2019 with a deadline of February 7, 2020. Anyone interested in starting an endowed scholarship fund to support an NRV student may contact the foundation at 540-381-8999 or email jessicawirgau@cfnrv.org.

2019 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS