Thomas College is partnering with the Alfond Scholarship Foundation to provide an additional $500 scholarship per year to eligible Alfond Grant recipients who attend Thomas College.
The Alfond Scholarship Foundation announced the new scholarships during a celebration marking this as the first year Alfond Grant recipients will attend college,18 years after they received their initial $500 grants.
“Families who have been planning and saving for higher education since their children were young have already taken important steps to prepare for their future. Through this scholarship for Alfond Grant recipients, we are helping make a Thomas College education more attainable and giving more Maine students the opportunity to attain the lives and careers they want,” said Thomas College President Dr. Jeannine Diddle Uzzi. Thomas College is matching the amount of the Foundation’s original investment in each child by offering eligible Alfond Scholars a scholarship of $500 each year for up to four years while they are enrolled.
For families whose children receive Alfond Grants today, the first recipients offer a glimpse of what lies ahead. Eighteen years after Harold Alfond’s vision first became a reality, those early investments are helping Maine students pursue their education, prepare for careers and build a stronger future for the state.
Harold Alfond, a Maine businessman and philanthropist, believed every Maine baby should have the opportunity to benefit from higher education. He created the Alfond Scholarship Foundation to invest a $500 Alfond Grant at birth for every Maine resident baby to use toward future education. Maine children born between 2008 and 2012 in Central Maine were eligible and from 2013 on, the foundation awards the Alfond Grant to all babies born to Maine residents.
Sixty-seven percent of Thomas College students come from Maine, and historically, 73 percent of Thomas graduates who remain in Maine after graduation live and work in the state.
“The Harold Alfond Foundation and the Alfond Scholarship Foundation have given so much to the College and to our state that it is an honor to be able to amplify the impact of their investment through this scholarship,” said President Uzzi.
Thomas College’s application is currently open for Fall 2027.