College Receives $100,000 Scholarship Grant From Mid-Shore Community Foundation

Chestertown, MD, April 18, 2005 — The Mid-Shore Community Foundation recently awarded a $100,000 scholarship grant to Washington College from its Austin and Martha Steele Fund. This grant helped Washington College raise $2.9 million to meet the conditions of a $750,000 challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation for the College's new 45,000-square-foot John S. Toll Science Center. Specifically, the scholarship grant will enable the college to award a scholarship annually to a student in need of financial assistance who is enrolled in the natural science division.

F. Graham Lee, president of the Mid-Shore Community Foundation, comments, “By awarding this grant, we are able to honor Dr. John Toll, one of our board members and the President Emeritus of Washington College, as well as one of the nation's leading science educators.”

The John S. Toll Science Center is a $26 million project and represents the college's commitment to invigorating the study and teaching of the sciences at the undergraduate level. State-of-the-art laboratories and classrooms will support new and evolving models for teaching the sciences. The Center will not only support the work of science majors but it will serve all Washington College students who must meet general education requirements by taking at least three courses in the natural sciences and quantitative methods.

According to Dr. Baird Tipson, president of Washington College, “We are grateful to the Mid-Shore Community Foundation for helping us meet the conditions of The Kresge Foundation's challenge grant, while also helping us meet a growing need at the college.” He adds, “During the past decade, burgeoning interest in the sciences has swelled student enrollments in biology, chemistry, physics, and psychology. In addition, the college has added new programs in environmental science, computer science, biochemistry, neuroscience, clinical psychology and earth science. The new science building will enable us to provide the best foundation possible in the sciences.”