About New England Dollars for Scholars
Dollars for Scholars is a national network of more than 1,200 community-based, volunteer-operated scholarship foundations in cities, towns and neighborhoods throughout the United States. Chapters in New England are organized as a region, New England Dollars for Scholars, and are supported by a regional office located in Stoneham, Massachusetts.
Dr. Irving Fradkin started Dollars for Scholars in New England in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1959. From these humble beginnings, Scholarship America (the parent organization of Dollars for Scholars) has become the nation's premier non-profit, private-sector scholarship and student assistance organization.
Meet the Regional Staff of New England Dollars for Scholars
Lynne Zervas (left) is our Director of Chapter Support Services. She joined us in 2000 from Wakefield, Massachusetts, where she served the local chapter as their office manager. Wakefield was one of the original twelve Dollars for Scholars chapters and is now the largest grassroots chapter in the country.
David Duncan (right) joined New England Dollars for Scholars in 1994 as Executive Director. He lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
New England Dollars for Scholars Facts
- New England Dollars for Scholars actively promotes the Collegiate Partners program of Scholarship America. More than five hundred colleges and universities agree to use Dollars for Scholars scholarships to reduce student and family loan debt and not adjust college aid already given to the student. A number of Collegiate Partners also match chapter awards, effectively doubling the scholarship.
- New England works with more Collegiate Partners – 110 – than any chartered region. To find a complete list of all our Collegiate Partners, visit Scholarship America's Collegiate Partners page.
- In 2008, nearly $15 million was awarded in scholarships to 12,000 students in New England.
- In New England, 43% of chapters have permanent endowment funds totaling more than $37 million.
- In 2006, New England chapters distributed an average of $84,000 each in college scholarships, almost three times the national average.
- In 2006, the average New England chapter distributed 60 awards averaging $1,386 per student, the highest scholarship number and dollar average in the country.
- In 2006, the New England regional office distributed an additional $20,000 to chapters for scholarships.
- New England Dollars for Scholars has held an annual chapter volunteer workshop for the past eleven years. Volunteers are trained and supported in initiating, developing and sustaining local chapters. This is the largest regional workshop in the country.
- New England has had six chapters win the national recognition award for excellence – CSF of Wakefield, Massachusetts; CSF of East Providence, Rhode Island; Mount Washington Valley Dollars for Scholars, New Hampshire; Upward Bound @ USM Dollars for Scholars, Maine; and Somerville Mathematics Fund, Massachusetts.
Because College Doesn't Happen By Chance®.
