A $65 million donation from University of Rhode Island alumna Helen Izzi Schilling’s will, the largest donation in the university’s history, will be awarded to incoming STEM students based on academic merit starting in 2025.
The endowment established the Helen Izzi Schilling ’54 and Francis Schilling Scholars Program and will give incoming students up to $20,000 per year for four years, according to the university’s gift announcement . Students enrolled at URI cannot receive the award.
The scholarship covers over 40 majors within the the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, according to Dean Libutti, the associate vice president of enrollment management and student success.
While reviewing scholarship applications, the admission pool identifies high-achieving students and looks for rigor in academic courses, Libutti said. This includes students who took Advanced Placement, honors or college classes in high school. Some schools may not offer these types of courses, however, so URI Admissions takes that into consideration.
Students do not have to complete a separate application for consideration of the Schilling scholarship, according to Victoria McNeil, the director of Financial Aid and Enrollment Services. They only need to apply for the admission and then will be considered based on information from their URI application.
“We’re still looking at the developing application pool and trying to figure out how many we’ll award,” Libutti said. “The goal is to have over 100 students [with the scholarship] enrolled to have their academic impact across the campus.”
URI students can apply for outside scholarships April 1 every year through the Academic Works website .
“[Academic Works] is definitely an underutilized resource…we encourage students to apply so we can match them with any existing scholarships that might be there for them,” McNeil said.
URI alumni can distribute funds through Academic Works, according to McNeil.
“It’s been amazing to work with generous donors to the university who have awarded millions of dollars for all students,” Libutti said.
To find out if they qualify for the scholarship, students can visit the list of eligible majors on URI’s Undergraduate Admission webpage .