Our scholarship (UPDATED)
Belmont Abbey College’s 146-year track record of educating young minds is a solid, successful one. So, we want to help make it more diverse.
Our Catholic-inspired institution in suburban Charlotte admits many from different socio-economic backgrounds throughout the country and world.
In June 2020, a group of former history majors came together to support diversity at their alma mater. The death of George Floyd and other heated race relations throughout the nation inspired them to give back to the Abbey.
They formed Conscientious Alumni of Belmont Abbey College with the intention of supporting and embracing our college’s diversity. Our group supports student groups like the Black Student Alliance, International Student Association and others.
At the same time, we celebrate the Abbey’s diverse history by bringing attention to past campus events like the 1969 Science Building takeover. Numerous students and alumni continue to voice the need for the college community to reconcile that life-changing event with the living students.
One of the ways our group supports diversity is through a specialized history scholarship at the college. Over the years, our beloved alma mater became a predominantly white institution with a current student body of more than 60 percent white students. But non-white students continue to seek a world-class liberal arts education at the southern Benedictine college.
Alumni and others annually contribute to the project. Because of privacy laws, we cannot boast or name award recipients, but college officials say that several students benefited from the 2020 scholarship.
Abbey students seeking to apply for this scholarship must satisfy three requirements:
Students must be enrolled in a full-time capacity while majoring or minoring in History
Students must identify as an ethnic minority (African American, Latino/Latinx, Native American, Pacific Islander, etc.)
Maintain a 3.5 grade point average or higher
The initial award was set up to award $500 annually to one student while helping with school fees and book purchases.
Our hope is that this important scholarship will expand. Group members have considered naming it in honor of one of our former classmates.
For more information on the scholarship, contact us at consciousalumniofbac@gmail.com. We promise to get you in touch with the right Abbey people.