For over 30 years, the Promotional Products Educational Foundation, the largest philanthropic arm of PPAI, has been dedicated to recognizing and encouraging scholastic excellence and academic performance among industry employees and their collegeaged children. Since 1989, the organization has awarded over $3.34 million to 1,788 students. This year alone, $320,500 of scholarships went to 138 new recipients and 32 renewal recipients. Each recipient is a member of the promotional products family – a few are industry employees, but the vast majority are children of those who work for distributors, suppliers, business service companies or multiline representatives. While all the students are connected to the promo industry, and some intend to follow their parents into the business, the financial aid is helping them finance their studies in a wide range of fields, from biology, education and business to computer science, public health and much more, equipping them for a variety of careers. The 2023 recipients were mailed their scholarship checks in July in advance of the academic year. For four-year and one-year scholarships, PPEF’s policy is to award 60% of scholarships based on need and 40% based on merit. Merit-based scholars receive $1,250, and need-based scholars receive $2,250 payments. PPEF scholarship awards are determined through a competitive application process. Each applicant must be a full-time promotional products industry employee or the dependent child of an industry employee, must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and must meet the deadline of March 15 at midnight Pacific time. Those being considered for need-based scholarships must also submit a copy of the Student Aid Report that a student receives after filing with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The online application for the 2024-25 school year opens in January 2024 and can be found at ppef.us/college-scholarships. Learn more about this year’s recipients in the following pages. Please note: The thank-yous included have been lightly edited for brevity. PPAI • OCTOBER 2023 • 61 PPEF | Must Read
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzU4OQ==