College Struggles

Dear Ms.Devos, first of all i want to say thank you for all the support you give schools. My name is Sania Kuylen and i’m a 9th grader at a p-tech school in newburgh, new york. I’ve been researching the difference of scholarships given to caucasians versus minorities. The gap of the amount of scholarship money given to different races is vast. According to Michelle S. Moses, the Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder “ the Caucasian students receive a much lower percentage of the awards. A Caucasian student has about a 20 percent chance of receiving a Pell Grant compared to 38 percent for minority students -a little bit higher for African-American students, a little bit lower for Hispanic students”.For certain categories of scholarships each race has its advantages and disadvantages there are public grants and private scholarship money that each get differently based on their social hierarchy. For example the Pell Grant is usually given to people of color and not given to caucasians for the simple fact of income where you fall on the spectrum of middle class , lower class, or higher class. I feel like any grant should be given the same way no matter what their race or economic status is. According to Mark Kantrowitz, “Well, partly, the scholarship providers, private scholarships, are sponsored by individuals, and many times for people who are like themselves or who engage in activities like themselves. It's not deliberate discrimination, but, for example, very few minority students engage in equestrian sports, whereas Caucasian students might be more likely to.” Mark Kantrowitz is a College professor from boulder. My main concern and reason for this letter is because i want the government to take into consideration the way they give scholarships and grants out to everyone. Please consider this letter thank you for listening .

Sincerely, Sania Kuylen