The Ingram Scholarship is one of the prestigious merit scholarship opportunities for students who attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Learn more about the unique scholarship and what it has to offer the students who are recipients.
Many students who are seeking post-secondary funding typically need to apply for a scholarship before becoming a freshman at the college or university. Some college students benefit from receiving a scholarship while they are enrolled in school. The Ingram Scholarship is available for incoming and current students.
We will tell you more about the scholarship, who’s eligible, how to apply, and other features that make it a prestigious opportunity for the students of Vanderbilt University.
The History of the Ingram Scholarship
The scholarship is one of the three signature merit scholarships which are available exclusively through Vanderbilt University and for its students. The scholarship is named after E. Bronson Ingram, who was the chairman of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust between 1991 and 1995.
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Ingram created the scholarship in 1993 to encourage students to combine their professional career with a commitment to community service, such as volunteering. Ingram was a strong believer in giving back to the community and regularly volunteered, as well as providing funding to some nonprofit organizations.
Although Ingram passed away in 1995, his wife is an emerita member of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust and helps oversee the scholarship program.
What is an Ingram Scholar?
As one of the prestigious merit scholarships, the Ingram’s scholarship is designed to challenge students by having them create and implement community service projects that positively impact the community.
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Students who apply for the scholarship should exemplify character, leadership, service, and giving. According to the Ingram Scholars Program, ideal candidates are students who “demonstrate a willingness and ability to combine a successful business or professional career with a lifelong commitment to finding solutions to critical societal problems.”
Students who are selected to be part of the Ingram Scholar Program should expect to devote at least 20 hours each month during the academic year and at least one of their undergraduate summers working on community outreach and other service projects.
Students should not solely be community-focused while applying for the scholarship or during their years at Vanderbilt, but throughout their whole life (much like Ingram demonstrated in his own life).
An Ingram Scholar should do the following:
- Volunteer in the community
- Create a program to help the community and address societal issues
- Work for not-for-profit and business groups
- Create programs that become self-sustaining
- After graduations, scholars should mentor undergraduate students
- Help with summer internships and job placement
- Involve others in community service
The main goal of the program is to inspire Ingram Scholars to continue the work of an Ingram Scholar long after graduation. The program should inspire a lifelong commitment to positive social change.
Students who see themselves as an Ingram Scholar and evoke the qualities of maturity, leadership, and initiative are ideal candidates. It’s important to remember that as a scholarship recipient, you are expected to show the desire to create change long after your time at Vanderbilt.
While the scholarship program has been around since 1993, the candidates are carefully selected, and as of 2018 there are 288 Vanderbilt students and alumni (since 1994), who received the scholarship; here are the latest Ingram scholars.
Current Ingram Scholars and Summer Projects
Are you interested to see what current Ingram Scholars are working on and if you have the same drive and vision as them? Take a closer look at some of the current scholars at Vanderbilt.
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Subhash Gutti
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Subhash Gutti is a Kentucky native and will be graduating from Vanderbilt in 2019. He is majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Medicine, Health, and Society. During his middle and high school years, Gutti spent his summers volunteering at the local hospital where he observed the health disparities in his rural community.
Gutti’s passion expanded beyond the hospital and into homeless shelters and child abuse prevention programs. As an Ingram Scholar and student at Vanderbilt, Gutti has immersed himself in various healthcare programs and work with people who are being underserved by the medical community. He also had the opportunity to educate and assist people of diverse backgrounds.
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Madison Brown
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Madison Brown is a native of Atlanta, will graduate in 2019, and is majoring in Sociology with a minor in American Studies. Brown’s interest in helping others began through her church’s involvement with the refugee population in Clarkston, Georgia. Brown began traveling to places where people were impoverished and faced injustice every day.
As a student and scholar at Vanderbilt, she has worked with Preston Taylor Ministries, which helps children in low-income areas, and provides tutoring and other valuable services. She plans on interning at an emergency shelter that provides housing and counseling for youth in crisis.
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Michael Zuch
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Michael Zuch spent his summer at First Aid Arts in Seattle, Washington. First Aid Arts is a nonprofit organization which provides art-based tools and training to trauma-care providers. The art-based organization helps create activities for art therapy for survivors of sexual exploitation and other traumatic experiences.
During his summer project, Zuch was in charge of developing adaptations to the curriculum so that it could meet the needs of refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced individuals. Zuch wrote a Cultural Adaptation Guide for facilitators, made plans for evaluations, and compiled an advisory group of experts in refugee mental health.
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Gerard Franks
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Gerard Franks spent his summer working in Oklahoma City with the Oklahoma Council on Economic Education, which is a nonprofit focused on promoting economic and financial literacy throughout the state.
Franks worked with the organization and assisted them in improving their teaching curriculum for financial literacy, grades K-12. He worked on Financial Fitness for Life Lessons, Better Money Habits videos, and helped to streamline some of the other resources so that teachers could use them more effectively during the school year.
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Daniel Shaykevich
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Daniel Shaykevich spent his summer in Nashville working with Inspiring Connections Outdoors (ICO), which is a volunteer-run Sierra Club program. The purpose of the program is to bring outdoor experiences, as well as environmental education, to inner-city youth.
As part of his summer project, Shaykevich organized outdoor outings, prepared lesson plans, and worked closely with the Youth Encouragement Services. Through his project, he was able to educate children about nature and environmental issues, which they may not have an opportunity to see or learn otherwise.
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Morgan Pinkleton
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Ingram scholar Morgan Pinkleton chose to work with Urban Harvest in Houston, Texas for a summer project. The organization is dedicated to providing education to communities about nutrition and organic agriculture.
Pinkleton was responsible for creating a school garden inventory of the various Urban Harvest school gardens, was an Assistant Garden Educator at the inner-city schools, and helped children learn about everything from ecology to nutrition during the summer school programs.
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Ingram Scholarship Benefits
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Recipients of the Ingram Scholarship receive full-tuition support each academic year in addition to stipends for service projects during the summer. The university will also provide additional funding as needed for students who are eligible for financial assistance.
The scholarship is renewed each year, through senior year, as long as the student maintains a minimum GPA of 3.0 and fulfills all service-related requirements as stated by the Ingram program.
In addition to the 20-hour a month commitment and a summer program, Ingram scholars must meet on a weekly basis to discuss their service projects; these meetings will have a faculty director as a supervisor.
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How To Apply For The Ingram Scholarship
If you are planning on attending Vanderbilt (or are already a current student) and think that you are an ideal candidate to become an Ingram Scholar you can apply for the scholarship via MyAppVU after submitting your admission application. Deadline for current prospective freshmen is December 1, 2018, and students must submit the program application electronically.
If you are already a student at Vanderbilt University, you have until February 1, 2019, to submit your scholarship application electronically.
Prospective freshmen who apply by the deadline will find out if they are an Ingram Scholar in mid-March of 2019. Current students, who apply by the deadline, will find out if they are scholars by mid-May of 2019.
It’s important to note that if you are reading this article after these deadlines, visit the Ingram Scholar site for more up-to-date information regarding deadlines.
The selection committee bases their selection on an applicant’s commitment to community service, personal character, and leadership. Finalists will interview with the selection committee.
