At just over a million bucks, the Warner Zeno gift to Minnesota State Mankato has the potential to make a lot of local prospective MSU students very happy.
Zeno, who died in January, made substantial donations to Mankato organizations including the Blue Earth Nicollet County Humane Society, the Mankato Masonic Lodge and the Salvation Army.
But Zeno saved his biggest gift for MSU in the hope that deserving kids from Mankato would get a little help in paying for college. An endowment will be set up that will generate about $40,000 annually for scholarships that can only be given to students who hail from the Mankato area.
“We are deeply grateful to Warner A. Zeno for this very generous gift,” MSU President Davenport said. “It is not only a gift to the university, but a gift to the entire Mankato community. The scholarships will benefit deserving Mankato students, and those young people, in turn, are likely to pursue careers in Mankato and become the next generation of leaders for Mankato, the state and the nation.”
Each year, a little more than 100 students from the Mankato Area Public Schools district matriculate at MSU. Another five to 10 come from Loyola High School.
With the Zeno dollars, those numbers could rise.
“Potentially, it could attract some high-achieving kids,” said Brian Jones, MSU’s interim admissions director. “This is going to be a substantial scholarship.”
Nothing’s been decided yet, but Jones said the Zeno funds could be used in a fashion similar to MSU’s Presidential Scholarship, which awards students up to $5,000 annually for four years.
MSU financial aid officials expect application materials for the Warner A. Zeno Family Scholarships to be available in the next several months.
Read the complete Free Press story at http://www.mankatofreepress.com/local/local_story_297220617.html
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