Gbowee Scholarship Program
We are so glad to report on our ever growing Schlarship program - the Gbowee Peace Foundation (GPFA) African Girls Leadership Institute (AGLI). This is GPFA's Educational program that provides full scholarships to women and girls - namely - the Gbowee Scholarship Program (GSP) continues to grow. With the help of our local and internatinal partners, GSP continues to provides full scholarships to qualified women to attend colleges and universities within and outside of Liberia, with demonstrable needs for assistance to navigate the bureaucratic and financial hurdles that are often barriers to enrollment
[1]. GPFA continues to work with media outlets, local NGOs, high schools and government, and the West African Examination Council to identify qualified prospective students in a transparent process to provide fair access to scholarship opportunities.
Headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia on the West Coast of Africa, the Gbowee Scholarship Program places special emphasis on women and girls with the hope of developing new peace activists, and professional women leaders committed to peace. We have had challenges around getting enough students who can take advantage of scholarship programs and as such, are very involved in leadership programs like the "Moving Beyond the Classroom" project, that encourages students to think outside of the box and seek to self educate beyond regular school curriculum. This process they understand, will help them meet criterias set by the scholarship grantors. We also added projects like the Rivercess Afterschool Enrichment program, to ensure that students in rural areas continue to get supported through our GSP.
Our International Partners are:
Ashesi University, Ghana
Established in 2002, AU has 505 men and women students, and is an accredited, independent university. AU offered twenty (20) scholarships for Liberian women to enroll this fall 2012. The scholarships include full tuition for four years, a free laptop, free meal plan, free accommodation on campus and transportation home during the summer months following their first year.
Eastern Mennonite University, United States
EMU is a private liberal arts university established in 1917. With funding from USAID, the Foundation provided four (4) women peace activists the opportunity to continue and advance their education at the Women’s Peace Leadership Academic Cohort Program. The program is a two-year graduate certificate program.
University of Leuven, Belgium
UL is offering two scholarships for Liberian women to earn their master’s degrees starting in 2013. GPFA seeks a partnership with Dutch airlines KLM to provide round-trip airfare. All expenses related to study at UL will be covered under the university’s Leymah Gbowee Fund for African Women.
University of Seville, Spain
Formed in 1505, UoS is considered one of Spain’s top universities. UoS is offering one scholarship for a Liberian woman to earn a master’s degree. In addition to full payment of tuition and housing, UoS will provide the recipient a grant of 6000€ ($7295USD) to cover international round-trip airfare, books, medical expenses, and a stipend starting fall 2013. GPFA is happy to get the opportunity of sending one student on UoS' scholarship program with the tuition, room and board all paid up, where the Student has a choice of getting a Bachelor of Arts or of Science Degree in any area of study of their chosing offered by UoS.
Vassar College, United States
Founded in 1861, Vassar is ranked among the top 25 liberal arts institutions in the United States. Vassar is providing a generous package of four years of full tuition, room and board, international travel and a stipend for books and supplies to two young women to be identified in collaboration with GPFA to enroll fall 2013.
University of Arkansas - Clinton School of Public Service, United States
University of Arkansas, our newest partner, is offering our students 1 scholarship to a 2 year Masters of Public Service degree program. This includes full tuition, housing and a stipend. GPFA is presently working to identify qualified Applicants for Fall 2013.
Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas, United States
GPFA was fortunate to have acquired a full four-year tuition scholarship offer from Lyon College, Batesville, AR, USA, for two Liberian students.Lyon College is the oldest independent college in Arkansas. An exclusive liberal arts institution of higher learning, it is consistently ranked highly by U.S. News and World Report.
University of Indianapolis (Indianapolis Campus) United States
GPFA was awarded One Scholarship for a Student, towards a degree or non-degree program of their choosing.
University of Indianapolis (Athens, Greece Campus) United States
GPFA was awarded One Scholarship for a Liberian Student, towards a degree or non-degree guest student for two semesters.
Barnard College, United States
Two Students have the opportunity via GPFA to attend Barnard College. The scholarsips offer includes; Tuition, Room & Board, Books, Supplies, Insuranceand the cost of each individual's international flight from their ome country to Barnard University.
CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) Leadership Academy: Spain & Ghana
Two Liberian High Schol girls get te opportunity to take advantage of two non-Degree seeking Summer Scholarships to atted and experience CIEE's Leadership Academy. This means that meals, transportation, room and board will be covered by CIEE. For 2013, the countries of exchange will be Ghana and Spain.
Polytechnic University, Mozambique
Mozambique's Polytechnic University were happy to give GPFA two scholarship offers for Liberian students. Their school's tuition willl be paid toward them studying their Bachelors of Arts, or Bachelors of Science degree in their program area of their choosing.
Local Universities:
We are happy to have celebrated our first year anniversary - one year in the business of serving women and girls and ensuring those in our program get to be their very best selves to accomplish their educational aims. Our happiness stemmed from the fact that we were able to offer so many scholarships to deserving young women, all with the help of financial/in-kind donations from people from all walks of life, including our GlobalGiving donors. We have added several new scholarship criteria to benefit females of the disabled community in Liberia. This was a crowning moment for us at GPFA as we always wanted to be able to give equal opportunities to people from all walks of life. The scholarships being offered to the disabled females serves that purpose. We continue our efforts to provide scholarships for Liberian women to attend domestic colleges and universities, and establish partnerships with institutions to obtain scholarships. With the nearly $20,000USD raised at the inception of the Foundation's work from private Liberian citizens, we continue to work on placing women and girls at the University of Liberia, the Stella Maris Polytechnic, the African Methodist University, Starz College, amongst others. The Foundation’s collaborations and partnerships are broad and deep as it develops relationships with the Liberian community, academic institutions and global companies.
We look forward to continuing our work throughout this year (2013) and hope to triple our educational placement in schools at home and abroad.
[1] GPFA helps applicants throughout the entire application and admissions process to ensure that the time and expenses of obtaining necessary documents e.g. passports, visas, birth certificates, securing picture identification cards, submitting electronic documents, etc. are no longer prohibitive costs.
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