West Lafayette, In. — Low-income students in Ripley County who may not otherwise be able to attend Purdue University will have a new financial aid option in 2019, thanks to the Purdue Opportunity Awards program.
The program assists Purdue undergraduate students from Indiana facing unusual personal challenges and financial hardship. In support of the program, funding from J. Timothy and Jane C. McGinley has provided aid each year to students from Marion, Tippecanoe, Vigo, Harrison and St. Joseph counties, to which the McGinleys and former Indiana Govs. Evan Bayh, Frank O’Bannon and Joseph Kernan have ties.
The McGinleys are expanding the program this year to include Ripley County, where gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels, now president of Purdue University, kicked off his successful 2004 race featuring an RV tour across Indiana. Daniels served as Indiana governor from 2005 to 2013.
“When we set up the scholarship fund, we wanted to help students in need—and also to recognize and thank the governors who had appointed me to the Purdue board of trustees: Bayh, O’Bannon and Kernan,” said Tim McGinley, who served as a Purdue University trustee for 20 years and stepped down in 2009 after 16 years as chair of the board. “Now, we want to include Mitch and recognize and thank him as well.”
Tim McGinley earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue in 1963, and Jane McGinley graduated from Purdue in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education.
Daniels crisscrossed the state during his first campaign for governor, staying 125-plus nights in the homes of Indiana residents. He spent the first night in Ripley County. Over the course of the campaign, he visited towns across the county, including Cross Plains and its feed mill; Friendship, home of national rifle-muzzle-loading competitions; and Milan as it celebrated the 50th anniversary of its high school boys’ basketball team’s 1954 Indiana state title.
The McGinleys offered Daniels his choice of which Indiana county to add to their scholarship program. “Pressed to choose,” he said, “I wanted to go back to where it all started: Ripley County.”
Since becoming president of Purdue in 2013, Daniels has stressed student affordability and led successful initiatives to hold university tuition constant.
Rob Moorhead, superintendent of the South Ripley Community School Corporation, said, “I was pleased to hear that former Governor Daniels chose Ripley County to be included in this scholarship program. With well over 60 percent of the students at South Ripley qualifying for free or reduced lunches, we have students who will benefit greatly from this program. As we prepare students for their future vocations, we realize the importance of breaking down barriers to help them obtain a post-secondary degree. This scholarship program will increase the likelihood that our students will have the opportunity and financial means to earn such a degree.”
Purdue Opportunity Awards provide scholarship money to income-eligible Twenty-first Century Scholars from Indiana. To be considered, students must be admitted to Purdue and have a complete FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) on file with the Purdue University Division of Financial Aid by March 1 of their senior year in high school. No special application for the scholarship is required.
