The deadline is fast approaching for students who intend to seek financial aid from the Middletown Community Foundation for college, with applications due Feb. 28.

The sixth-largest scholarship agency in the state of Ohio, the Middletown Community Foundation typically awards nearly $900,000 a year in scholarships to close to 600 students, explained Executive Director T. Duane Gordon. He said that close to three-quarters of those scholarships are renewals for college upperclassmen who receive multi-year awards, but between 150 and 200 are first-time awards to graduating high school seniors.

“We administer more than 100 individual scholarship funds, many of which have multiple recipients,” he added. “There are scholarships for dozens of majors and all of our local high schools.”

Most scholarships offered through the Community Foundation are limited to students being graduated from Middletown, Middletown Christian, Bishop Fenwick, Monroe, Madison, Edgewood or Franklin high schools, but a handful are open to schools in other communities as well.

For example, the recently-created Aviation Educational Trust Fund, being awarded for the first time this year, is open to residents of Butler, Warren, Montgomery or Preble Counties studying aviation-related fields, while at the other end of the spectrum the Constantine “Charles” Nicholas Revelos Scholarship, also being awarded for the first time this year, is open only to students who were members of the Middletown High School Orchestra.

The Revelos Scholarship, established by his brothers earlier this year, honors the memory of the 1956 Middletown High School graduate who went on to serve as dean of the Chase College School of Law and faculty member at the Michigan State University College of Law.

Relatively new scholarships that were awarded for the first time last year include the Carl and Faye Robbins Memorial Scholarship, restricted to students of Appalachian Kentucky or Tennessee descent who attend a high school within the city of Middletown, and the All About PetCare/Steve Zerkel Memorial Scholarship, which assists a student from Middletown, Madison Township, Franklin or Carlisle studying animal or veterinary sciences or another animal-related field such as grooming. 

Students interested in applying should visit the Middletown Community Foundation’s website at www.mcfoundation.org, clicking on their school’s name under “H.S. Scholarships” on the left-hand menu. A page will open showing scholarships available to graduates of that school. Home-schooled students should select from the menu the public school they would have attended. Local high school senior counselors should also be able to provide information and applications.

Completed applications, which must list each scholarship for which the student is applying, should be mailed to 300 North Main Street, Suite 300, Middletown, OH 45042 so that they arrive by the February 28 deadline. Applications may also be hand-delivered to this address before 5 p.m. that day. Late applications will not be considered.

Applicants for most scholarships will be scheduled to sit for an interview with a panel of Middletown Community Foundation scholarship judges sometime between March 28 and April 8.

The Middletown Community Foundation works to improve the lives of those in the greater Middletown area by serving as a permanent source of funding for projects to benefit the community. In the 35 years since its founding as part of Middletown United Way and 25 years as an independent organization, the Community Foundation has distributed tens of millions of dollars to charitable organizations in the area, with more than $25 million granted out in the past 10 years alone. For more information, call 513-424-7369.