8960: Cultural Scholarships Derby.

The New York Post reported on a Texas program that awards scholarships to White males. Meanwhile, Advertising Age spotlighted a New York program that awards scholarships to minorities. Ironically, the Texan honorees have a better chance of landing a job on Madison Avenue than the New York students.

Winner in controversial ‘white man’ scholarship

NEWSCORE

SAN MARCOS, Texas—A non-profit organization has awarded the second of five academic scholarships to a Texas man who met their controversial criteria—which includes that he be white and male, FOXNews.com reported Saturday.

The group sponsoring the scholarship says it is the only scholarship of its kind in the United States.

The award was presented by a group called the Former Majority Association for Equality. Its president, Colby Bohannon, says he has been called a racist and compared to the KKK.

“We’re not racists. We have no agenda for bigotry,” said Bohannon. “We’re not trying to take away anything from any other group. We’re just trying to help poor, Caucasian males afford college.”

Recipient Brendan Baird is studying to become a physician’s assistant, and the awarded $500 check will help him to pay for schooling.

To win, he had to demonstrate a high grade point average, community service, sports ability and financial need. But what really sealed the deal is the fact that he is a white man.

“If anyone wants to say it’s an issue of color, it’s the color of green,” said Baird. “And we all need it.”

The group’s vice-president, Marcus Carter, is black. There are also two women and a Hispanic man on its board.

“Right now everybody else has their own specific scholarship: Minorities, left-handed people, people who like the color green,” said Carter. “I don’t feel the animosity of helping this group.”

Critics say while some funding programs are geared toward specific genders or races, others are need-based. One of the state’s largest, the Texas Grant Program, is geared toward low-income students.

Over the past decade, the program has spent about $2 billion to help 310,000 white men.

Bohannan, meanwhile, says he plans to expand his scholarship fund to $25,000 for another 5,000 recipients who may need the money.

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Promoting Diversity: First GroupM Scholars Selected

Agency Awards Scholarships in Professional Development Initiative With City College of New York

GroupM North America has named the first three honorees in the GroupM Diversity Scholarship program it established with City College of New York late last year as part of an ongoing effort to promote diversity and inclusion within the media and advertising industry.

The scholarship fund is providing tuition to three CCNY students majoring in advertising and PR who plan to pursue careers in the media and advertising: Rahel Araya, Cory Rainford and Salwa Sayed. Among other criteria, recipients must be full-time students in CCNY’s ad/PR program entering their junior or senior year and must maintain an overall GPA of at least 3.0.

“It’s a privilege to support CCNY,” said GroupM North American CEO Rob Norman in announcing the recipients. “We may be a global company but we are also part of a local community. The students we have met are passionate and committed, and we hope this program will help them develop great careers in our industry.”

Under the scholarship initiative, GroupM is providing 10 $1,000 annual scholarships to be awarded in the spring and applied to tuition payments the following fall, covering as much as 40% of a single semester’s tuition. This year’s remaining scholarship money will be given to fall 2011 candidates applying for spring 2012 scholarships.

The second element of this diversity initiative, known as the GroupM Student Enrichment Fund, benefits a number of ad/PR majors beyond the scholarship program. Students chosen by CCNY’s ad/PR faculty based on their GPA and the level of their intent to pursue a career in advertising will participate in professional development opportunities in their junior or senior years. Earlier this year, two students were hosted and mentored by Norman at the 4A’s Transformation Conference in Austin, Texas, as part of this initiative.