GCI Awards $100,000 in Scholarships to Fifty Alaska Students

ANCHORAGE—Fifty Alaska students from communities across the state will receive $2,000 apiece in the 2019-2020 academic year through the GCI Scholarship Program in partnership with the Alaska Community Foundation. The program launched more than twenty years ago and was seeded with $100,000 of scholarships in 2019. Since the program’s inception, GCI has awarded $6 million in scholarship funds to hundreds of Alaska students attending accredited colleges and vocational/trade schools across the country.

Recipients represent forty-six schools in thirty-six communities across Alaska, stretching from Unalaska in the Aleutians, east to Ketchikan, and more than 1,300 miles north to Utqiagvik. Awardees plan to seek a degree or certification with a STEM focus with an intention to return to Alaska to start their careers.

“The exceptional level of talent, intelligence and motivation of Alaska’s students is impressive, and we are so very proud of the fifty students who provided excellent applications,” said Pam Lloyd, VP of GCI Government, Healthcare & Education Corporate Strategy. “We strongly believe that encouraging and enabling Alaska’s young people to pursue advanced educational opportunities is critical for the future of our state, and we hope the GCI Scholarship Program provides these students the assistance they need to achieve their education goals.”

In 2019, GCI partnered with The Alaska Community Foundation to help review the more than 500 applications submitted to the Scholarship Program. ACF will continue to act as the administrator of the scholarship and distribute the awards through their scholarship program. 

“The Alaska Community Foundation is delighted to once again be collaborating with GCI by helping to facilitate their scholarship program to support Alaska’s students as they go forward in post-secondary education,” said ACF President and CEO Nina Kemppel. “This wide-reaching scholarship will help further the academic goals of fifty deserving students from forty-six schools across the state. Advancing our statewide impact is a priority for ACF, and GCI has always been an active partner in achieving that goal.”

“We look forward to continuing to work together to help students get the opportunities they need to succeed.”

GCI is committed to giving back to the communities it serves. Over the past five years, GCI has donated more than $10 million in cash, products, scholarships and grants to Alaska organizations. In addition, GCI provides employees with sixteen hours of paid leave to volunteer with local organizations through the GCI Community Service program. In 2018, more than 660 GCI employees volunteered nearly 8,200 hours through this program.

Click here for more information about the GCI Scholarship Program.