IUI-Nina Scholars

The Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust established the Nina Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholars program in tribute to the life and values of Nina Mason Pulliam. The Nina Scholars program is committed to providing support and resources to students from underserved backgrounds who have traditionally had difficulty gaining access to higher education. The program provides students with community and academic support through mentoring, a first year class, one-on-one support, and monthly scholar meetings and events. Financial support comes in the form of tuition, fees, books, and a yearly living stipend for up to six years.

To be considered for the Nina Scholarship you MUST:

• Be a U.S. Citizen
• Be a Resident of Indiana
• Have completed no more than 24 credit hours towards your bachelor’s degree at the end of Fall Semester 2020

AND fit into ONE of the following categories:

1. Adults with dependents
These are adults who have dependents in their household (self not included). These adults may be first-time college students or returning students (those with previous college experience). The family unit may include relatives or other persons who may live inside or outside the applicant’s household, but for whom the Internal Revenue Service has determined there is a financially dependent relationship.

2. College-age youth and adults with physical disabilities
A physical disability for the purposes of this scholarship program is one that limits or impairs a person’s ability to access or to be fully mobile on campus or creates a special challenge for classroom instruction, tutoring, student support services, participation in campus offerings, and other academic and extracurricular activities. This includes disabilities that substantially limit major life activities such as walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, writing, and working. These disabilities may be results of, but are not limited to, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, speech impairments, visual impairments, hearing impairments, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, loss of limbs, and severe orthopedic injuries. Applicants are to provide official documentation of their physical disability from a medical or health care provider.

3. Adults ages, 18-25, who have experienced foster care or have been disconnected from their parents or primary caregiver and are responsible for their own financial support. Examples of eligibility include:

• Youth who experienced foster care
• Youth who never entered the formal child welfare system but were shuffled into informal kinship care situations
• Youth disconnected from their homes/parents who became functionally homeless and survived through the generosity of friends by “couch surfing”
• Youth who experienced significant time in the system, but were ultimately returned to marginally capable parents
• Youth, who after a period of time in foster care, were adopted legally by marginally capable family members ill equipped to support a child socially or financially