Oil Company Offers $50-Million in Scholarships
January 23, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
The nation’s ninth-largest oil company has pledged to spend $5-million per year for 10 years to send hundreds of high school students in economically depressed El Dorado, Ark., to college, reports the Associated Press.
Murphy Oil, a Fortune 500 company based in El Dorado, will pay up to $6,000 per year—the cost of attending a public university in Arkansas—to the city’s approximately 250 eligible high school graduates, starting this year. It is one of the largest scholarship programs ever offered in the United States.
Only students enrolled in the El Dorado school system since kindergarten are eligible for the full award, which can be applied toward tuition at any college in the country. Students who have been enrolled in the school system for four or more years receive two-thirds of the full amount.
Many El Dorado residents have recently lost jobs in the local logging industry, and Murphy spokesmen said the company hopes the program will help revitalize the city.
(Free registration is required to view this article on the New York Times site.)
