The Andrew Vaughn Scholarship was created to help dedicated minority students reach their educational goals by reducing financial barriers. The scholarship will provide a student with $1,000 annually towards their student account for four years. The scholarship will be rewarded during each fall semester. The scholarship recipients must maintain a full-time student status (minimum 12 semester credit hours) and a 3.0 GPA to retain the scholarship. The 2026 application is due April 3, 2026 by 11:59pm CST. Official transcripts must be provided to a scholarship representative at the end of each academic year to confirm the GPA of each student.

Requirements:

• Must be an ethnic minority in Carbondale, Herrin, Harrisburg, DuQuoin, Carterville or Marion School District.

• Applicant must have maintained a 3.25 GPA on a 4.0 scale during high school career

• Applicant must attend a regionally or nationally accredited institution of higher education (2 or 4 year institution)

Writing prompt (upload):

• Please provide a personal statement about your plans and major throughout college (minimum of

  200, maximum of 350 words)