About Us
Formation
The Black Student Catholic Scholarship Fund is an outgrowth of the National Black Catholic Pastoral Plan. The plan places a high priority on the education of black youth in value-centered Catholic schools. The Implementation Team for the Pastoral Plan in the Archdiocese of Omaha established the program in 1994. Its mission is “to enable qualified black elementary school graduates from families of limited and moderate means to attend Catholic high schools.” Applicants need not be Catholic.
Beginnings
A board of directors was formed under the leadership of Ms. Tessie O. Edwards. With contributions from the Ahmanson Foundation and the Osborn Trust, the program was able to award its first scholarship in the amount of $1,000 in the fall of 1994 to a Marian High School student, who, after four years on a BSCSF scholarship, enrolled at the University of Chicago from which she graduated in 2002.
Growth
In the years since 1994, BSCSF has added scholarships and increased the stipend. In the 2007 – 2008 school year, BSCSF is funding 19 students at $3,500 each. Even at this level, the awards amount to only about one-half the average cost of tuition at Omaha-area Catholic schools. Financial aid from the schools, supplemented by payments from the students and their families, makes up the difference; however, there have been instances where otherwise qualified applicants simply could not afford to make up the difference and had to turn down a scholarship.
Despite these financial challenges, a mark of our success is that we continue to attract more highly-qualified applicants each year. At the same time, however, Catholic high school tuition has continued to rise. As a result, we have struggled to increase the number of scholarships, while trying to keep scholarship aid at 50% or more of costs.
As a teacher and longtime advocate for youth, Ms. Tessie O. Edwards knows the value of Catholic education. Upon her retirement in 1994, Ms. Edwards established the Black Student Catholic Scholarship Fund, serving as its Chair until 2007. Ms. Edwards has dedicated her time, energy and talents to other organizations as well, including the Creighton University Alumni Advisory Board, the League of Women Voters, the Women's Fund of Greater Omaha, and the Omaha Archidiocesen Commission on Education. She also served for six years as a Trustee of Boys Town, a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization providing services for children and families. To honor her and her sister, Barba Edwards, in 2008 Boys Town named the assembly hall at Wegner Middle School Edwards Hall. In addition, Ms. Edwards was awarded an honorary doctorate from Creighton University in 2005.