This past weekend brought flocks of prospective Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars to Saint Louis University, and with them came the new changes to the MLK Scholarship.

“The scholarship will still be a minimum of $13,000, as it has been in the past,” Cari Wickliffe, assistant vice president of the Division of Enrollment Management and Director of Student Financial Services, said. “The difference will come into play for certain categories of students who have merit scholarships that are more than $13, 000.”

MLK Scholarship recipients for the 2010-2011 academic year will be receiving the scholarship as a “stackable” package.
In years past, scholars accepted into the program could only receive $13,000, even if a larger merit-based scholarship was applicable. With the new program that has been implemented, students with merit scholarships that are greater than $13,000 can receive an additional $3,000.

“The students who interview for the MLK Scholarship already have a merit scholarship of some kind,” Wickliffe said. “So, basically, how it’s being communicated [to the students] is that it will be a minimum of $13,000 in combination with their other merit awards. Then for students who exceed $13,000, they can receive an additional $3,000 to what they’re already receiving.”

Students who attended the MLK Scholar Weekend were already aware of the new system upon arriving at SLU.
“We were told it’s either $3,000 or $13,000,” prospective MLK Scholar Stewart Heatwole said. “It’ll be added to our merit scholarships, so we’ll get at least $13,000.”

With this new program, the maximum amount of money a MLK Scholar can receive is $18,000, with the addition of the Provost Scholarship. Although the dollar amounts are getting larger, the number of students who will receive the MLK Scholarship could potentially shrink.

“The number of students has not been determined,” Wickliffe said. “We will probably look at less overall because we anticipate a smaller amount just based on the numbers. We want between 50 and 60 students.”

With the new program and preparation, however, the same amount of money, if not more, is being spent on bringing next year’s MLK Scholars to SLU.

While it is still too early to discern whether this new scholarship system will be better, Wickliffe is optimistic about the outcome.

“These are students who are very passionate about what the MLK Scholarship stands for and the service components, but the financial incentive wasn’t there,” Wickliffe said. “So we did see more students apply this year than we’ve ever had before, and we feel good about the application and the students who came this weekend.”