By Carol J. Bova
Dominion Energy is offering 60 undergraduate Equitable Education Scholarships totaling $500,000 for “students from historically underrepresented communities.”
The rules exclude White students (unless they identify as Hispanic), no matter what “community” they’re from, because to be eligible, applicants must:
— Self-identify as Black or African American; Hispanic or Latino; American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander with higher education expenses;
— Be high school seniors or graduates or current college undergraduates residing in Connecticut, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Wyoming, or Utah, with plans to enroll full-time at an accredited two- or four-year college, university or vocational-technical school for the entire upcoming academic year.
The press release quotes Robert M. Blue, Dominion Energy’s president and chief executive officer, who said: “We have already seen a tremendous return on investment supporting students obtaining higher education. Dominion Energy remains committed to investing in students’ access to higher education, strengthening our communities and future generations, and building a sustainable workforce.”
Scholarship America, a nonprofit specializing in managing scholarship and tuition assistance programs, says it “will support Dominion Energy in the selection of finalists.” Scholarship America says:
We have the power to build equity, diversity and inclusion into the fabric of our organization, and to help everyone feel like they belong. We can design meaningful solutions to address systemic inequities for students, with work that elevates and more purposefully advances social, economic and racial equity.
How equitable? Let’s look at the demographic breakdown of young adults 18 to 24 in the U.S. according to kidscount.org and the percentage within those groups who enroll in college according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.
Native News Online corroborates the dramatic drop in enrollment of American Indian and Alaskan Natives and points to the pandemic and recession as reasons.
Dominion Energy doesn’t explain why it considers it equitable to refuse potential scholarship help to needy White students whose communities have been historically under-represented in colleges and universities.
