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Harvard Bound
The Maier Foundation Scholarship
ALICIA ELKIN
For many aspiring and driven West Virginians , college tuition is a financial burden that invokes fear , stress and sometimes even pause when pursuing higher education . To go to a prestigious , Ivy League school like Harvard University can seem financially infeasible , which is exactly why William Joseph Maier , Jr ., born and raised in West Virginia , started the Sarah and Pauline Maier Scholarship Foundation in 1958 .
“ My grandfather donated half of his assets ,” Elizabeth Maier Chernow , Maier ’ s granddaughter and board
ExEdge
More than 55 percent of Harvard University ’ s undergraduate students receive some type of scholarship .
Source : www . harvard . edu member of the renamed Maier Foundation , Inc .’ s board of directors , says of how the scholarship foundation was established . “ For the most part , this was stock in various companies he had started in order to establish what was then known as the Sarah and Pauline Maier Scholarship Foundation . He named it the scholarship
foundation because he wanted all funds to promote scholarship for needy students in the area .”
As a need-based resource that helps establish funds for students in West Virginia and Ohio who cannot otherwise afford a higher education at Harvard , the scholarship has grown into what is known as the Maier Foundation , Inc ., a private , nonprofit corporation that aims to further higher education in West Virginia and empower West Virginians attending colleges and universities out of state .
Maier completed his own education on a full academic scholarship called the Greenleaf Price Scholarship . According to Chernow , her grandfather would not have been able to get an education without that aid .
“ Because he attended Harvard on several academic scholarships , he wanted to give others the same opportunities he received ,” says Chernow .
According to John Copenhaver , Jr ., a board member for the Maier Foundation , Maier set out to employ the economic principles he had been taught at Harvard and Oxford to accumulate wealth so that , after making ample provision for his family ’ s needs , he could devote those riches primarily to the education of others .
To carry on this legacy , the Maier Foundation focuses on establishing need-based scholarship funds at colleges and universities in West Virginia . As of today , the Maier Foundation has given more than
$ 50 million in scholarships and is worth $ 32 million . In 2016 alone , more than $ 3 million was used to name 48 Maier Scholars . In addition to the Sarah and Pauline Maier Scholarship , the Maier Foundation has scholarship endowments at most of the private and public colleges in West Virginia , including West Virginia University , Marshall University , West Virginia State University , the University of Charleston and Wheeling Jesuit University .
“ The scholarships serve as a reminder of what is possible when generosity and
William Joseph Maier , Jr .
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE