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Northwest
Ohio Scholarship Fund Celebrates 20 Years of Scholarships
This school year the Northwest Ohio Scholarship Fund (NOSF)
is celebrating 20 years of providing educational choices
through need-based scholarships for K-8 students to use for
private schools or for homeschool expenses. NOSF has
awarded over 15,400 scholarships totaling $13.2 million to
students in Northwest Ohio since the 1999-2000 school year.
In early 1998, a group of local philanthropists started the
program under the direction of Sister Janet Doyle,
superintendent of Catholic School of the Diocese of Toledo.
The purpose of the program was two-fold: make private
education accessible to families while strengthening inner
city schools through increased, stable enrollment.
At the same time, the Children’s Scholarship Fund in New
York was implementing a program that would offer 40,000 K-8
scholarships for private schools worth almost $200 million
to low-income families across America. NOSF was successful
in securing a partnership with CSF and in the fall of 1999,
awarded 817 scholarships worth $553,800 to students from
Lucas, Wood and Fulton Counties. CSF has provided $4.5
million in matching funds for NOSF scholarships since that
time
This school year NOSF has awarded 750 scholarships for
children to attend 72 different private schools in 16
counties. The average scholarship award is $1,088. In
order to qualify for these scholarships, students have to
reside in Allen, Crawford, Defiance, Erie, Fulton, Hancock,
Henry, Huron, Lucas, Ottawa, Paulding, Putnam, Richland,
Sandusky, Seneca, Van Wert, Williams, Wood or Wyandot County
and meet the income eligibility guidelines set by CSF.
NOSF alumni are grateful for the scholarship and the
opportunities that come with it. Alumna Kristine Below,
graduated from St. Jerome Catholic School in 2009 and said
of her experience, “the school taught me how to study as
well as provide the motivation for doing well.” Below has
since graduated from The Ohio State University and is
working as a neurophysiology technologist at ProMedica
Toledo Hospital.
For more information about NOSF please contact Ann Riddle,
Executive Director of the Northwest Ohio Scholarship Fund,
at (419) 720-7048.
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