There’s a lot of rewarding work at Gustavus, but Tricia Stenberg’s might take the proverbial cake. She leads the Heritage Scholarship, one of the most successful scholarship initiatives at Gustavus.
It works like this: A donor pledges $12,000 to be given to a student over the course of four years, at $3,000 annually. The scholarship is named by the donor, according to the donor’s wishes, which might be for the donor themselves, in someone’s honor, or even for a group of people. “Sometimes generations of Gustie families fund a Heritage Scholarship,” Stenberg says. “Or multiple people from a class come together.”
The student who receives the scholarship has high academic potential yet needs additional support to bridge the gap between estimated financial aid and what their family can pay. It’s usually a pivotal funding gap. “This can be the determining factor for students to say yes to Gustavus,” Stenberg says.
The reality is that financial aid can be the one factor a college decision hinges on. “There are many students who say Gustavus wasn’t their first or even second choice— financial aid was how they made their decision. And every student I’ve asked has said, ‘It was meant to be. I love Gustavus. I’m happy to be here.’ That’s a common theme.” And the Heritage Scholarship recipients stay. At 94 percent, Heritage Scholarship students have one of the highest retention rates among all student subsets at Gustavus.
Gifts to Heritage Scholarships are growing at a significant rate. “Two years ago, we awarded 40 scholarships,” she says. “This fall, we awarded 75, and the goal is to fund 100 scholarships for the 2024-2025 academic year.” Heritage Scholarships have helped diversify campus because they go to students from a variety of economic backgrounds: 45 percent of the high-need, high-potential recipients are first-generation college students. Plus, the scholarships have helped Gustavus earn #22 in the nation—and #1 in Minnesota—for Social Mobility in the most recent U.S. News and World Report rankings.
The threshold for these scholarships is much lower than endowed gifts, which start at $50,000. But the comparatively low barrier to entry means even more alumni can afford to endow Heritage Scholarships, ensuring they live on to aid successive generations of students. “Many alumni say they wouldn’t have been able to come to Gustavus without the scholarships they received,” Stenberg says. “It’s special for them to give a student the same opportunity they had. And students feel this scholarship is special in that way too because it’s attached to real people. I love when students ask me how they can get in touch with the donor and say thank you.”