APPLY for the 2016 Central Pennsylvania Architects Foundation Fund (CPAFF) Scholarship!
The deadline for application is Thursday – June 30, 2016. Please find eligibility criteria and application instruction here.
Students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate Architecture programs – and who are current residents of the 13-county Central PA AIA Chapter region are eligible to apply. The selection process considers both financial need and talent. Applicants do not have to be attending a Pennsylvania institution.
The Central Pennsylvania Architects Foundation Fund (CPAFF) was established by Past Presidents of the AIA Central PA Chapter who wanted to build on the national AIA scholarship model by establishing one that was specific to the chapter’s 13-county region. Funding to underwrite the scholarships comes from various sources. The Central PA AIA Chapter has been supportive with consistent contributions that come from lecture series and expo proceeds. The CPAFF members (Past AIA Presidents) have held annual fundraising events, and solicited individual gifts from chapter members. The fund, held at The Foundation for Enhancing Communities, continues to grow, and scholarships are disbursed from the interest while the principle remains untouched.
The CPAFF was able to grant $450 the first year of the scholarship in 2011, then $550 the second year in 2012, and $1,000 each of the past two years. Now in its sixth year, the 2016 Central PA Architecture Scholarship will be for at least $1,000. The fund’s balance is strong – exceeds $25,000 – and is growing. Over time, the CPAFF members intend to increase the amount of their scholarship awards, and/or give out several in a single year. Frank Dittenhafer II, FAIA, who chairs the group, outlined a five-year plan commencing in 2015 to double the scholarship endowment to $50,000 by the year 2020.
“It’s been extremely rewarding to me personally,” Dittenhafer says, “and to the other members of the Foundation, to be able to do this.” Though they have not awarded exceptionally large scholarships in their first four years, Dittenhafer says the support has enabled each of the recipients, in different ways, to do things they may not otherwise have been able to do without receiving the CPAFF dollars. And it has the added benefit of coming from established leaders in the field they’re pursuing. “It means a lot to the students to receive this recognition from the architectural community in the Central PA region where they are from,” Dittenhafer says.
