Sister Thea Bowman Foundation Knights of Columbus Scholarships
In Dec. 1996, the Order’s Board of Directors partnered with the Sister Thea Bowman Black Educational Foundation to establish a four-year grant in the amount of $25,000 per year to support deserving African-American students pursuing a Catholic college education.
Recipients of these scholarships are not necessarily the sons or daughters of Knights. Sister Thea Bowman, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, was the granddaughter of a slave. Prior to her death in 1990, she was a noted educator and evangelizer. The five students who each received the initial $5,000 annual scholarship in 1997 graduated in May 2001.
In March 2001, the Board of Directors approved continuation of the program to provide scholarships to five new recipients, all of whom graduated in 2005. In August 2005, the Board of Directors approved a four-year grant in the amount of $37,500 per year for five single black mothers to study at the College of St. Mary in Omaha, Neb., while their children are in a day-care program offered through the college's Living and Learning Program. The scholarships, each in the amount of $7,500, were awarded in 2006.