By Mac Weekly Staff

The Class of 2006 has achieved a milestone by becoming the first graduating class to have a scholarship endowed in its honor.

By mid-July, the class had raised over $53,000 through Annual Fund pledges. The minimum amount required to endow a scholarship is $50,000.

The resulting scholarship award will likely be $2,500, to be given to one first-year student each year. The award amount is equal to about five percent of the fund’s principal.

Class gift committee members and Development staff are still negotiating the details of how to dispense the award.

“We want it to be an intersection of merit and need,” said Michael Barnes ’06, a member of the gift committee.

The class gift committee had raised $34,000 by the end of April. The Annual Fund continued making appeals to potential donors throughout much of the summer.

The $53,000 raised is more than double the next largest amount raised by a senior class. The Class of 2005 raised $25,000 that the college put toward the existing Catherine Lealtad Scholarship.

MATTHEW STONE