The Thurgood Marshall College Fund has announced a $3 million gift from Truist Financial Corporation to provide scholarships to students at historically Black colleges and universities.

Awarded through the Truist Charitable Fund, a donor-advised fund at the Winston-Salem Foundation, the commitment will establish a scholarship program that will provide $1 million a year over the next three years to more than three hundred HBCU students. The program will offer two scholarships — the Truist Access Scholarship, which will award annual scholarships of up to $10,000 to forty-five students attending HBCUs within Truist markets; and the Truist Gap Scholarship, which will award one-time scholarships of between $500 and $6,350 to fifty-five students attending any HBCU to meet a financial need. Truist leaders also will engage directly with students to share information about corporate careers.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the six-year graduation rate for first-time, full-time undergraduate Black college students is 40 percent, and according to the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, Black students have nearly $25,000 more student loan debt on average than their white counterparts.

“Higher education transforms lives, and we’re committed to removing the financial barriers that so often prevent students from persisting to degree completion,” said Thurgood Marshall College Fund president and CEO Harry L. Williams. “A college degree positions students for greater career success and spurs the kind of economic mobility that can change the life trajectory for a student. That’s why we are thrilled to partner with Truist on this scholarship program.”

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