Georgia-Pacific Scholarships Help Hundreds Of Students Cover Their Educational Costs

ATLANTA, June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Fifty incoming college freshmen who were stand-outs among their high school's recent graduating class are getting help with their educational expenses through the Georgia-Pacific Foundation Employees' Children Scholarship program.

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Georgia-Pacific annually awards 50 four-year scholarships to qualifying children of its employees across the United States, so that approximately 200 students are receiving support in any given year. Since the program's start in 1988, Georgia-Pacific has awarded more than 1,250 scholarships, totaling approximately $10 million. This year, students from 17 states received scholarship awards, and one student was named a National Merit Scholar, one of only 7,800 such students in the U.S.

"A post-secondary education is one of the most important factors in determining the future of our young people and our communities; after all, today's students are tomorrow's business owners, teachers and community volunteers," said Curly M. Dossman, Jr., president of the Georgia-Pacific Foundation. "By helping these employees' children cover their ever-increasing education costs we are rewarding their hard work and academic success, and helping prepare tomorrow's community leaders."

One of 2012's recipients, Matthew O'Shaughnessy, a graduate of Milton (Ga.) High School, and an incoming freshman at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said, "the Georgia-Pacific Scholarship is really an amazing opportunity for me to be able to attend the college of my dreams and major in what I've always wanted to do [electrical and computer engineering]."

The Georgia-Pacific scholarship program is administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and is open to children of all active, full-time employees of GP in the U.S. The award is $2,000 per year for up to four years of full-time college undergraduate study, for a total maximum award of $8,000.

Georgia-Pacific Foundation Employees' Children Scholarships are examples of the many diverse community investments made by Georgia-Pacific. Founded in 1958, the Georgia-Pacific Foundation is the mainstay of the company's community investment strategy and has four key investment areas – education, entrepreneurship, the environment and enrichment of communities. For more information on the GP Foundation, visit http://www.gp.com/gpfoundation/index.html.

Headquartered at Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific is one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of building products, tissue, packaging, paper, cellulose and related chemicals. The company employs approximately 40,000 people at 300 locations in North America, South America and Europe. For more information, visit www.gp.com.

SOURCE Georgia-Pacific