Sachs Foundation Awards $2.6M in Scholarships to Black Scholars Amid DEI Challenges

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sachs Foundation announced the selection of 65 outstanding Black scholars who will receive more than $2.6 million in scholarships.

The students were honored at the Foundation's Annual Celebration in June at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where scholar, activist, and author Angela Davis joined Sachs Foundation Board Member Aisha Praught-Leer, a two-time Olympian and Jamaican record holder, for a keynote conversation before scholars, families, and community supporters.

At a time when diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and race-conscious admissions face legal and political challenges nationwide, the Sachs Foundation remains steadfast in its 95-year legacy of investing in Black students across Colorado through scholarships, mentorship, and leadership development opportunities.

"We get a lot of questions about what the Sachs Foundation is going to do in this current political moment. And our answer has been clear for almost 100 years," said Ben Ralston, CEO of the Sachs Foundation. "The same answer we had when the KKK held power in Colorado. The same answer during the Jim Crow South. The same answer through the civil rights movement. We are going to be here. We are going to do this work. And we are going to celebrate it."

In conversation with Praught-Leer, Professor Davis spoke directly to the scholars, drawing on her own formation as a young Black woman navigating a hostile political moment. Her message to this year's class was clear: use these years to practice freedom by challenging, critiquing, and building. "Find your community," she told them. "If you can't find it, you build it."

Black Colorado residents can apply for scholarships each year from January 1 to March 15. Learn more at https://www.sachsfoundation.org/#scholarships.

Those interested in supporting the Foundation's mission can visit SachsFoundation.org/donate/ or contact [email protected] for information on partnership and giving opportunities.

About the Sachs Foundation

Founded by Pikes Peak resident Henry Sachs in 1931, the Sachs Foundation provides programming designed to help Black Coloradans overcome systemic inequity. Over the decades, the Foundation has helped thousands of talented Black students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees at universities throughout the United States, supported Black youth through mentoring programs and developed educator recruitment and retention programs to place more Black educators in Colorado classrooms. Learn more about the Sachs Foundation, student success stories and how to apply for scholarship grants at SachsFoundation.org.

SOURCE Sachs Foundation