GSK Opportunity Scholarship

In 1988 GSK, headquartered in Research Triangle Park, made a significant gift to its home community by creating the GSK Opportunity Scholarship Fund. Administered by Triangle Community Foundation, this Fund offers residents of Durham, Orange, or Wake County, who have overcome significant adversity, the opportunity to pursue their dreams and improve their lives through education or training.

Criteria

To be eligible to receive the GSK Opportunity Scholarship, an applicant must:

A) Be a U.S. Citizen for a minimum of one year;

B) Reside in Durham, Orange, or Wake counties for a minimum of one year;

C) Be eligible to receive North Carolina resident tuition costs;

D) Attend a public state university or community college in North Carolina.

E) Demonstrate the potential to succeed despite adversity as well as an exceptional desire to improve himself or herself through further education or training.

There are no limitations on age, income level or previous education. Similarly, there are no limitations on the course of study or type of education or training program the applicant is planning to pursue. Scholarships may be used to begin a new program of study or continue a program in which the applicant is already enrolled.

Past recipients, for example, have included individuals who have overcome physical and sexual abuse, as well as homelessness as children, a recovering alcohol and heroin addict finishing a pre-law program, a young man living with Hodgkin's disease who just completed an advanced degree and a woman who raised three children on her own, survived bankruptcy and clinical depression and who is now studying to be a teacher of the deaf at a small four-year college. Due to the nature of the scholarship, high school students seeking general scholarship assistance are discouraged from applying unless they have faced significant adversity.