Stilwell Family Endowed Scholarship

Selection statement of purpose
Scholarships within the college are awarded to provide financial support based on need, academic achievement, and/or other specified criteria as determined by the fund agreement for Donor/Gift Funded scholarships or the awarding department for Institutional/Departmental scholarships.
The donor sets the criteria for recipient selection (i.e., financial need, field of study). Scholarships are awarded for one academic year. Institutional funded scholarship selection criteria will be determined prior to review and selection of applicants and will be documented annually.
The Stilwell family is establishing this scholarship to help students in need. It recognizes the positive contributions the University and the College of Media, Communication and Information (formerly the School of Journalism and Mass Communication) have made to their family and the industry.
Distributions from the Fund will be used to provide undergraduate scholarship awards for students enrolled in the College of Media, Communication and Information (the “College”) at the University of Colorado. Scholarship applicants will have demonstrated financial need as determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or other similar application. Scholarship recipients will be selected in accordance with established procedures for awarding need-based scholarships.
Tom Stilwell (Jour’98) was a broadcast journalist for more than a dozen years after graduating from CU Boulder. He changed careers in 2010 to focus on B2B communications and marketing. He is currently vice president, corporate marketing and communications at Illumio, a cloud computing security company. Tom lives in Pleasanton, CA with his wife René and daughter Violet. Thank you letters should be addressed to Tom and René Stilwell.
Selection Criteria
Applications are reviewed holistically, and selection criteria may include, but is not limited to, academic record, leadership experience, extracurricular involvement, community service, employment, essays, and in some cases, financial need as determined by the FAFSA/CASFA.
Essays: Quality of writing and content are weighed heavily.
Financial Need: The FAFSA and the Colorado Application for State Financial Aid (“CASFA”) are the mechanisms approved for calculating financial need for need-based scholarship awarding.