Area Resident Awarded the Presidential Scholarship Initiative   BLACKSBURG, Va. (Oct. 28, 2009) — Sierra Downs of Vesuvius, Va., a freshman majoring in human nutrition, foods and exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has been awarded the Presidential Scholarship Initiative for the 2009-10 academic year. For qualifying in-state students, the Presidential Scholarship Initiative is designed to complement all other aid options to make a Virginia Tech education available at no cost. Virginia Tech awards up to 50 scholarships through the initiative to undergraduates each year. To renew their scholarships students must maintain an adequate grade point average (GPA). The average GPA of the 49 students receiving scholarships this year is 3.85. The group averaged about 1,150 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. While deciding which of the nearly 600 candidates to select, officials weighed each candidate's financial situation, high school GPA, family size, whether they came from a single-parent household, and whether their parents had gone to college. Private contributions are essential to allow the program to grow to serve up to 200 students a year by 2012. To learn more about the Presidential Scholarship Initiative, contact Perry Martin from Virginia Tech's Office for Equity and Inclusion via e-mail (mailto:pm@vt.edu) or by phone at (540) 231-7500. Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech http://www.vt.edu is the most comprehensive university in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is among the top research universities in the nation. Today, Virginia Tech’s nine colleges are dedicated to quality, innovation, and results through teaching, research, and outreach activities. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, Southside, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.

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