RAPS Scholarship Committee will oversee PSU Women’s Association scholarships STARTING THIS YEARthe RAPS Scholarship Committee is responsible in perpetuity for oversight of the scholarship endowment left by the Portland State University Women's Association. The PSUWA was a large, viable group at Portland State for many years. Its members were mainly wives of faculty members and women faculty. The group was very active in fundraising for the purpose of endowing a scholarship fund for the university. Members had a yearly art show, often exhibited in the Washington Square Mall. Theater parties, other small fundraising activities, and member donations added to the fund. The group started a very successful PSUWA lecture series that for three years filled the PSU Ballroom. On January 10, 1989, PSUWA started its scholarship endowment fund with $100,000. The use of the funds generated by the endowment was to provide two $1,500 scholarships each year to high school graduates coming to Portland State as first-year students. The criteria were financial need and solid high school grades. The women of PSUWA were visionary; a 2018 article in The Oregonian headlined “Most Eligible Students Not Receiving Aid.” The article noted that the state gave need-based college scholarships to just 31% of students who were eligible for one in 2015, turning down 69% because it ran out of money. Although PSUWA no longer exists, the legacy it provided will go on forever. RAPS is proud to oversee this legacy and provide many future freshmen with an easier beginning. This year scholarships of $2,500 each will be given to two incoming first-year students. —Barbara Alberty, Co-chair, RAPS Scholarship Committee 1965 PSC Women’s Faculty Club meeting at the Portland Art Museum; left to right Genna Lemman, Kay Corbett, and Embry Savage. Left to right: Mrs. John Schultz, Emma Stanton, and Jean Black at the 1953 PSC Faculty Women’s Club tea. —Photographs made available by the Portland State University Archives 7
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