American Indian College Fund Receives $50,000 from Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Foundation to Continue Scholarship Program

DENVER, Jan. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Foundation (SFNTC) entered its third decade of supporting the American Indian College Fund by awarding $50,000 to continue the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Foundation Tribal College Scholarship Program for the spring 2011 semester. This program will continue to provide scholarships to American Indian students enrolled full-time in an associate's degree program at one of the following tribal colleges and universities: Dine College, Navajo Technical College, Oglala Lakota College, Sinte Gleska University, and Sisseton Wahpeton College. Recipients must also demonstrate financial need and be a single parent and/or in their first year of an associate's degree program.

"The American Indian College Fund's untiring efforts to provide American Indian students with opportunities for higher education are a perfect fit with our Foundation's commitment to support and help advance American Indian self-sufficiency and culture," said SFNTC Foundation Chairman Nicholas A. Bumbacco. "We feel very fortunate that we can partner with the Fund to help achieve these very important goals."

"The long-time support from the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Foundation has helped countless American Indian students obtain a higher education," said Richard B. Williams, President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund. "This in turn has and will continue to create access to a better quality of life for Native students, their families, and their communities."

About the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. Foundation

The Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Foundation grants financial assistance to organizations that support the preservation, promotion, and advancement of American Indian self-sufficiency and culture in the United States, including programs for the development of American Indian entrepreneurism; facilitating American Indian education (particularly college, graduate, and post-graduate education); and the preservation and enhancement of American Indian languages.

About the American Indian College Fund

With its credo "Educating the Mind and Spirit," the American Indian College Fund is the nation's largest private provider of scholarships for American Indian students, providing an average of 6,000 scholarships annually for students seeking to better their lives and communities through education and support to the nation's 33 accredited tribal colleges and universities. For more information about the American Indian College Fund, please visit www.collegefund.org

SOURCE American Indian College Fund