Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Foundation Gives $60,000 to American Indian College Fund for Scholarships

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Sep 18, 2012, 07:00 ET

DENVER, Sept. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Foundation awarded $60,000 to the American Indian College Fund (the Fund) for the Achieving the Dream Scholarship Program. The program assists Native students who are single parents and/or in the first year of an associate's degree program, attending Dine College, Navajo Technical College, Sisseton Wahpeton College, Sinte Gleska University, or Oglala Lakota College. Preference is given to past Achieving the Dream Scholars. Each scholar receives a $4,000 scholarship split between fall and spring semesters.

Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Foundation Chairman Nicholas A. Bumbacco said, "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. We feel very fortunate that we can partner with the Fund to help achieve these very important goals."

"The continued support from the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Foundation has helped countless Native students obtain a higher education," said Cheryl Crazy Bull, President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund. "This program will continue to provide access to college for first-generation Native students and a better life."

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 (the Fund) is the premier scholarship organization for American Indian college students. The Fund was created in 1989 to raise funds for scholarships and to support America's 33 tribal colleges. It provides more than 4,200 students with scholarships annually and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. For more information, please visit collegefund.org.

SOURCE American Indian College Fund