Students earn Next Generation scholarships at ASU

Three ASU American Humanics students have been awarded Next Generation Nonprofit Leaders Program (NextGen) scholarships.

Aydaly Briones, Jamie Patton and Shannon Wagner each will receive $4,500 from NextGen as part of a multiyear Kellogg Foundation Grant to American Humanics Inc. to support students across the American Humanics campus affiliate network. The NextGen scholarships support costs associated with the students’ senior internships in nonprofits.

Briones, from San Luis, Ariz., is the former president of the American Humanics Student Association and is interning with the Yuma United Way.

Patton, from Mesa, Ariz., is the former campaign chair for the American Humanics Management Institute, which raised more than $42,000.

Patton is interested in women’s issues.

Wagner, from Tucson, Ariz., will serve an internship in India. She is a former American Humanics Student Association recruitment committee member.

“These scholarships take our students one step closer to fulfilling their goals of positively influencing the nonprofit sector,” says Stacey Vicario Freeman, American Humanics senior program coordinator. “I have no doubt their contributions will create real change for the communities they serve.”

Ryan Tang, one of four ASU American Humanics students funded earlier this year, has been hired in a full-time position at the Valley of the Sun YMCA headquarters in the development office. All told, in this inaugural year of the NextGen program, ASU American Humanics students have received $31,500 in new or external scholarship dollars in support of their efforts. Nonprofits at which NextGen awardees interned earlier this year contributed about $10,000 in matching funds, providing $41,500 in total funds for these emerging leaders.

“There is a looming leadership void in the nonprofit sector,” says Robert Ashcraft, director of the ASU Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management and a professor of nonprofit studies in the university’s School of Community Resources and Development. “It is encouraging that American Humanics Inc., through this W. K. Kellogg Foundation grant, created the NextGen scholarship program to identify promising ASU students who will fill that void. This is further validation of our role as the preferred provider of entry level nonprofit professionals through our nonprofit certificate and degree programs.”

Founded in 1980, ASU’s American Humanics program is part of the School of Community Resources and Development, in association with the ASU Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management. ASU is one of the leading programs in the nation, preparing future nonprofit professionals.

Students pursuing American Humanics certification complete various experiential requirements including participation in the student association, 18 credit hours of in-class coursework and a 12-credit-hour internship. For more information, visit the Web site www.asu.edu/copp/nonprofit/edu/ah.htm.