George Lucas' most recent USC donation provides $10 million to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts to provide African-American and Hispanic students with special financial aid assistance.
The donation, announced Monday by Dean Elizabeth M. Daley, doubles the George Lucas Family Foundation Endowed Student Support Fund for Diversity, which was established in 2016, according to USC’s website.
The donation comes more than 10 years after the foundation donated $175 million to the university’s School of Cinematic Arts for building expansion, the Hollywood Reporter noted.
Students who benefit from the funding are considered George Lucas Scholars or Mellody Hobson Scholars. Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, has been married to Lucas since 2013.
“We are grateful that Mellody Hobson and George Lucas continue to provide visionary leadership on issues of diversity in our field,” Michael Renov, the vice dean of academic affairs at the School of Cinematic Arts, said in the USC statement. “This endowed fund allows us to recruit storytellers whose voices are underrepresented in cinematic media, and whose inclusion benefits all of us.”
The financial support will be available to both undergraduate and graduate minority students, Variety noted.
“The George Lucas Scholarship really opened the door for me because I wouldn’t have been able to attend USC without it and my acceptance letter would have just been decoration in my room,” Jonathan Curtiss, an SCA production student, said according to the USC statement. “Filmmaking is what I was created to do and this scholarship means I have fellowship, opportunity, and the ability to inspire younger filmmakers in my community to dream without limits.”
The School of Cinematic Arts has several other endowments that were developed specifically to help students in need of financial aid as well. Those programs include: the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Endowed International Student Support Fund, the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Fund for Student Support, the Shriram Family Graduate Student Support Fund, and the Kelly and Ron Meyer Family Fund for Student Support, Variety noted.
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