AATCC Foundation Creates New Scholarships for Textile Students

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.-For the 2020-2021 academic year, the AATCC Foundation Inc. plans to award more than 35 scholarships and fellowships, worth nearly $150,000.

With the addition of two new scholarships, the AATCC Foundation can provide more funding to students in textile and related fields. The two latest in the portfolio include the NCTO Paul T. O’Day Scholarship and the Percy W. Woodruff Jr Textile Manufacturing Scholarship.

NCTO’s president and CEO Kimberly Glas says The Paul O’Day Memorial Scholarship honors “a man whose influence and legacy in the fiber sector of the textile industry was revered” during his time as president of the American Fiber Manufacturers Association. The scholarship is awarded to children of employees at NCTO Fiber Council member companies and provides $5,000 per year to an undergraduate student, renewable for up to four years.

Glas adds, “The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) is pleased to partner with the AATCC Foundation to promote this scholarship and select recipients with outstanding academic achievements who desire to choose career paths to support the American fiber industry.”

The Woodruff Textile Manufacturing Scholarship gets its namesake after Percy W. Woodruff, Jr., who was a non-traditional university student that completed his college education with help from the GI Bill as a WWII veteran. The foundation gives this scholarship to other non-traditional students who may be disadvantaged by starting college late, in the wrong major, or any other circumstance. Recipients receive $2,500.

Students can find and apply for scholarships online.

For those interested in donating to the scholarship funds, visit www.aatcc.org/fnd.