About Our Scholarships

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Our Scholarships


The Bright Foun­da­tion is focused on pro­vid­ing edu­ca­tion for a brighter future through schol­ar­ships with the goal of help­ing more Iowa stu­dents go to col­lege and grad­u­ate debt-free.

The Bright Scholar Award

Helping Students Across Iowa


Fund­ed by the Bright Foun­da­tion, The Bright Schol­ars of Iowa Award is a need- and mer­it-based grant designed to help ensure that a select­ed num­ber of out­stand­ing Iowa high school seniors have the finan­cial means to com­plete a two-year or four-year col­lege edu­ca­tion with­out debt. Ini­ti­at­ed in 2012, the award was made to three stu­dents, one each attend­ing Iowa State Uni­ver­si­ty, Uni­ver­si­ty of Iowa, and Uni­ver­si­ty of North­ern Iowa.

By 2016, over 150 Bright Schol­ars of Iowa had been award­ed at the three state uni­ver­si­ties and des­ig­nat­ed com­mu­ni­ty colleges.

The amount of the schol­ar­ship is equal to the res­i­dent cost of atten­dance, less oth­er gift aid (includ­ing Pell Grants, insti­tu­tion­al grants and schol­ar­ships, and pri­vate schol­ar­ships). This award is renew­able for up to three addi­tion­al years, pro­vid­ing the stu­dent main­tains a 2.50 cumu­la­tive GPA and full-time enroll­ment. The amount of the award each sub­se­quent year is based on the same for­mu­la as the ini­tial reward. Renewals are not guaranteed.


As of 2020, over 300 Iowa high school grad­u­ates have received a Bright Foun­da­tion fund­ed schol­ar­ship, designed to help them to grad­u­ate on-time, debt-free, pre­pared to launch their career and give back in some way.

The Lois Dale Bright Scholarship

Helping Students from Des Moines Public Schools


The Lois Dale Bright Schol­ar­ship is a need- and mer­it- based grant designed to help ensure that a select­ed num­ber of out­stand­ing Des Moines Pub­lic Schools (DMPS) high school seniors have the finan­cial means to com­plete a col­lege edu­ca­tion with­out debt.

In 2015, the Bright Foun­da­tion fund­ed five schol­ar­ships to grad­u­ates of East High School in Des Moines. Addi­tion­al schol­ar­ships were award­ed at East High School in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, the pro­gram expand­ed to award schol­ar­ships at all 5 com­pre­hen­sive high schools in DMPS, bring­ing the total num­ber of Lois Dale Bright Schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents to over 35.

The amount of the schol­ar­ship is equal to the res­i­dent cost of atten­dance, less oth­er gift aid (includ­ing Pell Grants, insti­tu­tion­al grants and schol­ar­ships, and pri­vate schol­ar­ships). This award is renew­able for up to three addi­tion­al years, pro­vid­ing the stu­dent main­tains a 2.50 cumu­la­tive GPA and full-time enroll­ment. The amount of the award each sub­se­quent year is based on the same for­mu­la as the ini­tial reward.  Renewals are not guaranteed.