Student Affairs

Project Cahir now accepting applications for student scholarship initiative

Project Cahir students work to combat student poverty through projects like collecting toiletries and making them available to students in need.  Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Applications are now open for Project Cahir, a scholarship initiative that aims to instill a sense of civic duty, community, and commitment to finding ways to change the poverty landscape of our local communities. The program is run through the Center for Character, Conscience, and Public Purpose, a unit of Student Affairs. 

Students are invited to apply through the online application. Selected students will receive a $1,000 scholarship for developing a project in which they identify, think critically upon, and develop concrete solutions for a specific poverty challenge in the Penn State or local community.

Past projects have included coordinating the University Park 2019 Project Cahir Survey on food and housing insecurity; providing toiletries for students at campus recreation centers; making textbooks available on reserve at the library for students who can’t afford to purchase them; organizing Poverty Fight Nights and campus and community panel discussions; and partnering with The Lion’s Pantry, the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA), and Student Care and Advocacy. 

In addition to working on projects, students meet weekly to learn about poverty on the national and local level through readings, discussions, and guest speakers.

Students may apply online. The application deadline for the 2022-23 academic year is Aug. 1.

For more information, visit the Project Cahir website.

Last Updated March 25, 2022