Ms Ida Mae’s College Bound Scholarship

Ms. Ida Mae was a beloved mother and grandmother who always placed a high value on the power of education. 

Ms. Ida Mae’s children lived in a home filled with books and magazines, including a full set (or two) of encyclopedias and an exceptionally strong collection of books by African American writers. In 1956 during the Great Migration out of the Jim Crow segregated South, Ms. Ida Mae left a harvest in Michigan where her family was working and travelled to Seattle to join her older sister Gracie who had migrated there several years earlier. Ms. Ida Mae arrived in Seattle with a ninth-grade education and later in life attended Seattle Central Community College to study for her high school equivalency certificate while raising seven children. Ms. Ida Mae was a community activist in Seattle and participated in numerous political actions for change in Seattle, including the Central Area Motivation Program (CAMP), MiniTran (community transportation), National Welfare Rights Organization, Seattle Opportunities Industrialization Center (SOIC), Model Cities, the Black Panther Party Free Breakfast Program, the Black Community Festival, to name just a few. All of her children completed high school or high school equivalency, including one child who had special needs.

This scholarship seeks to honor the memory of Ms. Ida Mae Foster Whittaker by providing financial assistance and community support to students from historically underrepresented populations in the United States.

Any high school senior in Washington (priority given to students in the Seattle metropolitan area) who is a member of an underrepresented population that has been historically excluded may apply for this scholarship opportunity. Applicants need to have at least a 2.8 cumulative GPA and must be admitted to an accredited not-for-profit post-secondary school, college, or university.  

To apply, write an essay of no more than 1,000 words telling us about your academic, justice, and social change interests.