The William G. and Marie Selby Foundation has awarded more than $590,000 in need-based scholarships to 144 new and returning scholars from Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota county high schools. The Foundation also made institutional awards of $234,000m which will benefit approximately 235 students from four counties attending State College of Florida, USF Sarasota-Manatee, Southern Scholarship Foundation, Suncoast Technical College, and Manatee Technical College. Awards are made by those institutions to students based on financial need.

The Selby Scholar program is a four-year, renewable, need-based scholarship program,
which selects 40 high school graduates from the surrounding four-county area each
year, based on students’ academic preparedness, as well as their demonstration of
maturity, grit, and resilience in the face of adversity. The 2021 Selby Scholar cohort includes high-achieving graduates from 13 high schools in the Foundation’s four-county service area and associate-degree graduates from State College of Florida and Florida Southwestern State College (Charlotte County). The students will be attending Florida colleges and universities as well as Boston University, Yale, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Manhattan School of Music, and Stanford. The foundation’s selection committee reviews eligible student applications submitted each spring. Semi-finalists are selected for interviews with the selection committee and finalists are selected once interviews are complete.