In 2000, the Oregon Native American Chamber of Commerce decided to have an auction to make scholarships for Native American students in Oregon. The members and attendees donated the auction items to the Chamber.
With a lot of help from Hazel Cole, and Kelly Anne Ilagan, in October of 2000, the auction raised a little over $3,000 to put into the scholarship fund. Kelly Anne also wrote to multiple businesses to try to to gain funding for the scholarship program. In total we were able to raise $6,000. As a Chamber, we decided to put in an extra $1,000 from our funds to total $7,000.
Seven students from Oregon Universities/Colleges were awarded $1,000 in February of 2001. In 2002, we awarded six more. In 2003, seven students were awarded. In 2004, we were only able to give one scolarship, and again in 2006, we awarded one scholarship.Our 2007 scholarships were awarded to two students.
ONACC plans to continue the scholarship fund every year.
Our 2008-09 Scholarships will be awarded on February 27, 2008. Please see the scholarship application online,