A $12,000 gift by Michigan Office Solutions to three of Ferris State University’s
academic colleges will fund multiple scholarships for full- or part-time students.
The Grand Rapids-based company will provide $2,000 in scholarship funds annually for
two years to the colleges of Arts, Sciences and Education, Business and Engineering
Technology.
Applicants must have a 3.0 grade point average and may be part- or full-time students
in any of the three colleges’ programs. The eligibility of part-time students for
the scholarship will allow working students the opportunity to compete for financial
assistance to offset tuition, fee, room and board, or other education-related expenses.
University officials have noted greater numbers of part-time students enrolling over
the last two years, with some students choosing to attend on a part-time basis to
accommodate their work schedules. The MOS scholarships will be available to them.
Social responsibility is nothing new to MOS. Among its other charitable endeavors,
the organization sponsors the phones for a radio telethon to benefit the Helen DeVos
Children’s Hospital Foundation, raising $274,000 in 2009 and $245,000 in 2010. MOS
also has made a significant commitment to encouraging environmentally friendly business
documentation, from recycling business machine components to helping clients implement
document scanners and other sustainable solutions.
“Michigan Office Solutions has always been involved in giving back,” explained MOS
Vice President of Sales Bill Orr, who coordinated the donation. “Our creation of these
scholarships will help some deserving students gain an education despite current economic
challenges.”
The scholarships build on the company’s ongoing support of students in the form of
professional opportunities after graduation. Ferris State also is among the Michigan
higher education institutions from which MOS recruits sales and technical staff, explained
Orr, a graduate of the university’s College of Business.
“I came out of the Marketing Sales program with a great experience. The education
I received at Ferris prepared me to succeed in the fields of business and sales,”
said Orr, who began his career with MOS only two months after graduating from Ferris
in 1980.
The gift adds another dimension to Ferris State’s wide variety of scholarships and
financial support for students. According to the Financial Aid office, approximately
81 percent of Ferris students receive some form of financial assistance. In the 2009-10
academic year, the university awarded students 8,967 scholarships valued at over $16.1
million.