Rainier Scholars offers a pathway to college graduation for hard-working, low-income students of color by providing access to transformative educational opportunities. To-date, nearly 700 promising students have achieved their educational goals by participating in a rigorous and highly personalized supportive model of academic support and leadership development. However, when Rainier Scholars received a $100,000 grant from Washington Women’s Foundation in 2003, it had only completed one year of successful student programming.

“WA Women’s Foundation was truly there on the ground floor,” says Executive Director Sarah Smith. “Looking back at the faces of the scholars in 2003, I see young people who went on to graduate from top universities and build successful careers, young people who became leaders on school campuses and in communities across the country. That’s a powerful image of the impact made by WA Women’s Foundation’s early investment in our mission.”