The Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation believes that a college education is important to every American who seeks to achieve great dreams and to fulfill promises to excel. The Foundation also feels that it is important to provide scholarships for young people who, despite financial obstacles, reach for scholastic achievement.

In support of this belief, the Foundation has made a significant multi-year grant to fund the tuition expenses for students from the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area who are chosen as All-Met Scholars by the non-profit scholarship fund Washington Metropolitan Scholars (WMS).

WMS was established in 2003 to provide outstanding African American students with the opportunity to earn their undergraduate degrees. WMS has formed partnerships with more than 30 of the nation's top universities, which agree to provide four-year scholarships to WMS nominees. In 2004, WMS provided students with scholarship support worth more than $3 million at leading colleges and universities, including Cornell, Vanderbilt, the University of Pennsylvania, Washington and Lee, Oberlin, Duke, Lafayette, Stanford and the University of Maryland.

In 2005, the total in scholarship assistance will exceed $10 million. Schools that have indicated they will offer scholarships as WMS partners in 2005 include:

• Duke University
• New York University
• Harvard University
• Vanderbilt University
• University of Maryland
• Cornell University
• Vassar College
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Tufts University
• Mount Holyoke College
• Georgetown University
• Bryn Mawr College
• Dartmouth College
• Ball State University
• DePauw University
• University of Pennsylvania
• Florida Atlantic University
• Hood College
• Iowa State University
• Lafayette College
• Oberlin College
• Ohio State University
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• University of Missouri
• University of Nebraska
• University of Rochester
• Rutgers University
• Washington and Lee University