Indianapolis Star publishes personal essay by Merisotis '86

In a personal essay for The Indianapolis Star, Jamie Merisotis ’86, a Bates trustee who heads the Lumina Foundation for Education, talked about his experiences paying for college. As a Bates senior, he got up at 3:30 a.m. to deliver newspapers for a distributor. “I remember being a little embarrassed about the fact I was an adult and still had a paper route, so if anyone asked, I just told them I was in journalism,” he wrote. What made a great financial difference, he says, is taking “advantage of every financial aid program I could. Pell grants, state scholarships, student loans, work study — you name it, I applied for it and got it.” The Lumina Foundation for Education, based in Indianapolis, is the nation’s largest private foundation focused on improving college access and success. View story from The Indianapolis Star, May 2, 2010.