The American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Diversity announced the winners of the 2015-16 Spectrum Scholarships with four University of Washington Information School master of library and information science (MLIS) students among the 60 winners. 

Winners include: Nicola Andrews, second year student; Erica Ervin, first year student; Sunny Kim, first year student; Sarah Reis, first year student and ProQuest Scholar in memory of Ron Clowney. 

According to the ALA press release, the Spectrum Scholarship Program received three times as many applications as there were available scholarships, and the majority of this year’s applicants were deemed highly fundable. A prestigious committee of seven jurors selected this year’s Spectrum Scholars based on their commitment to diversity, commitment to entering the library profession, demonstrated community outreach, academic ability and achievements and leadership potential. Since 1997, the ALA has awarded more than 900 Spectrum Scholarships.

ProQuest continues its generous support of the Spectrum Scholarship Program through a $52,000 annual gift. One of these scholarships were awarded to iSchool students.

Spectrum recruits and provides scholarships to American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students to assist them with obtaining a graduate degree and leadership positions within the profession and our organization. The aim is to increase the number of racially and ethnically diverse professionals in the field of library and information science to best position libraries at the core of today’s culturally diverse communities.