Chatfield College will be able to help area high school students become the first in their families to attend college, thanks to the Coca-Cola Foundation of Atlanta, Ga.

The Foundation has awarded the college a $50,000 grant for its First Generation Scholarship Program, to provide scholarships to ten entering students who are the first in their family to attend college.

Chatfield, an associate degree-granting liberal arts college with campuses in rural Brown County, Ohio and Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, is the only college in the region to receive this grant,and is one of only 400 colleges across the country offering Coca-Cola First Generation Scholarships. In fact, less than 10 percent of U.S. colleges have received this grant and are able to award these prestigious scholarships.

“We are delighted that the Coca-Cola Foundation has chosen Chatfield as stewards of its First Generation Scholarship initiative and are deeply grateful for this major gift,” said John P. Tafaro, Chatfield College President. “Chatfield is committed to serving a community of both traditional and non-traditional learners, many of whom are the first in their family to attend college. This partnership with the Coca Cola Foundation will tremendously impact our ability to provide scholarships to first generation students who dream of attending college.”

Since 1993, The Coca-Cola First Generation Scholarship program has awarded over $36 million in scholarships, reaching more than 2,800 students on campuses throughout the U.S.