As the Horatio Alger Association responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, the health and safety of our membership, Scholars and employees remains our highest priority. Although the pandemic has impacted Association events and programming, support for our mission remains stronger than ever. We are deeply grateful to the Association’s leadership, Members, Life Partners and Friends for their ongoing commitment, which has enabled us to continue our operations and provide a rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

73^rd Horatio Alger Awards

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the cancellation of the 73^rd Horatio Alger Awards Induction Ceremonies scheduled for April 2-4. The 2020 Horatio Alger Award recipients have been invited to accept the Award and be inducted into the Association during the Awards events next year, on April 8-10, 2021. The Association’s leadership is working to mitigate the financial repercussions of the cancellation and is closely monitoring the Association’s assets and investments. The Association remains on sound financial footing and is well-positioned to weather this storm.

2020 National Scholars Conference

The 2020 National Scholars Conference was also cancelled. Our 2020 National Scholars will still receive their scholarships to attend college this fall and will have access to additional support services offered by the Association. Circumstances permitting, we will host a special educational experience for these Scholars at a time and location deemed safe and appropriate.

Scholar Emergency Support

With the closing of colleges, universities, and career and technical institutions in the United States and Canada due to COVID-19, the Association reached out to the more than 7,000 Scholars currently enrolled in school to ascertain how the pandemic is affecting them, and to offer emergency assistance. We created an online portal for this purpose, and to date, we have received approximately 1,000 requests for assistance. These requests are being reviewed and addressed, with priority being given to urgent medical, nutritional and housing needs.

As the world practices social distancing, we are making additional online resources available to our Scholars to supplement the two free online courses on entrepreneurship and personal finance that we offer to Scholars in partnership with the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.