Dr. Deben Das, president of NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) of Fairbanks, presents a $12,500 check to UAF Director of Advancement Services Kim Davis on Sept. 13 on the UAF campus. The gift will be matched by unrestricted funds from the Chancellor’s Legacy Fund in order to establish NAMI’s fourth endowed scholarship for UAF students touched by mental illness. This newest fund will be exclusively for the benefit of rural campus students. In recent years, NAMI of Fairbanks has created the Joy Albin Scholarship, Ann Denardo Scholarship and a Graduate Students Scholarship at UAF. NAMI was founded in 1979. Its mission is the eradication of mental illnesses and the improvement of the quality of life of all whose lives are affected by these diseases.

For more information about NAMI’s scholarship endowments, or privately funded scholarships in general at UAF, visit www.uaf.edu/advance/scholarships.