University of Puget Sound Announces New Lillis Scholar Program
December 10, 2007

TACOMA, Wash. - The Lillis Foundation has made a $2.3 million dollar gift to the University of Puget Sound to establish the Lillis Scholar Program. The gift, the largest expendable gift for financial aid in the university's 124-year history, will offer two highly qualified students full scholarships at Puget Sound each year, including tuition, room, and board.

"Thanks to the generosity of the Lillis family, this program enables the university to attract the very best students in the country to our campus and to fully support their education here," says President Ronald R. Thomas.

Lillis Scholars will be academically talented students who are selected from a pool of more than 5,000 Puget Sound applicants and who demonstrate an exemplary record of academic achievement. They are likely to be prospective candidates for Rhodes, Marshall, and other prestigious graduate scholarship recognition.

"For Puget Sound to be able to offer this prestigious award to high-achieving students at a time when the university is competing with the finest colleges in the nation for qualified students will have a powerful effect-it is a remarkable gift to the university and to the students who will benefit from it," says Thomas.

The first Lillis Scholars will enroll in Fall 2008 as members of the class of 2012. Each year, two more Lillis scholars will be selected from the incoming class.

The Lillis Scholar Program was established through a generous gift made by the Lillis Foundation of Castle Rock, Colorado. Charles Lillis, former chairman and CEO of MediaOne Group and founding partner of Lone Tree Capital, and Gwen Lillis, chair of the Lillis Foundation and board chair-elect of the University of Oregon Foundation, are the parents of Puget Sound alumna Jessica Baker Isaacs '05.

"We have been very impressed with the high quality of the academic experience our daughter received while at Puget Sound," Gwen Lillis says. "We hope that our gift will help the university in its recruitment of extraordinary students in an increasingly competitive environment, and also help raise national awareness of the excellence of its programs."

For information about eligibility for the Lillis Scholar Program, please contact the Office of Admission at 800.396.7191 or 253.879.3211, or visit the university's Lillis Scholar Web site.

CONTACT
mediarelations@ups.edu
253.879.2611
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