The New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs (NJSFWC) is accepting applications for its annual Margaret Yardley Fellowship Fund, which provides $1,000 grants to deserving New Jersey women pursuing post-graduate advanced studies.
The application deadline is March 1. Applications will be judged based on the student’s qualifications, including scholastic achievement, career service potential, and charitable endeavors. Between six and eight grants will be awarded and these can only be used for tuition expenses.
Students who apply while still undergraduate seniors must already be accepted into a graduate studies program. Students already enrolled in post-graduate studies are ineligible to apply if they will be earning their degrees in May 2004 or the summer of 2024.
Applications can be downloaded at the NJSFWC website here. A hard copy of the application, transcript, student essays must be received at NJSFW’s headquarters in New Brunswick by March 1.
Margaret Tufts Yardley was elected the first President of NJSFWC from 1894-1896. She was from the Woman’s Club of Orange, the oldest club in New Jersey. Yardley served as director and president of the Orange Orphans Society, helped start the first homeopathic hospital of the Oranges, pioneered the improvements of child labor laws, and remained active in political work in East Orange until her death at age 84. In 1929, her son established the Margaret Yardley Fellowship Fund, which still awards grants today.
The New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs NJSFWC is headquartered on the Douglass College campus in New Brunswick. NJSFWC founded the New Jersey College for Women, now known as Douglass College (Rutgers), in 1918. In 2020, the organization, with a membership of over 5,800, reported almost 16,963 community service projects involving over 320,119 volunteer hours and $2.3 million in cash and in-kind donations.
The NJSFWC is a member of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) headquartered in Washington, DC. For more information about the NJSFWC and/or membership in a local club, call 732-249-5474 or visit www.njsfwc.org.
