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Horatio Alger Association to Launch Study on How Students Overcome Adversity
NORC at the University of Chicago to Partner with Association and Lead Review

WASHINGTON, October 25, 2010 – The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans is pleased to announce an upcoming study in collaboration with NORC at the University of Chicago that is designed to advance understanding of opportunities, personal resilience, and life success among Horatio Alger Scholars and other young people who have overcome adversity. NORC and its Department of Education and Child Development Studies will create and manage the “Success Factors Study.”

“The Horatio Alger Association will have invested over $87 million in scholarships for more than 16,000 young scholars through 2012, and each student has a remarkable story,” said Terry Giroux, executive director of the Horatio Alger Association.“We want to know more about their capacity to persevere through horrible situations, and to find out why these young people succeed when so many of their peers do not.  This study will answer these questions, and the invaluable insights will benefit all young people and our country as a whole.”  

The three-phase study, currently underway, will contribute new information on the union of individual and environmental factors that encourage success. Collectively, these analyses will improve the understanding of how success unfolds over the lifecycle at multiple points in time, ranging from before the program application to the years following college graduation.  

The study will first concentrate on identifying factors that have been instrumental in the lives of students up to the point of applying for the Horatio Alger Scholarship.  Additionally, it will examine aspects of the association's program that determine educational, occupational, and life success among association scholars.  Ultimately, this research will address the overall effectiveness of the association's scholarship program by evaluating differences between scholars compared to other applicants and non-recipients across a range of outcomes and measures of success, while spanning personal and professional domains.  

The first phase of this three-phase study is expected to be completed by summer, 2011.

About the Horatio Alger Association
Founded in 1947, the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans continues to fulfill its mission of honoring the achievements of outstanding individuals in our society who have succeeded in spite of adversity and of encouraging young people to pursue their dreams through higher education. The Horatio Alger Association offers three annual scholarship programs: the National Scholarship Program, state scholarship programs, and graduate grants. In 2011,  the association will, for the first time in its history, provide scholarships ranging from $2,500 and $20,000 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.  The association is a Combined Federal Campaign participant; # 77062. For more information, please visit www.horatioalger.org.

About NORC at The University of Chicago
NORC at the University of Chicago is an independent research organization headquartered in downtown Chicago with additional offices on The University of Chicago's campus and in Washington, D.C. and Bethesda, Maryland.  NORC also supports a nationwide field staff as well as international research operations. With clients throughout the world, NORC collaborates with government agencies, foundations, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and businesses to provide the data and analysis that supports informed decision making in key areas including health, education, economics, crime, justice, energy, security, and the environment. NORC's 70 years of leadership and experience in data collection, analysis, and dissemination-coupled with deep subject matter expertise-provides the foundation for effective solutions.

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