A new scholarship will help UF musical theater students pay for costumes, makeup and dance shoes.
UF Provost Joseph Glover has donated $30,000 to a new $1,200 scholarship for UF musical theater students. The Joe Glover Scholarship for Excellence in Musical Theatre will help with students’ financial burden.
The scholarship will be awarded for the first time at the end of Spring 2016 and be disbursed for next school year.
Jennifer Coolidge, director of development at the UF College of the Arts, said a committee will select one or two musical theater students every year for the scholarship. The committee will be made up of faculty members of the College of the Arts, she said. Students do not have to apply for the scholarship.
Glover’s donation will help students in the college, she said.
“This gift is significant because we don’t have a tremendous amount being donated to the college,” Coolidge said. “(Glover) is a leader, not only in his position as UF provost, but he is a leader as a donor.”
Alessia Salimbene, a UF acting sophomore, said she is heavily involved in the musical theater program.
“It’s expensive to be a theater major,” the 19-year-old said.
Theater students have to take a lot of credits, and buying items for costumes can be expensive, she said.
“It’ll be a weight off the shoulders of whoever wins,” Salimbene said. “They’ll be able to focus on perfecting their craft.”
