Performing Arts--Scholarship

PASA is currently accepting applications from individuals and non-profit groups for the L.Hill Bonin Scholarship award for performing arts students. The application deadline is March 1, 2008. Interested applicants can download an application as well as scholarship requirements from www. pasaonline.org.

Guidelines for the L. Hill Bonin, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Award, administered by Performing Arts Society of Acadiana (PASA), are available for high school and college students pursuing short-time educational and training opportunities in performing arts or arts administration as well as for non-profit organizations or groups that propose performing arts productions or activities which involve and benefit high school or college students.

Completed forms and all attachments must be submitted to the PASA office by March 1, 2008 to qualify for the 2007/2008 scholarships. To request scholarship guidelines and an application, call PASA at (337)237-2787. Applications and eligibility requirements can also be found online at www.pasaonline.org

The L. Hill Bonin, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund was created to award talented and deserving students of the performing arts with funds for enhancing their talents through participation in advanced study or classes beyond those available in their present study programs. Now awards may benefit groups that provide opportunities to students for enhancing their performing arts talents.

To be considered for an award, students must be enrolled in any high school or college in the parishes served by PASA, be planning to pursue a career or professional training in performing arts or arts administration, be a citizen of the United States and a Louisiana resident, and have an overall grade point average of B or higher on their high school or college transcript. For a non-profit organization or group to be eligible it must propose a production, performance, or activity that involves high school or college students and ensure that the funds will be used for the enhancement of the talents of the students in the performance.

Recipients are chosen by the PASA Bonin Scholarship committee, composed of PASA board members and a representative of the Bonin family. Recipients, after meeting eligibility criteria, are chosen on the basis of the artistic merit of the proposed training or project, planning and design of the proposal, and appropriate request and plans for the use of the funds.

Last year's the Bonin scholarship awarded three recpients including one U.L. student and two 2007 high school graduates. Matthew Couvillon, a student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, spent most of the summer at Jacob's Pillow, home of America's longest-running dance festival and a hotbed of choreographic learning and dance. William Moody IV of Lafayette High School and Alexandra Pitre, of Opelousas Catholic High School were the two outstanding high school students selected by the committee. Moody attended "Encore! Ensemble Theatre Workshop in Varbone, France where he studied different acting disciplines. Pitre used her scholarship to attend the prestigious Martha Graham Summer intensive in New York City and the Garth Fagan Summer Movement Institute in Rochester, New York.