BFA Equity Scholarships

• Submit a completed Undergraduate application for 2025. You must be admitted into PNCA for the 2025 incoming class.

• Complete the online PNCA Equity Scholarship Application within one week of applying to PNCA.

• Fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). List Willamette University as one of your choices. The Willamette University school code is 003227. (Note: Dreamer students including students who have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status or Temporary Protected Status (TPS) as well as other undocumented students who are ineligible to submit a FAFSA may submit an Oregon Student Aid Application (ORSAA), which is an alternative to the FAFSA.) Ask your Admissions Counselor for more information.

• Transcripts can be emailed to bearcat@willamette.edu or mailed to Willamette University, Office of Admission, 900 State Street, Salem OR, 97301. Unofficial transcripts can be used to apply, but we will need copies of all official transcripts as soon as you graduate from your current institution.

• Submit one letter of recommendation. In the application form you will be asked to include your recommender's contact information and email address so instructions can be shared with them on how to submit the recommendation letter to PNCA's Admissions office. Recommendation letters should come from people who are familiar with your academic abilities, achievements, community involvement, and/or potential for college success. Recommendations should not come from an immediate family member, classmate, peer, or friend.

The PNCA Equity Scholarship Committee will determine the recipients of the following scholarships:

• Two full tuition scholarships (renewable annually) will be awarded to incoming students who have demonstrated a commitment to working with impacted communities to end racial injustice. 

• Two scholarships of $5,000 (renewable annually) will be awarded to incoming students who have demonstrated a commitment to working with impacted communities to end racial injustice. These scholarships are in addition to the initial merit and portfolio based scholarship that students receive upon admission into PNCA.

Full Tuition Scholarship Details

The PNCA Equity Scholarship will cover the full amount of tuition for annually at PNCA. The two students who receive this scholarship must use all grants that they are eligible to receive through our Financial Aid Office, and the Equity Scholarship will cover the remaining tuition balance.

The awarded students are responsible for their own housing costs. PNCA Students are required to live in Arthouse their freshman year. Click here for more information. Students who live within 25 miles from PNCA are not required to live in Arthouse, and may fill out an exemption form.

Application Deadline: February 1st, 2025

America’s structural and systemic racism has created a huge racial wealth gap, which most negatively affects Black communities and privileges White communities. Colleges and universities across our country are part of a society plagued by inequities and systemic racism since its inception.The COVID-19 pandemic brought these racial and economic inequities to light and showed us, again, that our society is terribly unjust, built upon centuries of systemic racial oppression. The pandemic has been especially detrimental for Black Americans, who are disproportionately affected by job losses and lack of access to health care, and who are often inordinately at risk in front-line jobs.

The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and so many others also show us, again, the deep-rooted racism and police violence in our country. As an institution of higher education, PNCA has a particular responsibility and ability to be a component of change.

As PNCA’s Dean of Admissions, I am pledging to work with PNCA’s President and college leadership to ensure that we increase and strengthen our fair and equitable admissions and recruitment practices, application practices, scholarship programs, and representation on outward facing college sponsored forums. My Admissions team and I acknowledge the inequities in higher education due to racial differences and socioeconomic class. I have been working with PNCA’s Interim President, Chris Maples, and PNCA’s VP of Student Affairs, Darby Knox, to implement scholarships that are awarded to incoming students who have demonstrated a commitment to working with impacted communities to end racial injustice.

I am thrilled to announce a scholarship program geared toward our incoming students who have demonstrated a commitment to working with impacted communities to end racial injustice, with scholarships ranging from $5,000 to full tuition coverage per year renewable annually.

These scholarships are definitive, measurable, and transparent starting today and moving forward each year to come. They should have been created back in 1909, when PNCA was founded. This is not a temporary performative action, but a commitment to create improved accessibility for Black, Indigenous, and non-Black students of color, or students who have demonstrated a commitment to working with impacted communities to end racial injustice to receive an art education. At PNCA, we have the power and the privilege that allows us to act in meaningful and actionable ways to promote equity and social justice. We acknowledge that we need to do better.

I ask that you recognize these scholarships for exactly what they are: small steps that we are committed to continuing each year moving forward. We must do better. This is one incremental step forward.

Sincerely,
Anna Miltenberger
Dean of Admissions