New $250,000 Corbin Scholarship Fund to Benefit Local Scholars at The Kiski School Bill and Deborah Corbin – formerly of Clarksburg, PA in Indiana County – were looking for a way to expand the educational horizons of deserving local boys, specifically from Westmoreland and Indiana Counties. With their recent gift of $250,000 to The Kiski School, the Corbins have established the Corbin Scholars Program at the School and it will directly support up to 100% of the tuition assistance needed for selected local boys to attend Kiski.
Bill, a 1978 graduate of Kiski, knows the benefits offered by a single-gender boarding school environment. “We like to believe we are the authors of our own success but our families, our communities and our schools ghostwrite that success. Kiski changed my life by teaching me to be a leader, to think critically, to live a life of integrity, and to have the discipline to eventually overcome the personal failures we all face in life.”
“In today’s difficult and stratified economic climate, it is more important than ever to preserve the opportunity of Kiski for local boys. Debbie and I are pleased to support Kiski’s efforts to reduce tuition and emphasize the school’s roots in the community through its commitment to southwestern Pennsylvania.”
“The small Kiski community not only allows for more rewarding interaction in class settings, but the boys are truly known by the faculty members who serve as coaches and mentors, as well as teachers,” Corbin shared. “Instruction is also tailored to best practices for teaching boys at a critical time in their intellectual development and as such, Kiski continues to develop and graduate strong thinkers and leaders for the 21st Century.”
The Kiski School is an all-boys boarding school located on the border of Westmoreland and Indiana Counties. While the student body is comprised of young men from all over the world (22 countries currently represented), a high percentage of the 185 boys currently at Kiski are from southwestern Pennsylvania, and that includes a small group of day-students – local boys who commute daily to and from school instead of living on campus.
The Corbin Scholars Program aims to support two local boys, a boarding and a day student. Candidates, that meet the admission requirements for entrance into Kiski, will demonstrate the potential for high academic achievement in a rigorous academic program, intellectual curiosity, and an ability to engage fully in the Kiski community.
“Alumni gifts specifically dedicated to tuition assistance carry a deep and meaningful message that not only speaks to the value each alumnus directly places on his own Kiski education, but to the desire of making a powerful and rewarding Kiski education attainable for a new generation of boys,” Associate Headmaster for Institutional Advancement, Steven T. Szilagyi ’88 reflected. “Debbie and Bill Corbin are continuing an important and rewarding tradition of thoughtful leadership and generous philanthropy with their wonderful gift to Kiski, our students, and our growing student scholarship program.”
Kiski will continue to be a creative leader in the boarding school world by implementing a tuition reset model made popular by private colleges when it resets its current $61,300 boarding tuition to $48,500 in the fall of 2020, a reduction of 20% in comparison to peer independent boarding schools. The Corbin Scholarship gift is included in over $1.6 million in new scholarship funding received by Kiski since the October announcement. And this new funding has been raised in addition to other scholarship funding that was successfully pulled in during the recently completed $35 million capital campaign for Kiski, which was by far the most successful fundraising campaign ever implemented in the history of the School.
“We are fortunate to have received a large boost in scholarship support following our tuition reset announcement last fall,” noted Headmaster Chris Brueningsen. “As operational costs continue to climb, the sponsorship of generous donors like Debbie and Bill are helping us keep Kiski’s life-changing educational experience affordable. We are extremely grateful for their gift.”
More information about the Kiski admission process and the School’s tuition reset can be found at: www.kiski.org/admissions.