MASStorage began four years ago in response to the demand for summer storage space. According to Paris Wallace '04, there was no insured storage option offered to students on campus, so a group of enterprising students created MASStorage, one of a few student-run businesses on campus.
According to Wallace, who heads the storage company with Joe Gallant '04, MASStorage wants to create the scholarship in order to put the money the company has made back into the Amherst community.
"Our mission ... is to provide a service on campus. It's not really to make money," Wallace said. "The idea is not to take money out of the community; the idea is to keep it in."
With that mission in mind, Wallace and Gallant decided to establish the scholarship after MASStorage turned a profit last year for the first time in its history.
"The 2001-02 academic year saw MASStorage grow even larger than any of us involved thought possible. When the final tally was made, we were looking at a 300 percent increase in number of students served-from 40 to 160-and an even greater rise in profits," said Gallant. "With plans to expand the company to include Mount Holyoke College, Paris and I are expecting an even better year this time around."
The scholarship seeks to encourage the same kind of entrepreneurship MASStorage exhibits. "Every year we want to select an incoming student who's really interested in entrepreneurship or who is really business-minded," Wallace said.
According to Wallace, how much the scholarship would cover is still undetermined. He hopes to create a self-perpetuating fund that would generate enough interest to provide a four-year scholarship to one student in each incoming class.
"We're hoping to make it big," Wallace said. "I'm hoping it will follow people through their years here." Wallace added that the size of the scholarship will depend on how well the business does.
"[The value of the scholarship is] very dependent on how much money we're able to raise," Wallace said.
Recipients of the scholarship will be selected from the pool of applicants to the College. While the details of the selection process are still undecided, Wallace said that most likely a board would decide who gets the scholarship based on a short supplementary application or on details from the student's application to the College. The scholarship will go to a student who has demonstrated financial need.
Director of Financial Aid Paul Case said that because the College does not have preferential packaging-meaning that students cannot get extra aid based on merits besides financial need-the amount of the scholarship would be subtracted from the amount of aid a student had been awarded in a financial aid package.
President Tom Gerety expressed concern over the pressure such a scholarship might have on students. "I don't want to have any coercions, guidance or even incentives banked in the scholarship package," he said, explaining that students should feel free to pursue new interests and change directions even after matriculating at the College.
Wallace emphasized that MASStorage will not raise its prices to fund the scholarship and said that last year's gains are reflected in lower prices this year. Instead, Wallace plans to build the self-perpetuating fund using money raised from the pre-business seminar, which he also helped coordinate, as well as from any incidental profits MASStorage makes. "We want people to be able to trust us and be happy using us," said Wallace.
"The scholarship is a legacy we could create that would have a long-lasting positive effect on campus," Wallace said.