ARCS Foundation Records
Collection
Identifier: MS430
The records of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation contain charter documents, general administrative files, National Executive Board yearbooks, annual meeting notebooks, newsletters, and videotapes, documenting the activities of the organization mainly during the period between 1976 and 2004.
(34 document cases, 2 half-size document cases)
Researchers must seek written permission from authorized officers of ARCS Foundation to access these materials (expiration date 2036).
Permission to publish materials from this collection must be obtained from the Head of Archives and Special Collections.
14 Linear Feet
These records consist of administrative records for the national office of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation. Series 1, Charter Documents, contains charters for three of the 17 regional offices (Minnesota, Tampa Bay, and Utah). Series 2, the largest series, consists of general administrative files for the organization, including calendars and membership lists; files for the President, Recording Secretary, and other officers; and administrative files from each of the regional offices. Each of the notebooks in Series 3, National Executive Board Yearbooks, contains minutes from the National Executive Board meetings as well as other pertinent material, such as by-laws, newsletters, annual meeting notes, and budgetary and financial information. The notebooks in Series 4, National Annual Meeting Notebooks, typically contain general information about each national meeting, day-by-day schedules, lists of attendees, officers' reports, and chapter profiles. Series 5, Newsletters, consists of the ARCS national and alumni newsletters. There are apparently several gaps in coverage, but some of the missing issues may be found in the notebooks in Series 3. Series 6 includes mainly promotional and outreach videos.
The ARCS Foundation was founded in 1958 in Los Angeles. According to its website, ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) is a “national organization dedicated to supporting the best and brightest U. S. graduate and undergraduate scholars by providing financial awards in science, engineering, and medical research.”
The ARCS Foundation was initially formed as a result of the October 1957 Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite. The next year, a group of women interested in helping to address the perceived lacunae in scientific and technological education in the United States met with Lee DuBridge, President of the California Institute of Technology. These women began ARCS to raise money for scholarships and fellowships at Caltech for both undergraduate and graduate students in the sciences and technology.
The Los Angeles-based ARCS was soon followed by the formation of chapters in Houston and Washington D.C. At the same time, the organization grew to include other educational institutions. By the time of its fiftieth anniversary in 2008, ARCS had given more than 12,000 awards totaling more than $66.5 million. By 2009-2010, the number of chapters had increased to 17.
Source: ARCS Foundation website (accessed April 24, 2013).
Arranged into six series:
Donations, 2009 and 2010 (accession numbers 2009.070, 2010.069).
Additions to this collection are expected.
Visual materials will be processed separately as VAM430; artifacts will be transferred to the artifacts collection.
(34 document cases, 2 half-size document cases)
April Martin, Rachelle Wiese, and Christine de Catanzaro processed these records in April 2013.
Part of the Archives and Special Collections, Library, Georgia Institute of Technology Repository