For the second year in a row, the National Association of Athletic Development Directors will offer 20 scholarships to attend the organization’s 2008 convention in Dallas June 9-12 as part of its Diversity Initiative Program. The NAADD convention will take place in conjunction with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics convention.

The program’s goal is to identify top-flight minority and female administrators who desire to excel in intercollegiate athletics development and fund-raising. The initiative seeks individuals who want to advance their athletics-administration career, enhance professional ability to raise funds for their institution and create valuable networking opportunities with collegiate athletics administrators.

Scholarship recipients must be dues-paying members of NAADD. The deadline to submit applications and required supplementary information is March 31.

At the NACDA meetings in January, NAADD also announced it would provide the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association with a $5,000 stipend to help its operating costs, along with five Diversity Initiative Program $1,000 scholarships.

"As an association, we feel the Diversity Initiative Program allows us the opportunity to support minority and female professionals in collegiate athletics fund-raising," said Jane Myers, NAADD president and assistant athletics director for development at Bowling Green State University. "We received tremendous response from last year's program and felt that it was only right to move forward with the initiative and the continued support of the MOAA."