Faculty and students at the St. Jerome Regional School in Tamaqua stressed their great appreciation to the Eastern Pennsylvania Scholarship Foundation (EPSF) for providing 10 years of need-based scholarship assistance to children attending or wishing to attend the Catholic schools of the Diocese of Allentown.

The mission of the EPSF, which was founded in 2001, is to provide financial assistance to families within the diocese of who want to pursue a Catholic school education for their children, but does not have the financial means to pay full tuition.All donations received are awarded in need-based scholarships to students attending Catholic elementary, secondary and pre-schools in the diocese. Families in most need are provided with assistance first.Donations from businesses participating in Pennsylvania's Educational Improvement Tax Credit program are the primary sources of funding for EPSF scholarships.The EPSF accepts private and Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) donations from companies participating in the EITC program. The foundation has awarded over $12 million through more than 15,000 scholarships to students attending the 57 secondary, elementary, special needs schools, and 45 pre-schools in the diocese.The foundation also encourages individual donations to their scholarship fund for any school or combination of schools in the diocese.