January 30, 2013
By Stephanie West 
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Memorial (TSFFM) has named nineteen Triangle Scholars for the Academic Year 2012-13. Each grant is in the amount of $2,000 bringing TSFFM's total awards to $344,000 since inception of the program in 2003.
Scholarship funds are raised through the organization's annual Memorial Journal and a dinner held each year. This year's dinner is scheduled on Thursday, March 23rd at the Fire Museum on Spring Street in lower Manhattan.
Stephen Segar, a Rochester attorney and Chair of the Scholarship Committee, noted that 13 of this year's nineteen recipients have been previous recipients and 5 are in their fourth year of study. "We are proud of the students and believe that those completing their degree studies represent the aspirations of their families who are dependent upon workers' compensation to survive in this dreadful economy," Segar said. "The arithmetic is simple: these students range in age from 17 -21 which means their families may be receiving compensation benefits as little as $200-300 per week," he continued referring to the benefit limits in effect in previous years.
Since 2003, the Triangle program has benefitted 85 individuals residing in 27 of the state's counties in attendance at 31 institutions of higher education. TSFFM matches $1,000 for a contribution of $1,000 for a Named Scholarship to insure each student receives a total of $2,000 for the Academic Year.
TSFFM was founded by attorneys from the NYS Injured Workers Bar Association (IWBA) which counts members throughout NYS.
