Go Daddy Launching .ME Scholarship Program

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--For years, Go Daddy has been helping millions of people and businesses develop their own Web presence. Now, the world’s largest Web hosting provider and top domain name registrar is working to develop Go Daddy Scholars by providing college scholarships to deserving individuals.

“I flunked the fifth grade, but thanks to the U.S. Marine Corps, I graduated from high school”

Beginning Jan. 10, students can submit their Go Daddy .ME Scholarship applications online at www.GoDaddy.com/MEscholarship. Go Daddy is giving 10 Go Daddy .ME Scholarships for $10,000 each.

“I believe everyone should have the chance to get a higher education,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “By providing Go Daddy dotME scholarships, we can make a difference for some who might not have been able to afford to go to college.”

In today’s uncertain economy, families are struggling more than ever to make ends meet. For some families, this includes setting aside less money for college, even while tuition rates are increasing each year.

According to The College Board, in-state undergraduate tuition and fees cost the average four-year college student more than $7,600 a year. In addition to those costs, students can expect to pay an average of $1,137 in books and supplies, nearly $2,000 in personal expenses, more than $1,000 in transportation, plus the daunting cost of room and board.

Parsons knows the value of a college degree. After struggling through high school, the decorated war veteran learned the power of discipline and focus in the military, then graduated magna cum laude from the University of Baltimore.

“I flunked the fifth grade, but thanks to the U.S. Marine Corps, I graduated from high school,” said Parsons. “When I got back from Vietnam, I was able to go to college on the GI Bill. Without that financial assistance, I probably wouldn’t have made it to college.”

How do you apply for the Go Daddy .ME Scholarship? Applicants must be pursuing an undergraduate degree in Fall 2011, have a minimum 3.0 GPA and have scored higher than 860 on the SAT or 18 on the ACT. Applicants need to submit two letters of recommendation and write a 500-word essay describing how the Internet or Internet technology has helped them in the course of their studies, and how they envision benefiting from it in the future.

The application deadline for the Go Daddy .ME Scholarship is March 31, 2011 and the scholarship recipients will be announced at the end of April.

The Go Daddy .ME Scholarship program is launching this week as the 12^th Annual GoDaddy.com Bowl kicks off at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala. The Miami University (Ohio) Redhawks take on the Tennessee State University Blue Raiders Thursday at 7 p.m. CST. The game is set for broadcast nationally on ESPN.

For more information about the Go Daddy .ME Scholarship program, please visit www.GoDaddy.com/MEscholarship.

To find out how you can get online quickly and affordably, visit www.GoDaddy.com.

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About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.

Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and website design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce website hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group has more than 45 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s largest Web hosting provider and is the world's No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. During the first half of 2010, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.