OAK Microscholarship is a non-profit organization that distributes modest First World donations as major academic awards to students in severe poverty communities. Founded on a budget of a mere $2000, OAK has grown to offer a series of scholarships under its first pilot project, Project: Laos, to college students in the vicinity of Vientiane, Laos. Presently, it is working to expand its global operations beyond Laos and Southeast Asia. OAK Microscholarship employs targeted academic aid as a direct means of creating educated community leaders and entrepreneurs amidst extreme poverty arenas.
The microscholarship is conceptually akin to microcredit, however the concepts remain focused on academia and microscholarships are gifted grants - not loans. Microscholarship works by taking advantage of extreme global economic imbalance and recognizing that what amounts to a small monetary amount in the Industrialized World represents a considerable sum in the Third World.
OAK Microscholarship was incorporated in Washington State in 2008 and was founded by Southimala Keovernkhone. "OAK" is an acronym as a tribute to her parents, Ounkeo & Ard Keovernkhone, both ardent believers in the power of education refugees from extreme poverty themselves.