Several new scholarships have been created for students attending Ball State University, including one by an Indianapolis couple to assist students studying business.

The Anthony W. and Marla D. Smith Merit Scholarship has been created with a $50,000 gift from the couple. The renewable scholarship is available to incoming freshmen or transfer students with a major within the Miller College of Business who have a 3.0 grade point average.

Anthony Smith received his accounting degree from Ball State in 1968 and then worked for the accounting firm of Ernst and Young in Indianapolis before moving to Sao Paula, Brazil, in 2005 to open the Ernst and Young Capital Markets Center serving South American.

Marla Smith attended Ball State and then worked until her retirement in 2004 as an assistant to Indianapolis entrepreneur Michael Mauer.

Other scholarships recently created or endowed at Ball State include:

• Joan R. McFadden Scholarship program to assist graduate students pursuing a career in family and consumer science education. McFadden, a Muncie resident, started the scholarship after retiring from Ball State's Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.

• Janice E. Cox Scholarship Fund will assist students studying early childhood education. It was endowed with a gift from Charles W. Cox of Barboursville, W. Va., to honor the memory of his late wife, who graduated from Ball State with a bachelor's degree in 1968 and a master's degree in 1969.

• William R. Clark Scholarship Fund will provide funds for students majoring within the psychological science department. The scholarship was created by Helen Louise Clark of Muncie to honor her late husband, who was a psychological science professor for 28 years before his death.

• Erik and Kathy "Ellis" Furnish Scholarship will assist students from Henryville and/or Jeffersonville High School with a preference for those majoring in business or journalism. He graduated from Ball State in 1992 and his wife graduated in 1991. They reside in New Albany.

(Note to Editors: For more information, contact Amy Thomas, associate vice president for fund stewardship for the Ball State University Foundation, at athomas@bsu.edu or (765) 285-7068.)