Fifty incoming college freshmen who were stand-outs among their high school's recent graduating class are getting help with their educational expenses through the Georgia-Pacific Foundation Employees' Children Scholarship program.

PRNewswire reported that Georgia-Pacific annually awards 50 four-year scholarships to qualifying children of its employees across the United States, so that approximately 200 students are receiving support in any given year.

One of 2012's recipients, Matthew O'Shaughnessy, a graduate of Milton High School, and an incoming freshman at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said, "the Georgia-Pacific Scholarship is really an amazing opportunity for me to be able to attend the college of my dreams and major in what I've always wanted to do [electrical and computer engineering]."

The Georgia-Pacific scholarship program is administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and is open to children of all active, full-time employees of GP in the U.S. The award is $2,000 per year for up to four years of full-time college undergraduate study, for a total maximum award of $8,000.

Visit online for more information on the GP Foundation.

Headquartered at Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific is one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of building products, tissue, packaging, paper, cellulose and related chemicals.