Wells Fargo to Award $250,000 in CollegeSTEPS(SM) Scholarship Program.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ --

Wells Fargo Education Financial Services (EFS) will award 250 $1,000 scholarships -- a total of $250,000 -- to high school seniors through CollegeSTEPS, its college-planning program.

CollegeSTEPS offers high school students timely information on preparing for college, taking tests, and applying for scholarships. All students receive a series of educational electronic postcards. Seniors are also eligible for A Step in the Right Direction, the scholarship drawing. Students can sign up for CollegeSTEPS at http://www.wellsfargo.com/student/planning/steps or call 800-658-3567 for more information.

"CollegeSTEPS offers both valuable information on the college-planning process, and many valuable scholarship opportunities to help students pursue higher education," explains Jon Veenis, president of Wells Fargo EFS. "The earlier a family starts preparing for college, the better, and CollegeSTEPS helps them take a step in the right direction."

After signing up, students will begin receiving electronic postcards. (Students without Internet access also have the option of receiving traditional postcards.) Scholarships will be drawn monthly between September 2000 and April 2001 for use in the 2001-2002 academic year.

States Brett Gavin of Covington, Ky., a scholarship recipient in last year's CollegeSTEPS program who will attend the University of South Carolina at Columbia, "This gives me overwhelming joy to know that I am being helped -- people like you at Wells Fargo help my dreams become one step closer to reality."

Wells Fargo Education Financial Services is a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Company, a diversified financial services company with $234 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance from about 5,300 stores and the Internet ( http://www.wellsfargo.com ) across North America and elsewhere internationally.