endow a scholarship

I had never even considered this until about a month ago. Now it’s a priority of mine that I am sure will endure until I accomplish it. I was attending a business mixer at the new medical building on the campus of the Community College of Southern Nevada. One of the administrators who hosted the event explained to me how a nursing scholarship for an entire year can be funded for just $1,000, and that scholarship can be maintained in perpetuity with an endowment of just $10,000. At most universities, endowments require an investment of at least $50,000. I’ve already started thinking of ways I might be able to raise funds.

Why? Because the school wins when it can attract deserving students who would be financially challenged without a scholarship. The student wins by being able to afford an education. And my family wins, because we can name the endowment after a family member, and thereby honor a loved one forever (or at least as long as the school exists to award the annual scholarship). I’d like to do this in the name of my younger daughter, who was stricken with congenital cytomegalovirus and is developmentally delayed. The thought that she could somehow play a part in providing a college education to others gives me goosebumps. It is absolutely something I want to do.