We have been celebrating since April 24 at the Foundation!
It is one of our favorite times of the year when we celebrate our Barberton High School scholars with an unforgettable 2-hours of spotlighting and celebrating the accomplishments of our top performing students. We are fortunate that our gathering includes school administrators and teachers, Foundation team and board, and Foundation and community donors, in addition to the students and their parents, guardians, and family.
Forty-nine students were in attendance, and the theatre at BHS was full of energy, accomplishment, and enthusiasm. A total of $413,100 was awarded from 49 scholarship funds, a total of 113 awards!
You can probably understand why our donors and team enjoy this event so much each year! It is fun to be in a room where so many people are pouring help and goodwill into our students, and the students are pouring hope and excitement into everyone else.
It is the culmination of a lifetime of hard work for the students, and weeks of hard work by the school district guidance counselors and administrators and our Foundation team.
In a world that is so frequently divided these days, in that room everyone is unified behind helping these students reach their goals, providing support to bridge the gap between high school graduation and a career.
The more I reflect on my second scholarship event as Executive Director, I am thinking about scholarships and that aspect of our work at the Foundation.
The more I think about scholarships, the more confident I am in challenging the definition of what a scholarship is.
Here’s why.
In that room were students who are going to college, the traditional “scholarship” idea in action.
Also in that room were top performing students who are headed into careers as auto mechanics and machinists and radiologists and more.
Whether a student is pursuing a college degree, an EMS certification, a CDL, an LPN, and the list goes on and on – these achievements represent career tools – and requirements – to building a fulfilling career.
And, isn’t a fulfilling career what we want for everyone in our community?
So, the point of a scholarship is to line up financial support and help, to those who have earned it, by demonstrating a desire to work toward mastery in a specific subject matter.
A scholarship is a financial bridge to fulfillment in career and life!
By this revised definition of a “scholarship” – and knowing all of the different and amazing careers out there… and the different and amazing brains that do those careers – perhaps we need to start thinking about a scholarship more broadly.
I’m proud of the work our team has done with Barberton City Schools on having nearly 20 of those 49 scholarships that can be used for career technical programs, not only a traditional college program. In some cases, our scholarships funds may be applied to college or career technical school.
I want to work hard on expanding opportunities with our scholarship program! I am delighted and thankful to a willing group of donors who want to engage in those conversations as well about their funds.
I’d also like to hear from you – what would have helped you out in your career when you were 17 or 18?
Send me your thoughts!
And, if you want to support these 49 amazing Barberton students, we have a few ways you can help them, too.
You could donate to one of our donor-scholarship funds on our website, or our robust endowment to enhance that scholarship program.
You could just write a letter to these students and send it to the Foundation – we’ll make sure they get to read it!
If any of these ideas interest you, visit our website or contact our team.
Our community is amazing, and our students are amazing. I can’t wait to see what they accomplish!
In Community,
Josh Gordon
Executive Director
Barberton Community Foundation
