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College faculty create scholarship fund to help cash-strapped students graduate
College faculty create scholarship fund to help students graduate
By JOAN KITE
For faculty members who are witnesses and students enduring the hardship, being short several hundred dollars on a tuition bill is heartbreaking.
Being shown the college exit door because of it, can be excruciating.
In the school year 2015-16, faculty and some students within the College of Agriculture were dealing with just that.
Every semester, a handful of students were notified that they would no longer be allowed to continue their schooling because of outstanding bills but some of those bills were as small as $400 to $1,000. College faculty thought those small figures were too high of a price to pay to sacrifice a quality education.
“The fact that we had students that were having to leave school for sums of money that were not unsurmountable was not ideal,” said Dr. Nick Gawel, superintendent of the Otis L. Floyd Nursery Research Center in McMinnville.
A small group of faculty members gathered together to talk about creating a scholarship fund to help students struggling with finances stay in school.
Scholarship founding members included Dr. Gawel, Dr. De’Etra Young, interim associate dean of Academics and Landgrant Programs, William F. Hayslett, Sr., former executive director of Academic Programs, Dr. Samuel Nahashon, head of the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Samuel Dennis, research professor in the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and former TSU professor Lan Li. They all contributed funds to the initial pool.
“My initial contribution was less than $500,” Dr. Gawel recalled.
Those starting funds helped attract contributions from other faculty members and eventually the account was able to become vested, generating revenue on its own to help finance future scholarships.
“We came together through Mr. Hayslett,” said Professor Korsi Dumenyo, who has since accepted much of the responsibility of administering the scholarship fund.
“The Faculty Scholarship Committee decided if we can get $25,000 collected, at
Laura Brisbon received a $1,000 Faculty Scholarship before earning her bachelor’s degree from the College of Agriculture in May of 2020. Photo courtesy of Laura Brisbon
