Each spring, we typically hold a celebratory event to honor our scholarship recipients and donors. This event is always one of the highlights of our year but the pandemic interrupted our usual plans. Despite that, we didn’t want to let our 2020-21 star students and donors go unrecognized. We are pleased to present this video tribute featuring several of our donors and students along with a full list of all of our donors and students. We hope to see you for an extra special event in the Spring of 2022!
Alum at NASA creates scholarship honoring Mom Just a few weeks after Darian Dixon '(15, BS Geosciences) gave the Spring 2021 UWM commencement address, he made a decision to help other UWM students cross the finish line by establishing a scholarship in honor of his mother. Below is the heartfelt message he posted about his gift on Instagram: "In this envelope I hold the greatest honor and gift I've ever given my mother and something I'm so damn elated to announce. "My mom is without a doubt the biggest factor in my success. From day 1 this woman did everything in her power to prepare me for success and show me I deserved it and could earn it. It was those long nights after kindergarten, practicing math and reading because she wanted me to be exceptional at them and not merely adequate. It was the fostering of my interests when she realized I loved science. The zoo and museum trips, hours and hours at the public library, the science books, Discovery World, the science toys, watching any and all science documentaries. It was the home experiments that sometimes she wasn't the most fond of but never thought to thwart because she respected and nurtured my curiosity. The jars full of bugs I tried to adopt and raise, piles of collected rocks, and boxes of old electronics I would take apart hoping to learn about how they worked, she encouraged all that. "And it wasn't just to me she gave her utmost respect, nurturing, and care. She was a fixture in the community. Working for nonprofits and dedicating herself to worthy causes for as long as I can remember. Running after-school programs, toy drives, food drives, school supply drives, organizing food pantries city-wide, community gardening initiatives, offering up hot meals, our couch, and space in our small home to folks when they had nowhere else to stay. She did all that. Constantly. Consistently. Altruistically. While still raising and feeding me mostly alone and never missing a nightly convo about school, my dreams, college plans, or my adolescent struggles. "So in this envelope I have a gift agreement with UWM for the next 4 years, to create the Gloria Dixon Dream and Believe Scholarship in honor of her dedication to selfless giving. To be awarded to a Milwaukee-born Milwaukee Public Schools alum and UWM student majoring in the sciences who has endured financial hardship, barriers to traditional opportunity, and who has shown demonstrated commitment to promoting social justice in our world. "Love you, Mom. This is for you. This is our legacy!" Read how Dixon benefited from scholarships while he was a UWM student.
