Night Educational Celebration Plan By Foundation

Students who have been awarded a scholarship at Crowder College will join their donors for a night of recognition on Monday.

The annual Crowder Foundation scholarship banquet will feature a dinner prepared by the Crowder Agriculture Department and certificates for 167 students.

Before they were awarded their scholarships, students had to submit their applications and — a new requirement this year — an essay.

The final group is a good cross section of students, said Julie Dobbs, assistant director of development and alumni relations.

"The students are going to get to sit with their donors," Dobbs said. "We want students to know that this is actual money. This is money that someone has taken a checkbook out and written because they have a belief in education and a desire to support someone's educational goals.

"This isn't just some cloudy resource from the sky that just drops money down for the students and these are actual people and our hopes are that our alumni — students that are receiving scholarships now — will realize that and one day they can pay it forward by doing the same thing."

This year the foundation awarded more than $180,000 in scholarships for the 2009-2010 term.

"We have tapered it back a little bit considering the economy," Dobbs said. "But more so in total amounts than we have in numbers because we still know that there is a great need for students to receive scholarship awards."

Criteria for the scholarship is set by the donor, some specify need or where the student is from or their major.

Anyone, Dobbs said, can contribute toward a scholarship.

"It doesn't take a lot of money, we'll start up an account with $10 or so in it if need be," she said. "It could just be something that grows and grows."

Donations to the general fund go toward the less specific scholarships. Donors come from many different backgrounds: former students, community members, faculty, classified and professional staff.

"A lot of our donors are from the community," Dobbs said. "They're just friends of the college, alumni of the college that contribute and a lot of people will contribute in memory of their loved ones as well."

Family members of scholarship recipients are also invited to the banquet, and Dobbs said they have received 250 RSVPs for the dinner.

"Our population might have grown 34 percent this year, but our enrollment hasn't deterred us from keeping that individualized feeling and we want to honor each one of our students and we want to show each one of our donors that we appreciate them as well," she said.