News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters Graduate Resource Organization (Sisters GRO) awarded a record $353,550 in local scholarships at the annual senior celebration held at Sisters High School on the evening of May 14.
In all 68 separate scholarships accounted for a total of 140 awards distributed among the 68 seniors who completed the application process. The total amount awarded surpassed the previous record by over $70,000 according to SistersGro executive director Regan Roberts.
All the scholarship winners were announced via a slideshow in the auditorium and then students were released to meet with donors who were set up in the commons.
“We think it’s so important for the donors to have chance to meet the students in person,” said Roberts.
Recipients expressed universal gratitude for the generous support from the Sisters community.
Jordan Velikonia, who will attend Northwest Nazarene University said, “Having the community come together was amazing. I loved the chance to actually meet the donors face to face and get the sense that they really care about us. That was my favorite part of the evening.”
Jordan Velikonia smiles after meeting with the donor of one of her scholarships.
When asked what the financial impact on her situation was she said, “Oh my goodness, just having the opportunity of chipping away at that cost for college is such a relief.”
John Berg plans to study pre-med at either Grand Canyon or Montana State and said “It was such an honor to be chosen by people believing in our ability to go on successfully into the future. My parents were so happy for me. They believe that hard work pays off and it has for me. Also, it was amazing to be with my classmates cheering and being happy for each other.”
Berg was the recipient of one of the seven brand new scholarships offered this year, the Bill and Judi Benson Medical Scholarship, designed to honor a student planning to focus on a career in health.
Vix Trask said, “Throughout high school I have been stressed about how I would pay for college and living expenses and now I feel I am going to achieve my dreams of going to COCC and eventually transferring to a four-year college.”
Trask continued, “Hearing my name called for my scholarships was really emotional. My family and friends are thrilled and grateful for the generosity of the donors.”
Scholarship amounts ranged from $500 to a renewable award totaling $16,000 over four years, according to Roberts.
“We sometimes get questions about how scholarship winners are chosen,” she said. “Scholarship donors are fully in control of the qualifications and requirements for their scholarships. They select a review committee and establish the review criteria and then make their selection and choose the dollar amount to award. Some donors choose to rank choices and allow the GRO board to facilitate the final selection process.”
Roberts said, “I feel so honored to be a part of this organization and to support the growing need for our students’ post-high school education funding and our donors’ growing desire to support it. After our selection deadline this year we had many scholarships donors increase either their quantity of awards or scholarship dollars, or both, after reading the student applications and being compelled to help. It was a great problem to have!”
Sisters GRO board chairman Tim Ross echoed the incredible generosity of the donors and invited others to get involved.
“Sisters is a community that wants to give back and pay it forward to help future generations,” he said. “We are always looking for new scholarships, so if someone wants to set up their own scholarship, we are here to walk them through the process. If setting up a new scholarship is not appealing, we have several options for donating to an existing scholarship and Sisters GRO.”
Information about how to get involved can be found on at http://www.sistersgro.org.
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