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Roughly 10 years ago, Philomath native Anton Grube started to contemplate ways to give back to his school and community while wondering what his daughters might pursue after high school.
Five years later, he acted on that desire and began to explore how to start a scholarship. Over the past 18 months, he began community conversations and ultimately aligned with Philomath Community Foundation, a local organization that has been granting scholarships and awards to Philomath School District graduates for more than a quarter century.
The end result of Grube’s vision and his family’s initial financial backing has been the establishment of the Philomath Forward Scholarship, which will pay the recipient $1,500 per year over a four-year span for the potential maximum of $6,000.
According to the foundation, a scholarship recipient will be randomly selected from the pool of applicants who meet all eligibility requirements in 2025. The goal of the scholarship, the organization added, is to provide at least one scholarship with each graduating class.
The Philomath Forward scholarship fund at PCF is open to contributions large and small from the community. In working with the foundation, Grube placed a high priority on having the ability to accept small, regular donations online.
“Very often scholarships and grants come from one large donor or family, which is wonderful, but that can exclude those who may want to give back but can only afford to make smaller monthly donations as opposed to large one-time donations,” Grube said.
Grube is working to invite the community of past scholarship recipients and alumni to pass their gifts forward to future Philomath School District graduates.
“PCF’s board of directors supports Anton’s vision of Philomath Forward as a scholarship built by a community together into a sustainable asset benefitting young people into the future,” the foundation said in a press release. “It is a great fit for Philomath, where people have shown more than once how working together they successfully accomplish ambitious projects.”
Like many in Philomath, Grube received a Clemens Scholarship, a four-year award that he says was “an amazing gift” that he was grateful to receive. Grube said the scholarship enabled him to continue his professional path forward, and combined with working and support from his parents, to greatly reduce his financial burden.
Said Grube, “It allowed me to graduate with very minimal educational debt.”
Born in Philomath, Grube came up through the local school system and graduated with the high school’s Class of 1996. His daughters are also PHS graduates and he said he loves that his hometown and its schools “offer many formal and informal opportunities for young people to learn and to experience the different passions found in a community our size.”
Grube majored in environmental studies with a minor in biology and graduated from Oregon State University. He later earned a master of business administration from OSU and has worked primarily in facilities services. In the district, he has volunteered for several years as a coach and formerly served on the School Board.
Philomath Community Foundation’s other scholarships include: Adjust Your Sails Scholarship, Cody James Patterson Memorial Scholarship, Philomath Public Schools Scholarship, Russ Hunt Memorial Scholarship, Philomath Community Foundation Youth Recognition Award, Philomath Forward Scholarship, STEM+ Scholarship, STEM Scholarship and the Terry Selby Memorial Scholarship.
Eligibility scholarship requirements and applications are currently available for all scholarships at the PCF website.
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