Tally the numbers, and you can see the impact that scholarships have on SUNY Broome students: More than $1 million awarded by the Broome Community College Foundation, in more than 300 merit-based awards. More than 250 smiling faces, shaking hands with the donors who helped make their dreams possible during the Foundation’s annual Awards Night.
While every little bit helps, scholarships mean more than just the bottom line to many students. They represent a vote of confidence – proof that their efforts matter, and that others are invested in their success.
Take Corinne Gebler, who received a scholarship from the American Association of University Women that supports female students who attend school later in life.
“I’m excited. I never really thought I would go to college,” said Gebler, a dual major in Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management who wants to run her own restaurant someday.
On Awards Night, students of all majors and background receive a wide variety of scholarships for all sorts of reasons. Awards exist for married students, non-traditional students, those who overcome obstacles and who excel in a specific academic area, as well as residential students, those who participate in service learning, and more.
Donors, too, cover a wide range, from professors, non-profits and area businesses to families and colleagues remembering loved ones who cherished the cause of education.
Take the New York State Society of Professional Engineers, which sponsors the Donald F. Brown Engineering Science Memorial Scholarship. While the organization established the award years ago, it was renamed in memory of a local engineer with a deep support of education, explained Thomas Mathias, the group’s scholarship chair.
An engineer himself, Mathias said he appreciates the opportunity to meet scholarship recipients face to face. For 2019, that recipient is Engineering Science student Joshua McHenry.
“I’ve been doing this for a number of years, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger each year,” he said of the awards night.
It was the first time that Ellen Mosaidis ever received a scholarship, and she was touched by the generosity of donors. The Human Services major received the Frank & Sylvia Battisti Memorial Scholarship, which goes to students who want to work with the elderly population. Once her children are grown, Ellen aspires to become a social worker, she said.
“This is my third degree, so it’s definitely a help!” said Keisa Williams, who received the Binghamton Rotary Club’s Dyer-Johnson-Dixon Nursing Scholarship.
Keisa, who also has degrees in Liberal Arts and Health Studies, doesn’t receive financial aid. “The nursing program can be expensive,” she acknowledged.
Students helping students
Along with external donors, SUNY Broome students also help their own, fundraising for the SUNY Broome Student Giving Peer Scholarship – and, in the case of Orion Barber, even establishing their own named award.
A dual major in Mathematics and Paralegal Studies graduating this May, Orion received a number of scholarships himself, including the Dr. Harry Boyte and Dr. David Mathews Distinguished Deliberative Democracy Service Award and the BCC Foundation Scholarship for Excellence in Math. This year, he established the Orion Barber Scholarship for LGBTQ+ Advancement, which goes to a student involved in advocacy work for that community.
The first Orion Barber Scholarship went to Kaia Leigh O’Neill, an Individual Studies major who plans on becoming a mechanical engineer.
“I’m happy that this award even exists, and that it’s from a student who knows exactly what I go through in the LGBTQ community,” said Kaia.
Reading through the applicants, Orion was deeply touched by Kaia’s activism, which includes a variety of volunteer work, including as a lifeline operator for transgender people in crisis.
“This is exactly what I established the scholarship to do,” he said.
