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Foundation
out to ‘narrow the gap’
One of the better kept secrets in our community – not
intentionally for sure – is the work the past 21 years of the
Northshore Scholarship Foundation. What is no secret, however, is the
knowledge that the cost of college tuition, books, fees and housing
continues to increase year-by-year with no end in sight.
The Foundation is operated by the Northshore Rotary Club (the
founding organization), the Kiwanis Club of Northshore and the
Woodinville Rotary Club. As a former member of Northshore Rotary and
present member of Woodinville Rotary, I admit I write with considerable
personal interest. In addition, my role with the Foundation is as its
executive trustee.
Having disclosed all that, my purpose here is to inform members
of the community that the Foundation, for the first time since 1984, is
in a fund-raising mode. The goal is to increase the value of the
Foundation’s 83 scholarships in 2006 to a minimum level of $1,750. It
will take donations of $35,000 to make that happen and to preserve the
more than $1 million in assets accumulated since the Foundation was
launched with a 1984 bank account of only $5,661.
The remarkable achievement of the Foundation has been its ability
to issue – along with the service clubs – nearly $1 million in
scholarships to nearly 1,000 graduates of our three Northshore high
schools and the district’s Secondary Academy for Success and to
students attending Cascadia Community College and the University of
Washington-Bothell. While providing these scholarships, the Foundation
managed its donated funds in a way to build its asset base to more than
the million dollars. Retired insurance executive Rusty Young and attorney Larry Leonardson took on the chairmanship of a development committee project to raise the $35,000 by the end of this month. Donations and pledges to date total $24,094 in a relatively low-key campaign called “Narrow the Gap”. Keeping
up with tuition increases
The gap is what the average value of a Foundation scholarship was
in the spring of this year and the average cost of only a single quarter
of tuition at one of the state’s six public colleges. It is projected
the average quarterly tuition cost by the fall of 2007 will be nearly
$1,750. Representing a considerable gap, the average scholarship value
in 2005 was $1,413.
In addition, the Foundation is wrestling with a plan to bring the
values of its 43 endowments to a financial level that will self-fund
scholarships at the $1,750 level or greater without the need for an
annual fund-raising effort. Twenty-nine of those endowments are
seriously underfunded – most of these were established as memorials to
well known Northshore citizens and to students whose lives were
tragically cut short. The Foundation now requires each endowment to have
received a minimum of $25,000 contributed.
With phase one of “Narrow the Gap” successfully completed,
the Foundation will begin advertising its 2006 scholarships early next
month – with as many as 83 available at a total outlay of $150,000 (up
from $123,475 in 2005).
The information on how to apply for these scholarships will be
found on the Foundation website at www.ns-scholarship.org,
and anyone interested in making a contribution to narrow the scholarship
gap should contact Investment
payoffs are large
The campaign raises several good points about the “investment
payoff” for support of higher education and the fact that private
sources will continue to play an important, continually growing
role in financing a college education.
For example, the Institute for Higher Education reports,
“Highly regarded studies have consistently shown that going to college
has broad and quantifiable national impacts, from higher salaries to
improved health to increased volunteerism to a reduced reliance on
welfare and other social support programs.”
Citing data for this state, the Foundation’s study shows the
annual personal income average for a college graduate to be $48,325
compared with $25,968 for someone who has only completed high school.
The percentage unemployed is 8.1 per cent for high school grads, 3.8 per
cent for those with college degrees. Nearly 78 per cent of the college
grads voted compared with 60 per cent among those with a high school
diploma and 44 per cent among those who fail to finish high school.
In the area of health, 79.8 per cent of the high school graduates
reported their condition to be good to excellent compared with 92.9 per
cent of the college graduates.
Bothell High School graduate Dr. Bill Fassett, until recently the
dean of the School of Pharmacy at Washington State University,
summarized the importance and problems of college affordability in
remarks at the 21st annual scholarship recognition breakfast
the Foundation held last spring:
“Private support is more essential now than ever before. I can
assure you that every scholarship is important to its recipient –
often making a crucial difference in the student’s ability to start or
stay in college.”
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The Previous Columns
for October 12, 2005 for
September 21, 2005 for
September 7, 2005 for
August 17, 2005 for
August 3, 2005 for
July 20, 2005 July
6, 2005 June
18, 2005 June
4, 2005 May
18, 2005 May
4, 2005 April
20, 2005 April
6, 2005 March
16, 2005 March
2, 2005 February
16, 2005 February
2, 2005 January
19, 2005 January
5, 2005 December
15, 2004 December
1, 2004 Nov.
17, 2004 November
3, 2004 October
20, 2004 October
6, 2004 Sept
15, 2004 Sept.
1, 2004
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Hugo
and (425) 482-4076 |
Return to Page One of your "Greater Grace Daily OnLine Gazette"
