The Community Foundation of St. Clair County has been managing endowed scholarships since the mid-1980s and is the region’s largest provider of scholarship funds. In recent years, however, the Community Foundation has moved its focus beyond just helping graduating high school seniors get a good start to college, and is more strategically focused on long-term college support and success.
“It’s been a complete mind-set change,” said Hale Walker, board chair of the Community Foundation. “Starting back in 2017 with our Complete Your Degree Program we began to adopt a philosophy of focusing more on college success, and renewable funding.”
In this current cycle of awards, getting ready for the start of the 2023/24 school year, the Foundation had 300 applications for 35 different endowed scholarship funds – 179 recipients have been selected so far, and represent a mix of graduating high school seniors and returning college students. Of those recipients, 37% have received scholarships from the Community Foundation in the past.
“College gets more expensive each year for a student,” Walker added. “So, we want to help our donors support students throughout their college career with funds that are easily renewable.”
One such example is first-generation student Praewa Montross, who is entering her third year at Michigan State University. The St. Clair High School graduate is pursuing double majors in English and Human Biology with a minor in Spanish.
“The on-going support from the Community Foundation is something that gives me comfort and reassurance towards pursuing my education, especially when college can be a huge financial burden,” Montross said. “The scholarships I’ve received have allowed me to take part in professional and academic opportunities that, without the Community Foundation, would have been unattainable due to financial constraints.”
She is following a pre-med track as she plans to apply to medical school after earning her bachelor’s degree. Over the past three years, she has received $8,500 from the St. Clair Foundation Fund, Randy Sugars Memorial Fund, and Little Brothers, Little Sisters Scholarship Fund.
Montross said this support has led to transformative opportunities such as her recent semester studying aboard in Thailand, which she chose as a meaningful way to connect with her roots as her mother is Thai, that equipped her with invaluable skills and lifelong memories.
“When I was in the earlier stages of my application, the Foundation showed me an incredible amount of kindness as they wanted to know if there was anything they could do to help financially,” she said. “Ultimately because of their help, I was able to spend the semester in another country.”
While some of the scholarship recipients have taken advantage of short-term opportunities to travel, the majority decided to continue their studies in Michigan. A handful chose to pursue a post-secondary education out of state in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New York, Utah and Ontario, CA.
Another first-generation college student (34% of this year’s recipients are, meaning their parents have no college degree) who decided to stay in Michigan is James DeVolder.
DeVolder will be returning to Kettering University for his senior year, where he studies mechanical engineering with a concentration in automotive engineering design. He is currently working his sixth rotation at his co-op with Lear Corporation in Southfield, and is starting to plan out his senior thesis project before he returns to school.
Since 2020, he has received $18,500 from the Howard A. Acheson Memorial Scholarship Fund and St. Clair Foundation Fund, as well as other wraparound support from staff.
“Going to college can be a stressful time, and having a support network such as the Community Foundation gives me an added level of confidence that everything will work out,” DeVolder said. “The support from the Community Foundation is great to have, and has been a huge part of being successful in college.”
Before this year is over the Community Foundation expects to commit over $500,000 towards its broad range of scholarship programs, which also in recent years has added life needs support to students struggling to makes ends meet outside of the classroom.
“The response from our donors to these changes has been wonderful,” Walker added. “And I encourage local residents, businesses and families to think about joining the Community Foundation in our efforts to reduce student debt and focus on long-term success in life.”