Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
The New Rockford Dollars for Scholars committee is preparing to send out its spring business fundraising letter to ask businesses to sponsor scholarships for area graduating seniors, to help them further their education.
The committee believes that through Dollars for Scholars, the community has the opportunity to make a strong collective statement about the importance of a post secondary education, by providing both encouragement and financial support for local students.
New Rockford’s Dollars for Scholars has been in existence since the 2003-04 school year, when an anonymous donation made it possible to provide scholarships to graduating seniors. It is non-profit, tax-exempt scholarship organization dedicated to encouraging New Rockford-Sheyenne High School students to pursue their education beyond high school, and it is driven purely by volunteers and donations. Dollars for Scholars establishes endowments and award scholarships to NR-S students each year and helps to raise scholarship funds to match scholarship gifts provided by generous local businesses.
The most valued source of funds continues to be donations from area residents, businesses, community contributions and NR-S alumni from all over the country. The number of scholarships provided continues to grow. In its first 10 years of existence, the fund provided 200 scholarships to community students; last year alone, there were 42 scholarships awarded. The scholarships may be used at two-year or four-year programs, or can be used at vocational and technical colleges. With the assistance of the community, many NR-S students have been provided with financial awards and valuable community support.
Donors are able to designate whether they would like their sponsored scholarship award to be a named award or to be one that would be matched by Dollars of Scholars. The donors also have the option to designate that their scholarship goes to a student attending a certain a school or going into a certain major receives the scholarship.
According to Rachel Holzwarth, committee chair, the Dollars for Scholars application process is completed by seniors online through a merit-based scoring system that is provided to them, as an affiliate of Scholarship America. The scholarships are awarded based on a variety of qualities, including work experience, activities and leadership, educational and career objectives, primary references, scholastic aptitude (ACT Score) and scholastic performance.
Scholarship America is a nonprofit philanthropic education organization, with a mission to mobilize America through scholarships and other educational support to make postsecondary success possible for all. Scholarship America works to engage the private sector in programs to help more students overcome barriers to furthering their education beyond high school.
In 1958, an optometrist in Fall River, Mass., had the idea that if everyone in his community gave just a dollar to an educational fund, it would be enough to help nearly every student in the community attend college. Dr. Irving Fradkin called his plan “Dollars for Scholars,” and it has expanded into what today is the nation’s largest nonprofit, private sector scholarship and educational support organization—Scholarship America.
Scholarship America works directly with students, parents, colleges, businesses and communities to help students fulfill their college dreams and helps students complete their educational goals by partnering with others to design, manage and deliver the best private scholarship and education support programs in the country.
According to the Scholarship America website, average college costs have doubled in the last two decades, but state investment has been slashed and the federal Pell Grant, which covered more than 75 percent of the college costs 40 years ago, is now covering barely 30 percent of college costs at public four-year institutions.
As a result, other solutions are necessary and Scholarship America explores how best to build those partnerships. They help to build systems that work for students, institutions and the workforce. The local Dollars for Scholars committee, which provides solutions locally, also sends a representative to the national conference. In return they receive funds to provide an additional $1,000 in scholarships.
The fundraising efforts that are used by the local Dollars for Scholars committee include the following:
• The Spring Business Fundraising Letter campaign
• Memorials
• Challenges from one graduating class to another
• Weinerschnitzel and Fleishkeuchle Feeds
• Buck a Point gifts
• Calendar Raffles
• Bake Sales
• Map Fund from the sale of the Historic Map of New Rockford
If you haven’t received a letter in the past and are interested in making a donation, please feel free to contact one of the volunteer board members: Rachel Holzwarth, Tubby Bymoen, Jenna Weisenburger, Karla Berglund, Annette Hovey, Kent Myhre, Donna Gedrose, Kelsey Turcotte, Penny Schuster, Kristi Frahm or Cherry Heinz.
