Paying for college in 2024 can present an incredible burden on students and their families, and thanks to the support of their community and some dedicated volunteers, Medical Lake High School students have the chance to earn scholarship cash to pay for college.
Medical Lake’s Dollars for Scholars chapter is part of the Scholarship America nonprofit sphere and uses the power of community to crowdfund the education of their youth. The roots of the nonprofit go back to founder Dr. Irving A. Fradkin’s 1957 school board campaign in the town of Fall River, Massachusetts.
While Fradkin lost the school board election, his mission to organize and distribute college scholarships to Fall River High School students lives on in more than 430 local chapters across the United States. The Medical Lake chapter came much later in 2000 after a representative from Scholarship America met with members of the local Kiwanis Club, including current President Steven Meltzer, and floated the idea of establishing one in the town.
“The first year we gave out scholarships was 2001, and we gave out $10,600 in scholarships,” Meltzer said recalling the nonprofit’s first operating year. “That was primarily from existing community organizations and businesses that had been giving small amounts of money, and we’ve been very fortunate to continue those partnerships and…growth.”
Last year, Dollars for Scholars gave out approximately $53,000 in scholarships funded by the Medical Lake community and the nonprofit’s endowment of $210,000. The nonprofit’s Scholarship Chair Shelly Niblock said nearly every student who made it through the application process in the last two years has been awarded at least one scholarship.
“How many make it to the end? It’ll probably be two-thirds of that…maybe…which in a class of 124 is pretty high,” Niblock said. “It’s higher than what we usually have, (but) whether we’ll be able to maintain that statistic this year, I don’t know.
This year’s applicant pool is around 56 students, and if previous trends continue, donations made to the Medical Lake Dollars for Schools chapter could support 37 students in various degree programs. The nonprofit itself funds ten individual scholarships that can be awarded to different students and different dollar amounts, and some students can receive funds for all four years.
“The whole idea is not just to get them there (to college), but to get them through (degree) completion,” Niblock said. “We have a group of scholarships that we’ve stratified and it kind of goes along with how the school recognizes achievement as well; you have… a principal’s honor roll, you have a regular honor roll, and then we have a merit scholarship.”
Other scholarships include funds for students with education accommodation plans and individual education plans, as well as funds for trade crafts, scholarships donated by Medical Lake businesses, and legacy scholarships or bequests. The scholarships can have specific metrics a student must meet to qualify for the scholarship, while others are selfless contributions to the dreams of young community members.
“It doesn’t matter what you want to go into, I mean we’ve had students become rocket scientists, hairdressers, and everything…I think that there’s something for everyone,” Niblock said. “One student, she went into theoretical math, so I find it interesting what these students decide to do because they’re as varied as the number of students that are out there.”
To fund the nonprofit’s internally funded scholarships, members of the board and volunteers work together hosting four distinct fundraising events annually. At the end of the month, community members can join the Dollars for Scholars chapter at St. Anne’s Parish Hall for its Spring Thing. Watch the Gonzaga Bulldogs battle other top basketball teams from across the nation, enjoy food and drinks, and bid in the fundraising auction.
Depending on how much money is raised at Spring Thing, as well as May’s Super Yard Sale, September’s Sip it Forward, and the Holiday Hopes and Dreams Scholarship Wreath Raffle, the Dollars for Scholars chapter could end up providing multiple scholarships at different dollar amounts to more students. The extra funds could increase the nonprofit’s ability to support its youth, like providing multiyear scholarships throughout the receiving student’s academic career.
“Scholarship America…would like to see the chapters focus on those kinds of things because that they’re seeing is that it’s easy enough to get them through that first year, but to get them through graduation, that sometimes is a little bit tougher,” Meltzeer said. “Part of the reason that we have the endowment fund is that this is a forever thing; we’re always going to have kids coming out of the school that may need some additional financial support.”
However, the Medical Lake Dollars for Scholars chapter is facing a growing challenge of dwindling interest in volunteering to keep the chapter up and running. Modern work and school schedules can make it difficult for people to engage in community-based projects, but for now, it seems the chapter is holding steady with its six-member executive board. However, both Meltzer and Niblock said a helping hand at an annual event or two is always welcome.
“We need some board members that see the same vision that we have and the importance of having this (program) in the community, not only for their kids but for every succeeding generation after that,” Meltzer said. Anyone interested in donating or volunteering to support the mission of the Medical Lake Dollars for Scholars nonprofit can find more information on the Facebook page or by contacting a board member through the website. “To know that your community is behind you and is putting money into you I think helps students to take what they’re doing more seriously…and to work hard and to do well in whatever (they choose),” Niblock said. “I don’t care if you’re a diesel mechanic or if you want to be a doctor. The idea is ‘What is it that you want to do and how do you plan to get there?’, and that’s where we want to help you…is how you get there.”
