NEWS
For Immediate Release
April 24, 2014
CONTACT: Lisa Johnson,
Development Officer & External Relations
Release No: 29LJ-PR-2014
COA Foundation
Hosts Annual Scholarship Lunch
Shortly after getting
married last year, Amber Anderton was preparing for her second year of study as
a medical office administrator at College
of The Albemarle when she
realized she wasn’t going to be able to complete her degree. Her new husband earned too much to allow her
to qualify for the Pell Grant which had financed the first year of her
Associate’s in Applied Science.
“I lost my financial aid,”
Anderton said. “Without it, I would never have been able to afford college
myself.”
Fortunately, Anderton was
one of 105 students who received a scholarship from COA’s Foundation during the
2013-14 school year. The Foundation’s
financial assistance – donations provided by alumni, businesses, clubs and
organizations - amounted to nearly $150,000 this year.
These scholarships are
critical, said Angie Godfrey-Dawson, COA’s director of scholarships and student
aid, because without them these students would have been unable to finance
their educations.
“We have a large number of
students who – without the scholarship assistance – they would not be able to
attend,” Godfrey-Dawson said. “Some qualify for state aid and it’s just not
enough to continue. They just don’t have the budget to cover those expenses."
Anderton
received the Alma and Chester Biggs Memorial Scholarship, a grant established
by Bruce Biggs in memory of his parents. It was just one of the 146
scholarships the Foundation awarded this year.
Biggs and his wife decided
to start the grant years ago, as a way of honoring his parents.
“My mom and dad didn’t
finish high school,” Biggs said. “So they knew they wanted their children to
have an education. I guess that’s what provided the motivation.”
Because of the importance
Biggs’ parents placed on education, he and his five siblings all went on to
attend college. Biggs attended East Carolina University
where he studied business – he is the owner of Biggs Cadillac, Buick, GMC
Trucks in Elizabeth
City – but he had to
borrow the money for college.
“I guess I just saw that as
someone helped me, so I should help someone back,” Biggs said.
Anderton is grateful for
the financial assistance. Without it, she said, she wouldn’t be graduating in
May. She hopes to land a job at the Children’s Hospital
of The Kings Daughters in Norfolk.
“It was much appreciated,”
said Anderton, who is graduating with a 3.8 GPA. “I wouldn’t have been able to
complete school at all. I didn’t have the money for school or books.”
“I’m the first person in my
family to go to college,” she added, “so it’s a big deal.”
Another annual grant
awarded by COA’s Foundation is the State Employees Credit Union (SECU)
Foundation Community College Scholarship. The statewide organization funds
students at all 58 of the state’s community colleges, both curriculum students
and those in workforce development programs.
This year, the SECU
Foundation Scholarship enabled 12 COA students to pursue their educations.
“The Foundation is all
about improving the lives of North Carolinians,”
said Cindy Emory, SECU’s vice president. “We believe it makes a huge
improvement. We just think this is a hands-on thing we can do to help.”
Katelyn Fry is one of the recipients of that help. In
December, the SECU Foundation funding allowed her to graduate as a Certified
Nursing Assistant. The grant funding paid for 100 percent of Fry’s three-month
course.
“I wouldn’t have been able
to go without it, so I’m very thankful,” Fry said. “I wanted an education.”
Fry’s
mom, Kathy Camden, was another recipient of SECU’s scholarship funding. The
former registered nurse had to leave her job as director of nursing at an area nursing home facility after her multiple sclerosis became unmanageable and prevented her from working.
Camden decided to take a workforce development program at COA
that would allow her to earn her certification for medical billing and coding.
It’s a job that would enable her to work from home. Currently, she is studying
for the state certification exam.
“I’ve been out of work and
have not received any form of payment since August,” Camden said, explaining her need for the
scholarship. “It’s been rough.”
“But I’ll get back up
there,” she added, “It’s just going to take a while.”
Rebekah Brown is another
COA student who will be graduating this May thanks to the school’s Foundation
funding. Brown received the Lucy Vaughan Endowed Scholarship which was
established in 2009 by the COA Student Theatre, or COAST. It was named after
Lucy Vaughan, a long-time theatre arts director at COA.
Brown will graduate with
her Associate’s in Arts degree, in Art, and hopes to eventually transfer to a
four-year university when she saves enough funding for tuition.
“I’ll probably have to work
for a year or two first,” Brown said.
On Brown’s right ring
finger, she sports an eye-catching wooden ring. Her own handiwork that took
long hours of carving from a larger piece of wood. The deeply brown ring seems
to change shades depending on how the light hits it, and Brown said most people
would never guess it’s not carved from walnut or some other finer wood.
Instead, Brown said, she
makes these wooden rings from the simple wooden pallets you find in grocery
stores.
“Usually those pallets are
made of really tough wood,” Brown said. “People don’t expect that. You look at
it and make a snap judgment.”
Brown said her rings –
created from rough wood that at first no one would notice – are similar to what
the COA Foundation does for its students.
“They take people and turn
them into something,” she said. “COA gives them the opportunity to become
something strong and amazing.”
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