By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The students gathered on the second floor of University Hall on Friday afternoon had proved their determination to b at Bowling Green State University.
They came here, despite some financial hardship, and thrived.
Alexa Dawkins, who is majoring in marketing with a minor in entrepreneurship, studied hard, but also found time to do about 40 hours of public service in her first year on campus.
Now Dawkins will receive substantially more support for her efforts. She was one of 200 rising sophomores who received the first Thompson Achiever Scholarships.
The program provides funding in addition to the 240 scholarships awarded to incoming first year students.
The scholarship amounts to $11,000 a year, about 75 percent of the cost of tuition.
“This will take a huge burden off my family,” said recipient, Lane Renier, an aviation major.
In aviation, he said, “The lab fees are tremendously expensive,” more than tuition.
“I was taking a risk coming here,” Renier said. “But because of the job security in the aviation industry it would be worth the risk.”
These new Thompson Working Families Scholarships were made possible by the major expansion of the donations by Bob and Ellen Thompson. The fund now has almost $250 million, enough to provide scholarships for 6,200 students through 2032.
[RELATED: Bob & Ellen Thompson give back to BGSU with historic generosity to benefit thousands of students]
The program does not pay the full freight by design, BGSU President Rodney Rogers said. The Thompsons want students to make some investment in their educations.
In his introduction, Rogers told the 75 students gathered that “the fact you in this room you’ve had a very successful year here at Bowling Green. You’ve done well academically. You’ve been involved. You’ve been engaged. You’ve been an important part of our learning community.”
The Thompsons, he continued, “believe in investing in your future and the opportunities that exist for each of you moving forward. … They believe in your future they believe you will go out and have to have an amazing careers and an amazing life, and you will create a lot of public good.”
For Brooke Randall, from Huron, that includes plans to teach math and English to fourth, fifth, and sixth graders.
She also wants to coach color guard.
The chance to participate in the Falcon Marching Band was a reason she came to BGSU.She plans to continue throughout her tenure on campus. “They’ve been pretty good about accommodating the residencies.” She said the Thompson scholarship “puts me in a good financial spot. … This will keep me afloat and keep my debt as low as possible.”
Evonne Larbi said her father encouraged her to attend BGSU because he heard they offered a lot of support for students.
That’s proven to be the case, Larbi said. She’s used the university Life Design program to apply for jobs.
Beside the money the scholarship offers, the interior design major said, “it’s going to give me more experiences to go out and do community service around Ohio. It’s going to help me engage with other people in the community.”
BGSU “is dedicated to student success,” Dawkins said.
Cecilia Castellano, vice president for enrollment management, said each Thompson scholar has an advisor.” The program also provides opportunities for students to interact with peers.
“It’s easy to network,” Dawkins said.
Wyatt Michael came to BGSU because he was impressed with the digital art program. “A lot of the alumni have gone on to great places and I wanted to be part of that,” he said. “Financially it would definitely be difficult with all the program fees, but this is going to take away all that uncertainty.”
“It’s really wonderful,” Castellano said, “to reward students who are really working hard that maybe didn’t have as much scholarship funding when they started at Bowling Green.”
This will allow the recipients to focus more on their studies without having a second or third job, Rogers said. This is exactly what the Thompsons and other donors who provided funds wanted.
“This program,” he said, “is intended to make sure that they are in a position to finish their degree in four years or less and be prepared to begin a career.”
