On Wednesday, March 3, more than 130 Bates Foundation scholarship recipients, friends, family, college employees and donors participated in the annual
Scholarship Breakfast. South Campus' Culinary Arts students prepared an exquisite breakfast as the audience honored both recipients and donors.
Below is the speech
President Lyle Quasim gave that morning.
Good morning. It’s my pleasure to speak to you this morning as the new Interim President of Bates Technical College.
Bates has been on my radar for many years. I served as a Bates trustee from March of 2001 to March of 2004 and as a trustee for the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges after that—from March of 2004 until I resigned that post to become your Interim President.
So I have remained familiar with what you do here—the Bates mission: to inspire, challenge and educate—and I’ve seen the good work all of you have done to realize this important mission.
And, those of you who we are honoring here today represent some of the very best of what we do here at Bates. You are striving. You are achieving. You are succeeding. And you are resourceful. You are looking around you to see what opportunities exist—and you are seizing them.
Because, after all, scholarships represent great opportunity, right? Money to help pay for college. That’s good stuff! And you took the time to put yourself out there, tell your story, and go for it. Congratulations!
The 171 students who we acknowledge today represent the Bates Foundation’s latest investment in the future. Those of you who give generously to the Foundation invest in students like:
• Jason Hale, an HVAC/R student and a former business owner and the former Mayor of Madras, Oregon, has exhausted his own savings to invest in his future because he believes in the value of his education.
• And Loni Unsicker, who is pursuing her dream career in fashion design here at Bates. She believes that the best thing she can do for herself and for her kids is to finish this program, and perhaps one day help to bring more clothing construction labor back in to the U.S.
• And there’s Wylennia Calhoun, a single mother who is the youngest of five children and the first to attend college in her family. A native of the Marshall Islands, she is pursuing a degree in Dental Assisting.
These are just of the few of the students who are the benefactors of our 60 donors.
Our donors have been good to Bates. Over the past five years, the Foundation has awarded nearly $252,000 in scholarships. And this year, thanks to the generosity of our donors, the Foundation was able to increase its support to Bates students by 20 percent—from $50,000 last year to $60,000 this year—allowing the Foundation to establish 13 new scholarships in 2009.
This increase comes mostly from kindness of individual donors, who gave generously in the face of the poor economy. And in some cases, they gave even though their own businesses may have been hit hard by these difficult economic times.
The Foundation, under the leadership of Kym Pleger and her dedicated board, has also created an endowment and established endowed scholarships. Today, 10 endowed scholarships comprise more than $500,000 of endowed funds—money that will come to the Bates Foundation over time and from the generosity of people who have remembered Bates in their wills.
Even during these difficult economic times, the Bates Foundation has managed to triple its assets in only three years. That’s some good work.
And students, you need to remember that people are giving generously to the Bates Foundation because they believe in you. They believe in how you are reinventing yourself while here at Bates, and they believe in your future potential. You are a critical part of the equation that will solve our economic woes of today. When you take your education and put it to work in your chosen field, you will create a more prosperous future for yourself, your family—and your community.
And when that prosperity thing begins in your own life—don’t forget Bates. I don’t just mean financial prosperity. I mean when you are out there finding your place in our community and spreading your wings a little bit, remember to stay connected to Bates. When you’ve finished your degree program, join the alumni association, get involved in your industry advisory groups, and remember to give back when the time is right in your life.
Students, when you give back, you keep the cycle going. And in the future, you might be sitting where some of your benefactors are sitting today, proudly investing in the future of people just like you—People who want to reinvent themselves here at Bates.
Adapted from President Lyle Quasim's Bates Foundation Scholarship Breakfast speech.
