The Northshore Scholarship Foundation will award 79 scholarships this month with two of them at the record-breaking value of $7,500.
The recipients are Heidi Schauble and Mea Pen, both students at University of Washington, Bothell next fall, and who are graduates of the Secondary Academy for Success (SAS) and Woodinville High, respectively.
Eric Greenwood, foundation vice president, noted that the scholarships are renewable and are named “Make a Difference” grants intended to help students enter or continue in college whose financial circumstances might otherwise have precluded their pursuing higher education. Eric is also the chair for Literacy, Education and Scholarships for Woodinville Rotary Club, which funds both grants from proceeds of the club’s annual fall community auction.
“The grants were increased for the next academic school year,” Eric said, “because of the continual increase in tuition at our state universities. These will only come close to covering the full tuition cost.”
These two recipients are among 79 who will be honored at the foundation’s 27th annual scholarship recognition breakfast May 17 at the Northshore Senior Center. This year’s scholarships total $164,350, bringing the total of awards since 1984 to $1,898,120 given to nearly 1,500 graduates of Northshore secondary schools.
Next month, Heidi will complete her associate degree at Cascadia Community College, just a year out of her final year at SAS. She was a Running Start student her senior year at SAS and will enter UW-Bothell this fall.
We first spotted Heidi during her appearance with the music program at SAS when she appeared along with other classmates at a variety of public performances culminating with the “big show” at the Triple Door nightclub in Seattle. The Music Project at SAS filled and brought down the house just a year ago.
She later filled the role of spokesperson for the singers in publicly praising their mentors Bernadette Bascom, a one-time Las Vegas headliner, and retired SAS math teacher Jim Geiszler. We’re proud that Heidi has received so many well-deserved past plaudits, as well as for her desire to become a teacher.
Mea will enter her senior year in the fall. It has been a financial struggle all the way for this bright young woman who will earn degrees in finance, as well as in human rights. Mea has her sights on a possible career in micro-lending to assist less-educated, but highly-motivated women become financially self-sufficient. She, too, started at Cascadia and will complete her undergraduate work at UW-Bothell.
In her application, Mea told the foundation, “I feel very blessed to be the first in my family to attend a university, which has also helped me attain self-knowledge and personal enrichment.”
“Through the help of the Woodinville Rotary scholarships, my educational journey has thrived,” she added, noting that she had received foundation scholarships the past three academic years, but none at this $7,500 level. The previous high had been $6,000 in 2009 — and then tuition escalation hit again.
Speaking of SAS
Principal Holly Call will be stepping down from SAS at the end of the school year, retiring after more than 33 years in education, many of them in the Northshore schools. A bundle of unceasing energy and a vivacious presence with her SAS kids, Holly has left a positive mark on alternative education in our district. She is in line for many, many kudos as the school year winds down, and plenty of tears are still to be shed when her students get a final hug and even more words of encouragement from such a positive role model
She has made believers out of so many young persons who might not have thought their futures were bright had it not been for Holly and a staff at SAS that she found time to nurture, as well.
Holly has been asked to share her enthusiasm for education with remarks to graduates at the foundation’s scholarship breakfast this month. I can hardly wait.
John B. Hughes was owner-publisher of the Northshore Citizen from 1961 to 1988 and is active in local nonprofit organizations.
