OHIO Scholars

Isabel Courtney Hall Music Education Scholarship

July 3, 2019 by mcdowels

Mietta Smith. Photo by Harley Wince, BSVC ’20

Mietta Smith was 5 when her mother returned to school to pursue a bachelor’s degree.

Smith doesn’t remember her mother going to college, but she does remember the steadfast emphasis her mother placed on earning a college degree—and the concerns they both had about affording college. Smith also remembers the excitement in her mother’s voice when she called home to tell her mom they could worry a little less.

The youngest in her family and the first among her siblings to go to college, Smith is the first of two Isabel Courtney Hall Music Education Scholarship recipients.

The family of Isabel Courtney Hall (BFA ’46, BSED ’47) established the scholarship, benefitting undergraduates in the College of Fine Arts who demonstrate financial need and academic merit, in her memory and seized an opportunity to stretch the impact of their generosity a little further.

Their gift qualified for OHIO’s Undergraduate Scholarship Investment Program. Known as The OHIO Match, the six-year program provides $0.50 in University matching funds for every dollar committed to eligible scholarship endowments. In the program’s first five years, donors contributed $8.52 million in eligible gifts, resulting in $4.26 million in matching University funds and the awarding of more than $580,000 in scholarship funding over the past three fiscal years.

“This scholarship definitely makes a difference,” says Smith who is finishing her first year as a music education major. “It would be a lot harder, and a lot more stressful for me and my mom, to make my monthly payments without this help.”

The OHIO Match ends June 30, 2019, and was recently expanded to include OHIO’s regional campuses and donor-specified programs. For more information, visit https://ohiotoday.org/news/2019/01/18/ohio-match-update/.

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Bryant and Irma Austin Scholarship

July 3, 2019 by mcdowels

Kayleigh Stelling. Photo by Max Catalano, BSVC ’20

Junior Kayleigh Stelling is a first-generation student who’s making the most of her OHIO experience.

She seizes opportunities for professional growth, double-majoring in screenwriting/producing and psychology because, she says, “why not just learn a little more,” and putting her skills to the test on “Fridays Live,” produced by student-run AVW Productions.

She’s also learning life lessons in working hard and making ends meet.

Stelling came to OHIO with scholarships—assistance, she says, that played a significant factor in her college choice—and was later awarded a Dean’s Scholarship. She works as a multimedia specialist at Alden Library—earning a wage while expanding her skillset. And, she took the advice of her academic advisor and applied for the Bryant (BSC ’96, MBA ’99) and Irma Austin Scholarship.

The Austins created the scholarship to help promising young scholars in the Scripps College of Communication.

“I’m extremely grateful that donors like these continue to remember the students here, students who aren’t any less deserving but who need that extra help,” Stelling said.

The Austin Scholarship is one of over 155 endowed scholarship accounts established since 2013, thanks to donors who maximized their student support by giving through The OHIO Match. Ohio University has pledged up to $25 million for this historic investment in student accessibility and affordability, partnering with donors to provide $0.50 in matching funds for every dollar committed to eligible scholarship endowments.

For Stelling, the Austin Scholarship means money for tuition, books, rent, and, most importantly, “I will owe a lot less by the time I graduate.”

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Regional Campus Scholarships

July 3, 2019 by mcdowels

“My little ones will see their mommy walk across that stage and into a better life for all of us. My parents will see their youngest child be the first person in the family to have graduated college.”

And, in the midst of her spring 2019 graduation, Charli Chaffin says she will be “thinking of all the donors and thanking them for helping me accomplish this goal in my life.”

It’s a goal set four years ago when this mother of two left a steady job to pursue a nursing degree and a brighter future. It’s a goal threatened last year when divorce eliminated over half of Chaffin’s income. It’s a goal put back on track, thanks to donor-funded scholarships that help Ohio University Southern students achieve what at times has felt unachievable.

In fiscal year 2018, donors contributed nearly $266,000 to scholarships that support students on OHIO’s regional campuses.

Chaffin is the recipient of the Clifford E. and Jean Peters Allen Scholarship and the Ironton Child Welfare Club Scholarship. Both were established to help students wanting to pursue a higher education afford that opportunity.

“If it wasn’t for the scholarships I received this year, it would have been rough to make my last year of nursing school happen,” Chaffin says. “Financially, I wouldn’t have been able to get all the required items for my program to graduate. … These scholarships really mean the world to me and my family.”

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