Northeast State Foundation

[Music]

It's an incredible feeling to know that you help somebody else, and who knows where down the road that'll turn around to help you.

I could talk on and on about how it helped me financially. I have a single mother who raised me, and obviously with one income, any kind of money helps at all.

But going past that, the confidence that I got from just knowing that somebody out there saw me, saw what I had done, and thought, "Yeah, this person deserves help. They deserve these things." Just to hear that from somebody is really, really great.

It's definitely freed me up to really focus on my studies instead of trying to work to pay for other bills that I have. That's allowed me to really focus and really do pretty well during my time here at Northeast.

When students see that they won a scholarship or they're going to receive an award, it's like, "Okay, somebody believes in me. I have the potential to do this. I can do this. There's somebody out there that thinks I can do this."

If we can take the burden off of somebody, then they can focus more. Going to school full-time, working full-time, and dealing with a child, that's going to be tough. So if we can give them some money to at least help them pay tuition, then that's one less thing that they have to worry about.

I would love to see more of these kids in these trade programs get the same scholarship opportunities that I did. And I would say, keep it going. Lord willing, I'm able to turn around and give back. I think it's a beautiful cycle that can keep going as long as we can.

What it allows them to do is realize that that's what allowed them to get through college, was other people helping them. That sort of opens up their mind to, "How can I help others?" instead of just, "Well, everyone else needs to work on it and get through like I did." It helps them recognize that they didn't necessarily earn everything that they got, and now they can help other people in that same way.

You can make a difference no matter how much you give. Whether it is a large scholarship, which is fantastic, or you want to start a book scholarship like I did, the fact that we can help people get through college and be more successful means that they're going to be more successful in society in general and be better neighbors, so to speak.

That's going to help further them, and then their children, and then what their children can do. You don't know what ripple effect that has as it keeps going. You don't know if the person who is helped out by the scholarship, and a majority of them are motivated to give themselves, well, how many lives are affected as people just keep giving and helping all the way down?

It makes a difference, and it's not always the monetary amount. It's them seeing that somebody believes in them. We believe in them, so this is our way to give back to them.