View From The Hill - (2/26/09)

Laura Goad Turner Scholarship

Nearly 400 WKU students come from Allen County, making it the eighth largest contributing county in Kentucky.  Now, a new scholarship opportunity will provide an unbelievable opportunity for some of Scottsville’s brightest students.  Amy Bingham explains in this week’s View from the Hill.

The Laura Goad Turner Charitable Foundation already funds two scholarships to WKU..one in Fine Arts and one in Nursing.  A nearly one point five million dollar gift will fund even more scholarships and help get more math and science teachers in the classroom.

“Days like this you live for when you are in the public school system.”  Allen County Schools superintendent Randall Jackson says partnerships like the one between the Laura Goad Turner Charitable Foundation, WKU and Allen County Schools makes his job easier.

“She would have been so proud that once again our Foundation is helping the place both our grandparents just loved.”  Katherine Sikora is a member of her grandmother’s Foundation Board of Directors.  She says it was sentimental announcing the gift to WKU.  “My grandmother was a unique and special lady with a huge heart and a big advocate of education.  She graduated from college when a lot of women didn’t do that.”

The gift will provide five thousand dollar renewable scholarships to two WKU students who are graduates of Allen County Scottsville High School.  They must be employed during the summer in a non-profit organization in Allen County.  The Foundation will pay the salary.  The other element of the gift will help fund Sky-Teach, a program that steers the most qualified math and science students toward teaching.

“In Sky-teach, the very first semester a student is enrolled at WKU as freshmen, we are going to put them in a classroom.”  “Every semester they’ll be in a program for their whole career actually doing the teaching.”  Metzger says this type of generous gift speaks loudly about the value of teaching as a profession.

When you include matching gifts, the total impact is one point 725 million dollars for WKU and the Allen County School District.  With this week’s View from the Hill, I’m Amy Bingham.