Scholarships--New Article!!!

Class of 1963 Scholarship Fund

By now, you are all aware of the scholarship fund started by the Class of 1963 at our 30th Reunion. The fund has not only given recognition to our class, but it has also been very satisfying to watch how much it has grown over the last twenty years. Space has been provided in this Memory Book to give more details about our efforts that will now be continued by graduates of later classes. We will stay involved and work with the new group as long as we are capable. This is, in part, our class legacy and something you all can be very proud of. It is our hope and plan that what we have started will be never-ending.

Twenty years ago we started with two $4,000.00 scholarships. Last year we awarded thirteen $5,000.00 scholarships. Through the spring of 2012, we have now awarded $516,000 in scholarships to 115 Central graduates and will have awarded at least eleven more $5,000 scholarships this year. All donations go for scholarships, with administration costs being paid by individual scholarship committee members. The committee, which originally had eight members, has grown to a current size of sixteen. Last year we added a mentor program in which members of our class work with scholarship awardees. It has been a labor of love and satisfaction for all involved.

The Class of 1963 Scholarship Fund has supported a highly diverse group of students over the years. A wide variety of college- and technical school-associated expenses are covered by our awards including tuition, books, computer purchases, room and board, and class-related travel. We don’t just hand over a lump-sum check, but rather require students to submit receipts or bills for payment. This keeps us in contact with the students and assures that the money is being appropriately spent.

Our scholarship is unique in that we are not necessarily looking for the top students but rather students in need who show potential and a genuine interest in improving themselves. When reviewing candidates, we place a big emphasis on school and community involvement as well as the intent to give back to others once their education has been completed. To date, the success rate of our selections has been high and there are already past awardees back in the community as teachers and as participants in many other areas of community involvement.

Because of our class’s unique efforts in fostering education to those less fortunate, the Class of 1963 was inducted into the St, Paul Central Hall of Fame in 2007.

Enjoy this article from the August 16, 2013 Pioneer Press:

Central High's Class of '63 gives scholarships and pep talks

Lulete Mola, a graduate of Central High School in St. Paul, is a senior majoring in political science at the University of Minnesota, with plans to go to law school. A scholarship from Central High's Class of 1963 helped her with expenses her freshman year. (Pioneer Press: Ginger Pinson)

As a St. Paul Central High School senior in 2006, Christen Glass faced a panel of 60-something men and women, just a box of Kleenex and a stack of scholarship applications between them.

He became the first in his immediate family to head to college with the $5,000 they gave him. And when self-doubt pushed him to the edge of dropping out, one of those same men bought him lunch and urged him to push through.

For two decades, graduates of Central's class of 1963 have run an uncommon college scholarship program. Alongside academic high fliers like Glass, they have sought out kids with lackluster grades -- and stellar knacks for surmounting obstacles. The class has given out more than $500,000 to a street-smart group of strivers, including first-generation immigrants, teen moms and juvenile offenders.

"This group sees something in these students that makes us think they are worth the risk," said Bill Zucco, who started the program. "That doesn't happen often to some of them."

But what makes the scholarship program truly unusual is the support it has lent beyond footing bills. Recipients have gotten help with lining up apartments, shopping for budget laptops and dodging unscrupulous car mechanics. They've tapped advice and pep talks at key junctures in their college careers, from unplanned pregnancies to crises of self-confidence.

At a 50th reunion next week, the class of 1963 will mourn the sudden death of committee veteran Laura Turner, who gave the program a great deal of its personal touch. It will formally hand off the scholarship program to a trio of younger Central grads Zucco recruited a few years back.

SOUL-SEARCHING REUNION

It all started in the summer of 1993, when Zucco wondered what to do with $300 left over from his 30th class reunion. He asked classmates to chip in so they could round up the money to a college scholarship. That year, news of a former classmate grappling with homelessness had triggered soul-searching at the reunion: Why did he get left behind when so many classmates had found success?

The following spring, the class of 1963 gave out two scholarships worth $4,000 each. But it did not stop there. This year, 13 Central seniors landed $5,000 each -- for a total of 128 scholarships worth $580,000.

"It's unheard of to have a high school class be this committed and this generous," said veteran Central principal Mary Mackbee, adding donations to alma maters are much more common.

But what really stands out is the group's hands-on approach, Mackbee said.

Inspired by their coming of age in the turbulent civil rights era, members are on the lookout for students more traditional scholarship programs might overlook. They've taken chances on kids in the bottom third of their classes, especially when they glimpse some of their own youthful idealism.

"We're always looking for that student who has a special story," said Zucco.

"And you don't find those stories in the transcripts," added Jake Zimmerman, a 1995 Central grad and the program's new chairman.

Students fill out an application and turn in recommendations. But the interview with the scholarship committee is make-or-break. Tissues are on hand for the applicants and the interviewers.

"Emotions run rampant in that room," said member Tom Ellis. "The whole committee has been in tears at times."

In 2010, Lulete Mola felt intimidated at first by the almost all-white group, testament to how much Central's demographics have changed since the '60s. But the panel quickly put her at ease. The daughter of a single mom from Ethiopia, Mola talked about juggling a job with student council meetings. She spoke about instructing her mom to save $5 a month for college as a second-grader -- an elusive goal most months.

Said Glass, "Meeting you -- the person -- is so different from going off a transcript or an essay."

Over the years, the committee has picked a Stanford-bound overachiever and several students who went on to win full rides from the Gates Foundation. They've also chosen a student whose grades took a beating during a year of homelessness and a teen with a felony conviction ranked 405th in a class of 485.

The committee firmly believes not every youth needs to go to a four-year college. They've helped pay for two-year degrees in cosmetology and automechanics.

Once before senior honors night at Central, the mom of a less-than-obvious pick came up to Zucco. What he recalls about the student is a last-minute uptick in his grades and "something in his eyes that told you he wanted to do more."

That, and his mother's words that night: "You are the only ones who've ever believed in my boy."

HANDS-ON APPROACH

From the outset, the scholarship program has been about more than financial support.

When a student's lease application got rejected recently, Zucco, a retired attorney, chatted with the landlord about the well-heeled committee that was vouching for the teen. The landlord relented.

When a young mother's car broke down, another committee member walked her through the repair process.

But by all accounts, Turner, the committee's long-time treasurer, looked out for all winners. Her kindness and pride in her high school are a legend at Central, said counselor Dia Wang.

Dung Mao, who won the scholarship 10 years ago, said he stayed in touch with Turner after starting his studies at the University of Minnesota. Once, in response to a frazzled email from a hard-charging Mao, she mentioned off-hand she had taken time that day to just sit on her porch and listen to the wind. Mao said the note inspired a habit of sitting on a campus bench and clearing his head.

"Knowing that Laura was concerned and was rooting for me was very encouraging," said Dung, a first-generation college student who is pursuing a doctorate in family social science at the U.

When Turner found out Glass had decided to withdraw from Macalester College in the fall of 2010, she arranged a lunch with Tom Ellis, a scholarship committee member. Ellis talked Glass through doubts about his major and his ability to graduate after struggling academically at Macalester. He suggested transferring to a historically black university.

Glass graduated from Jackson State University in Mississippi last December.

"You continued to have undying faith in me even when I did not have faith in myself," he wrote the committee after his graduation.

Sometimes, Turner emailed scholarship recipients to inquire after fellow winners who had vanished from campus. Zucco says over the years, depression, unplanned pregnancy, financial challenges and other stumbling blocks have come between recipients and graduation. The committee has largely relied on its winners for updates; it hopes to track its college graduation rate more closely in the future.

What heartens the committee most are stories of recipients who are paying its largess forward.

Richard Herod didn't have an impressive transcript when he graduated from Central in 1995: His grades had dipped after he started putting in 40 hours a week at a gas station to help his single dad with household bills. The scholarship was "the only reason I was able to go to college" at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Today, Herod manages two Twin Cities car dealerships and volunteers for Big Brothers Big Sisters. The son of hearing-impaired parents, he also serves on the board of a nonprofit that advocates for the children of deaf parents. His goal is to launch his own scholarship fund.

A few years back, Zucco connected with Zimmerman, his wife and another mid-1990s Central High graduate, who all work for the same law firm. Zucco called Turner after meeting them: "I think I just figured out our transition plan."

The younger committee members have already launched a new effort to pair each recipient with a mentor on the committee. A scholarship in Turner's memory will be given out each year.

The old guard is not planning to step back, Zucco said, "We'll go on giving as long as we're still around."

Mila Koumpilova can be reached at 651-228-2171. Follow her at twitter.com/MilaPiPress.

TO HELP

To donate to the Central High School Class of 1963 scholarship program, send a check payable to "Central Class of 1963 Scholarship" to 1252 E. Como Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55117.

Seniors at Central High School can apply for the scholarship next spring by visiting http://chs63scholarship.org/