On Friday, Sept. 30, 2016, the 2016 KSU scholarship reception commenced at 12:00 p.m. at the College of Continuing and Professional Education.
The reception, which consisted of a gourmet luncheon, brings together all scholarship recipients and their family members along with every available donor who contributed to the 867 awarded scholarships that exceeded $1.4 million in 2016. Because of the large volume of recipients, the reception is split into three individual events, categorized by colleges. This event honored the recipients of the Bagwell College of Education, the Wellstar College of Health and Human Services, and other general scholarships.
This event is annually held with the intent to not only honor the achievements of each of the scholarship recipients in attendance, but to also grant the donor the opportunity to personally meet the recipient of his or her scholarship by assigning recipients and donor together at a table in order to communicate with each other, a “unique” event as described by Laura Southern, Donor Relations Event Manager of KSU.
“The importance of it is so they can make that connection, where obviously if you put a face with a name and you actually can meet them, its way more of an impact than if they just have no idea who gave them the scholarship. And it is the same with the donors. A lot of them do scholarships that are in memory of someone, so they like to see the face of the person who actually got it.”, Southern continued.
Donors in attendance included Tommy Bagwell, a KSU Trustee as well as Chairman of the Board of American Proteins, Neil Warren, Sheriff of Cobb County, and Caric Martin, Donor of the Martin-Parrish Family Basketball Scholarship and KSU Alumni to name a few.
“The problem I’m concerned about is not, I make more money than that person or that person more than me. it’s the next generation. Does that next generation feel like they have opportunity? Do they feel like the doors are open for them too?” Bagwell said as he explained his reasoning to his contribution.
The reception also included a guest speech from Warren as he spoke on his 39-year career in law enforcement and how a higher education positively altered it, his love for Cobb County, and the importance of him contributing to the future of criminal justice majors.
The second reception, honoring the recipients of Coles College of Business and the College of the Arts will commence on Friday, Oct. 21, 2016 at 12:00 p.m. at College of Continuing and Professional Education, following with the third and final reception, honoring the recipients of SPSU School of Engineering that will commence on Friday, Nov. 4, 2016 at the Joe Mack Wilson Student Center Ballroom on the SPSU campus.
