[ad_1]
A Waldo couple, Dr. David and Alice Bailey, have pledged $50,000 to create an endowed scholarship fund for Tri-Rivers Career Center graduates to attend Marion Technical College.
The Baileys have called Marion home for over 35 years, and they wanted to support the community’s education through a donation that could be used for one or more students with financial need to pay for tuition, books or living expenses.
The first Dr. David and Alice Bailey Scholarship Fund scholarship is to be awarded for Fall Semester 2022.
Dr. David Bailey, a retired Marion-area otolaryngologist, and his wife Alice, who worked at both Tri-Rivers and Marion Tech throughout her career in education, wanted to give back to the community and felt the best way to do so would be through the scholarship toward education.
“We both wanted to give back to the community and we feel that perhaps the best way to do that is through scholarship and educating young people so they can go out into the workforce,” Alice Bailey said.
Alice Bailey worked as a career development coordinator at Tri-Rivers for 16 years and as the equity coordinator at Marion Tech for 11 years.
It was through these roles that she gained insight into the struggles local students were facing financially and the barriers they faced stepping into their careers. This birthed the passion and impetus for the Baileys to create the new scholarship fund, believing education is the best way to give young people the tools they need to earn a sustainable living.
Phyllis Butterworth, President of the Marion Technical College Foundation, described the unique way this scholarship will affect the Marion community.
“This scholarship is unique in that it will be the first scholarship that actually helps Tri-Rivers students who graduate and then pursue their career at Marion Technical College. So, it’s a very niche kind of scholarship,” said Butterworth.
With many students lacking the backing to navigate the post-secondary process, Marion Tech does a great job at giving its students training whether through apprenticeship programs or higher education, according to Alice Bailey.
“Both educational institutions, both Tri-Rivers and Marion Tech do an incredible job in supporting students. I can’t say enough about the educators involved in both places,” said Bailey.
Breanna Napper is a student who attended both Tri-Rivers and Marion Tech, graduating from the Career Center’s RAMTEC program in 2018 and going on to earn associate degrees from Marion Tech in Electrical Engineering Technology and Robotics & Automation Engineering Technology in May 2021.
Napper first got interested in engineering in 2013 when she took a tour of Tri-Rivers’ newly opened RAMTEC facility during the summer between her seventh and eighth grade years of school, immediately knowing she wanted to participate in the program when she was in high school.
Currently pursuing her Bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering at The Ohio State University at Marion, she is excited about the educational opportunities the scholarship will offer future Marion students.
“I think it’s such a really good investment. Investing in the youth, the young people in our community in Marion – especially our workforce – is such a great opportunity to just change the world because small opportunities like this can impact such a large amount of people,” Napper said.
Having been only one of four girls in her educational program at Tri-Rivers, Napper hopes to one day take after the Baileys and create scholarship fund for women in STEM here in Marion.
The generosity of the Baileys is a reminder of the importance to give back to the community, according to Butterworth.
“Giving back isn’t always having money. Sometimes giving back is having a passion or the time to volunteer. I guess this is a really good example to me of how we can all give back to the community. In some way we can always help other people,” Butterworth said.
Story by Sophia Veneziano: (740) 564 – 5243 | sveneziano@gannett.com
[ad_2]
Source link
