Scholarship Recipients Success Stories & Notes
We are happy to highlight some of our previous Scholarship Award recipients who are grateful to their donors.
What have they gone on to do?
From a 2023 recipiant immediately following the award: I am reaching out to you and the committee to say thank you for the wonderful scholarship I can take to continue my academic career at The Ohio State University. It has relieved the weight of the financial stress for my mother and I.
I can't express how much I want to say to (the donor) in this simple email. I am beyond grateful for this amazing opportunity. It was heart-warming. As a first-generation student of a single low-income family, her belief was inspirational.
At note from one of 2021's award recipients
To the CFSFAA Scholarship Committee and Trustees,
Hello! I wanted to say thank you so much for the award of the Eglena Long Scholarship. After so many months of uncertainty, fear, and wondering, it was such a beautiful moment when I found out I received this scholarship. This award is so, so generous, and I feel that a big weight has been lifted off of my shoulders; I can breathe easier each night when I think about the future. I feel so honored to have been chosen for this award -- I am overcome with such joy and pride every time I think about it! The opportunity to use this money to contribute to my higher education makes me so happy and relieved. Thank you so, so much. This means a lot to me.
Summer Cramer
Stephanie Gasior was the first recipient of the Class of 1958 scholarship, receiving it in 2007. Towards the end of her last year at Allegheny College, Stephanie wrote: "I am proud to have represented the ideals of the Cuyahoga Falls Schools Foundation throughout my college career, and I am lucky to have received this scholarship. I graduate in 2011 with a Bachelor of the Arts in Political Science and Religious Studies. I am completing my Senior Comprehensive Thesis focusing on the reaction of Muslim-majority countries to the arrest warrant issued to President Bashir of Sudan by the International Criminal Courts for charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Evenually I hope to work on improving humanitarian crises and development issues." Stephanie is now an International Children's Education Program Officer with Wellspring Philanthropic Fund in Washington D.C., a private grant-making foundation. Before that she worked as a Management and Program Analyst for the U.S. Department of Education and served in the Peace Corps for two years in Cameroon as a Youth Development Coordinator.
Anthony Gomez, Cuyahoga Falls School Board Member
I was a fortunate recipient of a Foundation and Alumni Association scholarship in 2008. At that time I was headed towards The University of Akron and a degree in political science before going on to law school also at The University of Akron. Over time, as many plans do, mine changed. I ended up entering Borromeo Seminary and transferring to John Carroll University. I sought a degree in Philosophy, which I attained, on my road to becoming a Catholic Priest. That plan eventually changed as well and I returned to Cuyahoga Falls and acquired a job working at the Stow Municipal Court. In 2017 I ran for and was elected to the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education.
Throughout the twists and turns of my first few years as a proud CFHS alum, the constant was the support I had received from the Foundation and Alumni Association. Now I find myself several years into the beginnings of a career in government service as well as in my 3rd year of my term on the board of education. I am also deep in the midst of repaying my student loans. While I was excited to receive financial support in 2008, I am even more grateful in 2020. Student loans do not pay for themselves, but my payments would certainly be higher had I not received scholarships from organizations such as this some 12 years ago.
In the past 12 years the generosity of the foundation has only grown. Able now to provide more and often larger scholarships as well as grants to teachers. Now it becomes the responsibility for people like me to give as I can to provide for future stories such as mine to be told---proud alumni who look back with gratitude on the investment that this organization made in them.
Did you or someone you know receive support from our organization? We want to hear from you. Where did your years take you and how did the support you received benefit you? Do you want to help create more stories like mine? Now is a great time to invest in the future of our shared organization.