A BYU Scholarship

We've been looking at charitable giving opportunities for 2021. 

Since moving to Utah, we've donated to the Utah Symphony and Thanksgiving Point, but we stopped while we built the house. I'll start up again this year. We also donate to the Church Humanitarian Fund, but this year, Dan and I wanted to prayerfully and carefully consider other organizations and causes. 

I wanted to find something that really felt personal to me. 

I've often wondered how I could get money to students who are in the position I was in college. Kids who don't quite qualify for Federal financial aid. Maybe their parents make just enough money to put them out of reach of financial aid, but not enough to help them with tuition. 

My Freshman year I got a half tuition academic scholarship to BYU. I also qualified for a Pell Grant. I was able to cover all my expenses and not have to work. I ended up staying Spring term (my mom didn't want me home bored, pining after Jason, so she paid my tuition!) and then stayed for Summer because by then I'd met Dan. 💖

I found a telemarketing job to help pay my spring/summer expenses, but that didn't last long. By the end of the summer I had two jobs -- JB's working as a waitress, and BYU Bookstore working at the candy counter. Fall semester '89 I was burning the candle at both ends, working two jobs to make ends meet but not doing well in my classes. Then I found out I was denied a Pell Grant. My parent's "expected contribution" was higher than the year before because of a financial payoff they'd received unexpectedly. That money was desperately needed to upgrade the 20-year-old Buick station wagon to a used minivan. But the Federal forms don't ask about extenuating circumstances.

My two jobs covered my rent, books and living expenses. But I was counting on the Pell Grant to cover my tuition (of the semester I was already in!) and suddenly I had no way to pay it. I applied for a Short Term Loan to cover my tuition temporarily for the semester, but that had to be paid back by December. In November I had surgery on my ankle when I discovered it was broken from an accident the year before. In December I was failing all my classes. BYU gave me an additional two months to pay back my tuition from Fall semester, and when the semester ended, I dropped out of college, moved home, and went to work for a temp agency full time. 

(After a second surgery in February, I was on crutches for six weeks, but moved back to BYU and worked full time in Provo. Riding the bus to work while managing crutches was tricky, but I missed my friends.)

The next two years I never again qualified for a Pell Grant. But I was able to get Student Loans to cover tuition and to cover housing and expenses I worked at the Bookstore and later as a secretary in the Microbiology Department. However, I was always stressed about money. For two years I worked throughout Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation. Of course I was home on the holidays when the bookstore was closed, but I spent the rest of the break alone in my Provo apartment -- it seemed like I was the only person in our entire complex. I worked at the bookstore in the day and hung out home alone in my apartment at night.

I often had no money for food. During one Christmas break I had a box of pancake mix and a bag of spaghetti to trade off for dinner each night. No syrup or sauce. For my 20th birthday, my roommates gave me groceries as a present. Another year, my roommates convinced me to ask the bishop for help. I got up the courage, but before I could talk to the first counselor, he approached me. "I've been inspired to ask you if you need help with anything." I was embarrassed, but acknowledged I needed money for groceries. He asked if $100 would cover it. Later that night he knocked on my door and brought me a $100 bill. Never has $100 meant so much to anyone!! I pay that $100 bill forward as often as I can!

I credit my family with instilling in me the importance of college. I never considered not graduating. My parents loved BYU and I loved hearing their stories of the fun they had there. Both used their degrees. Life took them in other directions, and new career paths, but college got them started. 

I credit myself with the scrapiness I needed to figure out how to pay for it. I made some financial misjudgments along the way, but I did it. I graduated in four years, in spite of the time I had to take off, with a BS in Communications, emphasis in Advertising, and a minor in English. Whenever someone says they can't afford to pay for college, I disagree. If I could, they can.

But that being said, it wasn't easy and I don't think those hard times were necessary to "learn life lessons." I did learn lots of good lessons and I learned a lot about myself. But I don't think the pioneers want anyone else to have to cross the plains in bare feet to learn good life lessons. So I've been wondering how I can find a young Angela and give that student a boost. 

In December we received a postcard inside our BYU holiday card with information about a scholarship program called "Signature Scholarship." Today I had a meeting with a representative from LDS Philanthropy to learn more about it and discuss my questions. Isaac and I bonded. He had similar financial distress in 2009 when he came home from his mission, expecting to go to ASU where his dad was a professor, and learned that in the economic crash of 2008, ASU discontinued all tuition benefits for children of employees. These are the types of extenuating circumstances The Signature Scholarship is designed to help students through. It's an annual need-based scholarship covering tuition for one year. 

Talking through my memories with Isaac has brought the emotion of that difficult time to the surface. Both tears of pain and tears of gratitude. So much gratitude for all the help I received. Pell Grants, my roommates' love and support, $100 from my bishopric. Occasional $20 checks from Grandma Adair and Grandma Regan. Money for a computer from Aunt Marge. Jobs that I loved and people I loved working with. The several times my apartment management gave me an extension on my rent without charging me a late fee. Most importantly I gained a testimony of tithing. When we give 10% to the Lord, he ALWAYS blesses us to find ways to make our finances work. ALWAYS. It was financially a hard time. But it was a fun time too. I loved being at BYU, living in Provo, studying advertising and English and living with my roommates and friends. 

Donors are asked to name their scholarship. I immediately thought of a name, but wanted to know what Dan thought. When I told him he said he'd thought of the exact same thing. I don't know why, but I keep crying every time I think of it. I guess because I'm so grateful that that 20-year-old girl is now grown up and in a position to help someone else. I'm naming it after her.

The Angela Adair Signature Scholarship