When Leah Nawrocki was nine, she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. The 20-year-old Aquinas College junior is now completely cured, but her mother Ann says her daughter remembers the kindness shown to the family by the child life specialists where she was treated.
Nawrocki is currently studying psychology with the dream of someday becoming a child life specialist and paying that kindness forward. Now thanks in part to a $2,500 scholarship she received, the cost of college tuition won’t prevent her from earning her degree.
Nawrocki is one of 100 students recently awarded a college scholarship from the Fred & Lena Meijer scholarship program. The Grand Rapids Community Foundation (GRCF) administers this scholarship fund and awarded $265,000 in scholarships this year to Meijer team members and their children in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky.
To qualify for the Fred & Lena Meijer scholarships, a team member must be employed with Meijer for at least a year. Full- and part-time employees of the retail chain and their children are eligible for these competitive scholarships.
The Community Foundation has been administering the Fred & Lena Meijer scholarship fund since in began in 1975. Scholarships were originally only awarded to children of Meijer team members, but in 2010, the program expanded to include current team members as well. This year, the scholarships also increased to $2,500 and two $10,000 scholarships were added, with one each in Fred and Lena Meijer’s names.
“Our father believed that you should never stop learning no matter where you receive that education,” Meijer Co-chairman Hank Meijer says. “It means a lot to our family to help further the education of our Meijer team members and their children.”
Amanda St. Pierre, PR & Marketing Specialist for the Community Foundation, says that allowing Meijer team members to apply “significantly impacted the number of applications received this year, increasing the average amount by 400.”
GRCF currently manages 73 college scholarship funds. They reviewed 1,877 applications this year and awarded 574 scholarships. Of all the applications submitted, 635 were for the Fred & Lena Meijer scholarship program.
Education Program Officer Ruth Bishop says GRCF assembles scholarship fund selection committees with six to eight members each to review all applications. Students are asked to write an essay of aspirations and educational goals, and their financial needs, academic performance and community involvement are taken into consideration as well.
“We look at all of the applications and choose the ones that demonstrate and reflect the best of all of those qualifications,” Bishop says.
Of the $265,000 awarded by the Fred and Lena Meijer scholarship fund, two recipients received $10,000 with another 98 students receiving $2,500 each. Lowell resident and Meijer team member Benjamin Kraft received the $10,000 Fred Meijer scholarship and Lansing resident Tianna Saint Marie, the daughter of a team member, received the $10,000 Lena Meijer scholarship for her pre-med and nutritional science studies at Michigan State University.
Kraft, a single father of three, is earning his nursing degree at Grand Valley State University. He wasn’t sure how he was going to pay for college until he received the $10,000 award. After getting the notification letter, he stopped by the GRCF office downtown to thank everyone and Bishop says he was “extremely grateful.”
Nawrocki, whose father Joe works in the design department at the Meijer Corporate Headquarters, says she counts on scholarships to pay for college. She was in Costa Rica for a study abroad program when her father told her about the scholarship program. Applying from there was a little challenging, but she’s glad she did. Nawrocki says she especially liked sending a thank you note to the Meijer family for her $2,500 award.
“It was really cool to receive a scholarship from the people who gave my dad a job,” she says.
With college tuition costs rising, scholarships make a big impact. If you’d like to donate toward a student’s education, you can do so through GRCF’s website:
-
Donate to a
scholarship fund.
You can also show your support for Meijer and GRCF by engaging with them on Facebook and Twitter.
- Like the
Grand Rapids Community Foundation on Facebook.
- Like
Meijer on Facebook.
- Follow
@GRCommFound on Twitter.
- Follow
@Meijer on Twitter.
Sources: Ruth Bishop, Education Program Officer at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation; Amanda St. Pierre, PR & Marketing Specialist at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation; Leah Nawrocki, scholarship recipient and Aquinas College junior; and Ann Nawrocki, Leah Nawrocki’s mother
Writer: Heidi Stukkie, Do Good Editor