Arts and Sciences scholarship students express gratitude to donors

Student scholarships help pay the bills, no question. For many students, however, the value transcends dollars and cents.

Ida Ayalew is one such student. While her parents have not been involved in her college education, she said through tears, “I have not been alone.” Scholarship programs at the University of Missouri-Kansas City have provided her with emotional, as well as financial, support.

Ayalew credited Liz Barton, director of Arts & Sciences Scholarships at UMKC, with being a mentor and guide throughout her college career.

The senior Philosophy major was one of two featured speakers at a luncheon celebrating scholarship students from the College of Arts and Sciences, and the generous donors who fund those scholarships. She said faculty and staff from the College, the Black Studies program and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs have provided her with the emotional resources to persevere through her personal family issues, while the scholarship donors who have financed her education made it possible for her to stay in school and thrive.

“You have helped motivate me to push past those obstacles in order to focus on my passion for Philosophy,” Ayalew said. “My time at UMKC has allowed me to grow as a scholar and to find my voice as an individual. If it was not for your contributions, I would not be the confident leader and scholar I am today.”

During her years at UMKC, Ayalew has earned a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to spend a year studying in Morocco; competed with the campus Mock Trial team; and this year was elected president of the UMKC Student Government Association.
“Thank you for your belief in UMKC as a place for students who are going places,” she added.

Barbara Unell, a nationally recognized speaker, author and philanthropist, also was a featured speaker. Her family has endowed the Alex and Josephine Coleman Memorial Scholarship in Communication Studies.

The scholarship fund is named for her parents, but just as significant an influence on her, she said, was her uncle, Dan Brenner, a former President of the University of Missouri System Board of Curators who helped establish three endowed funds here at UMKC.

“Uncle Dan would often say that education is the only thing that no one can ever take away from you,” Unell said. Echoing Ayalew’s earlier words, she said “UMKC is the shining star we all want to help because of the family of support we have here.”

Unell also talked about her father, Alex Coleman, an advertising executive who coined the name of “one of the most famous products to ever come out of this city – the Crock-Pot.

“He was a kid who literally put himself through school washing dishes,” she said. Referring to her family’s communications scholarship, she said “It is my heartfelt hope that the recipients of that scholarship, and all scholarships, have the grace to also work that hard and use words for the greater good.”

Wayne Vaught, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, thanked the students for their effort and the donors for their generosity.

“We applaud our alumni and friends in the community who recognize the value of education and have partnered with the University of Missouri-Kansas City to help our students succeed,” Vaught said. “We know that it is through your generosity that lives are changed. Ideas are started. Skills are built. Careers are launched. And, we know that through your help, our communities are enhanced by the talents and passions that our students share.”