Awarding a single academic scholarship is easy. Simply determine how much money is given and when it's doled out.
Awarding 510 scholarships, however, requires a much greater effort. Not to mention the added challenge of putting the money’s value into words, and assessing its overall impact on the student recipients — both over the course of their academic career and beyond.
At the Centralia College Foundation’s Scholarship Night on Wednesday, students, parents, faculty, donors, foundation board members and the college’s board of trustees met that challenge, as hundreds gathered inside the Corbet Theatre in Washington Hall to celebrate the 510 students who were awarded a total amount of $620,000 in annual scholarships — a 10-year “high-water mark,” according to the foundation board of directors president, Brendan VanderVelde.
In honoring the night’s awardees, Mark Scheibmeir of the college’s board of trustees — and a foundation board member since 1995 — spoke about the commonalities he and other trustees share with today’s students.
“We argue there is no distinction between our past and your past,” Scheibmeir said. “We get it. We understand the challenges you face. We understand the financial obligations or obstacles that you must deal with. We understand that you're dealing with jobs and family and kids and all sorts of other issues and that you're still, despite all that, doing your best to get an education … We know that past, and we are trying to help you overcome those obstacles and achieve student success in whatever way you define success."
While present donors were recognized on stage during the event’s program, it was outside the theater, in the hall’s open foyer, where students were able to visit their benefactors face to face.
Susan Mwikali, a nursing student, said she was grateful to receive a scholarship and called the opportunity “incredible.”
“That amount of money, it would help me with groceries and gas for my car,” Mwikali said. “Usually I would have to work to get that money, but since they already provided for that, I would not have to worry about that part of my financial life, so it has been a huge draw for me.”
Her benefactors, Dean Phillips, a 1978 Centralia College graduate, and his wife, Susan, made the trip from the Seattle area to meet with Mwikali. Phillips’ father and uncle were dentists who graduated from the college. His grandfather was also a dentist. The Phillips Scholarship was originally established by Phillips’ uncle, Richard Phillips, a lifelong Centralia resident, and typically goes to students in the medical fields.
In 2022, Dean, Susan and the estate of Richard Phillips gave $125,339.82 to the college foundation.
Susan Phillips said the event is one of their favorite nights of the whole year.
“Meeting the students is the best,” she added.
Many students earned scholarships relevant to their field of study. Natalie Humphrey received one from Edward Durgin, whose wife, Jill, was a longtime grade school teacher who graduated from Centralia High School in 1964. She received an associate degree from Centralia College before continuing studies at Washington State University.
The scholarship was established in her honor. Jill died in August 2024.
“I was so thankful to get it from them,” Humphrey said, as she stood next to Sandy Duncan, Jill's sister and Edward’s sister-in-law. “I'm getting my bachelor's in education here this year. I'll graduate this spring. So, I'm really lucky.”
Humphrey said her scholarship helps cover a “little bit of everything,” including tuition, books and other costs throughout the year.
Fernando Lopez, a sophomore business student and soccer player at the college, said his scholarship helps reduce the financial burden for his parents, who own Tacos El Rey in Centralia. This way, they don’t have to worry so much about covering his school costs.
Centralia School District Superintendent Dr. Lisa Grant came to support Lopez, along with the night’s other awardees.
“As a district, obviously we support this, because we're trying to support our students beyond high school,” Grant said.
In addition to representing the district, Grant was present on behalf of the Centralia Community Foundation, Dollars for Scholars, Twin Cities Rotary Club and other local organizations.
Centralia College President Bob Mohrbacher spoke to The Chronicle about the importance of donors who voluntarily support scholarships to help students achieve their academic goals.
“This is a night when we congratulate the students and thank our donors and bring them all together in one place,” Mohrbacher said.
Mohrbacher said students interested in a scholarship are able to fill out an application through the foundation’s website, where they describe their background and career aspirations.
“And then the foundation scholarship folks match the students to the available scholarships,” Mohrbacher said. “Some scholarships have specific criteria. For example, some are specifically for nursing students, and then we have some general ones, so they just mix them and match them to get the right combination.”
During his speech, Mohrbacher talked about the progress the school has made since it first opened its doors Sept. 14, 1925, 100 years ago.
“On that day, there were 15 students and six teachers located on the third floor of the old Centralia High School building,” Mohrbacher said. “Look how far we've come since 1925. I'm not sure that those students and teachers that were here then would’ve even recognized the beautiful modern college that we have become.”
Both Mohrbacher and VanderVelde acknowledged the rising cost of education, which makes the scholarships awarded by the foundation all the more important.
“Our many donors, like the ones you see here tonight, choose to support the Centralia College Foundation because they know how important education can be,” Mohrbacher said. “They understand that supplying funds for your scholarship helps us all to build a stronger community. That's how we start to build the next 100 years, one scholarship at a time.”
