Rochester Area Foundation awarded 48 scholarships totaling $57,000 to area students in the 2018-2019 school year. Scholarships are awarded from funds donors have created to support post-secondary educational opportunities for students.
This was the first year that a scholarship was awarded from the Marjorie L. Seeba Holt Endowed Scholarship fund, established in honor of Marjorie Holt who taught in the Business Department of Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) for 24 years. Even after retirement, Marjorie continued to teach as a volunteer for seniors who wanted to learn computers. Marjorie’s family established the fund to give a $4,000 annual scholarship to a John Marshall High School senior planning to go to RCTC.
The Holt family returned to John Marshall High School to present the award at the award night for seniors. Marjorie’s daughter, Charlene, had this to say after the fact:
“It was fun to be back on stage at my alma mater – 40 years later! The senior awards ceremony John Marshall hosted was well done, but even better yet was our student! We had some time with Esau and his family after the ceremony and learned that he is as great in person as he was on paper. In addition, we learned that his mom had been in a couple of Mom’s classes out at RCTC and that his grandma had worked alongside Mom and many church events at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (our home church). They knew Mom and so they appreciated the significance of the award even more! I believe there are no coincidences in life and that Esau was truly PERFECT to be the inaugural recipient of Mom’s memorial award!”
The RAF Scholarship program would not exist without our generous donors, fundholders, and scholarship committee members who help evaluate student applications. Thank you for your generosity and time.
If you are interested in learning more about RAF-managed scholarship funds, contact Ellen Tolleson Hegge at ellen@rochesterarea.org or learn more at rochesterarea.org/scholarships.