Legacy Foundation awarded over 1.3 million dollars in scholarships to over 120 students from NWI in 2022. On Thursday, June 2 during the Legacy Foundation's Scholarship Awards Dinner at the Croatian Center in Merrillville, 47 students attended the celebratory awards dinner they host each year.
“It's wonderful,” said Legacy Foundation Scholarship Administrator Jodi Kateiva. “I've done this now for six years, it's really inspiring, because sometimes you look at the world around you, and it can seem scary. And through this, I see so many young people doing really awesome things. They're dedicated to their communities, and so it gives me hope that we have a bright future.”
Ceremonies like this then allow these great students to be recognized for their contributions, which brings about lots of excitement for the kids and their families.
“The most exciting thing is seeing the excitement of the families of the students who are going to be receiving these awards,” said President and CEO Carolyn Saxton. “It gives us the opportunity to acknowledge the hard work that the students have done to qualify for this. This is one of my favorite events because of that.”
While the money is a huge benefit, the simple acknowledgment for all their hard work through dinners like this can mean the world to the students and allows for their voices to be heard.
“I also think we get to not just acknowledge the students, but also give them the opportunity to have their stories told,” Saxton said. “For some of them specifically, we give a little bit more information about what they've done and why they've qualified. And for a lot of kids, this is the first time they've had that kind of acknowledgment, even if there's no story told about them. They get to come up, they get to accept the scholarship, and the family gets to see them there, too.”
Kateiva and the others at the Legacy Foundation understand each child is making a positive impact in his or her own way and have worked to provide an array of scholarships to align with the many different goals the kids have both now and in the future.
“I think what's great is that we have a wide variety of scholarships. Some are dependent on the high school that the student went to, or some are dependent on the college or university that they're going to, or their intended major,” Kateiva said. “We've got stem (science engineering, technology, and math) scholarships, we've got nursing and teacher scholarships. We have art scholarships, and then we have other scholarships that are for any major at all, but they really run the gamut.”
The amounts given were just as diverse as the types of scholarships awarded. Aside from the Lilly Endowment, a scholarship program based out of Indianapolis, Kateiva mentioned that all other Legacy Foundation scholarships were made possible through the organization’s many wonderful donors.
“Award-wise, we've got $500 scholarships all the way up to renewable scholarships that are worth $40,000. We administer Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program, for Lake County. This year through that program, we awarded six full-tuition scholarships to colleges and universities in Indiana. This year for those six students, their scholarships are worth over $800,000.”
Students received the scholarships by applying online through the Legacy Foundation. Once their applications were submitted, a team of 50 people reviewed each applicant’s information, and from there, the process was determined the type of scholarship the students were applying for.
Fund Holders let the Foundation know what they were passionate about and what they hoped to achieve through their scholarship. From there, the Foundation matches the goals of the donors with the goals of the students.
At the end of that day, though, making a huge, uplifting difference in the kids’ lives is what the Legacy Foundation enjoys about this most.
“The cost of college is constantly rising, so every little bit helps,” Kateiva said. “So just being able to ease their burden really makes my day.”
To learn more about the Legacy Foundation and the scholarships they offer, please visit legacyfdn.org.