Post by L Roebuck on May 26, 2006 14:27:58 GMT -5
Professors organize tribute to students
UVSC scholarship: It will of a pair who died in a cave accident
By Todd Hollingshead The Salt Lake Tribune
OREM - Philosophy professors Michael Shaw and Shannon Mussett wish they had more students like Jennifer Galbraith.
Outspoken. Independent. Charismatic.
The husband and wife professors at Utah Valley State College were close to the 21-year-old Galbraith, who perished in August in a spelunking accident along with three friends.
"She was head and shoulders above everyone else," Mussett remembers. "She was just a remarkable person." Now the two professors are doing what they can to honor Galbraith's memory and that of Blake Donner,
Shannon Mussett a 24-year-old UVSC philosophy student who - along with Scott McDonald, 28, and Ariel Singer, 18 - drowned in a water-filled cave on Provo's Y Mountain.
This summer the two will donate their earnings from 70 teaching hours as part of a Teach-A-Thon fundraiser for the Donner-Galbraith Memorial Scholarship.
The scholarship fund provides half tuition for one community-involved UVSC student.
The couple are determined to raise a substantial chunk of the $30,000 necessary to endow the scholarship, which was established last year in memory of the two former UVSC students.
Not only are they giving 100 percent of their salary from the summer classes taught by Mussett (Shaw isn't teaching, but rather running the fundraiser), they're also collecting pledges for each hour taught.
"Once we learned how much we had [in the fund] and how much we had to raise, it occurred to me it was almost a hopeless task unless we did something more drastic," Shaw said.
And their fundraiser appears to be gaining momentum.
Shaw estimates they have between $4,000 and $5,000 in pledges to go along with the roughly $5,000 in salary he and Mussett are donating.
Plus, thanks to a recent offer by Arizona philanthropists Ira and Mary Lou Fulton to match all personal donations to the university up to $1,000, Shaw estimates they can raise $15,000 toward the scholarship.
"We both had the feeling of helplessness after the event happened," Shaw said. "We didn't know what to do. Once we came up with this idea, there was a concrete way where we could actually make an impact and do something."
With the $5,000 to $10,000 already in the fund, the couple's donations and raised funds will bring the total to more than $20,000.
Bill Bridges, an assistant dean for UVSC's School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, said the Orem college also is planning a memorial scholarship to honor McDonald, who majored in behavioral science at UVSC.
Bridges, like Mussett and Shaw, believes the school can create something positive from the tragedy.
"This particular cause certainly has a high degree of sentiment," Bridges said.
"It's going to be a good summer to raise the balance of that fund."
thollingshead@sltrib.com
Salt Lake Tribune
UVSC scholarship: It will of a pair who died in a cave accident
By Todd Hollingshead The Salt Lake Tribune
OREM - Philosophy professors Michael Shaw and Shannon Mussett wish they had more students like Jennifer Galbraith.
Outspoken. Independent. Charismatic.
The husband and wife professors at Utah Valley State College were close to the 21-year-old Galbraith, who perished in August in a spelunking accident along with three friends.
"She was head and shoulders above everyone else," Mussett remembers. "She was just a remarkable person." Now the two professors are doing what they can to honor Galbraith's memory and that of Blake Donner,
Shannon Mussett a 24-year-old UVSC philosophy student who - along with Scott McDonald, 28, and Ariel Singer, 18 - drowned in a water-filled cave on Provo's Y Mountain.
This summer the two will donate their earnings from 70 teaching hours as part of a Teach-A-Thon fundraiser for the Donner-Galbraith Memorial Scholarship.
The scholarship fund provides half tuition for one community-involved UVSC student.
The couple are determined to raise a substantial chunk of the $30,000 necessary to endow the scholarship, which was established last year in memory of the two former UVSC students.
Not only are they giving 100 percent of their salary from the summer classes taught by Mussett (Shaw isn't teaching, but rather running the fundraiser), they're also collecting pledges for each hour taught.
"Once we learned how much we had [in the fund] and how much we had to raise, it occurred to me it was almost a hopeless task unless we did something more drastic," Shaw said.
And their fundraiser appears to be gaining momentum.
Shaw estimates they have between $4,000 and $5,000 in pledges to go along with the roughly $5,000 in salary he and Mussett are donating.
Plus, thanks to a recent offer by Arizona philanthropists Ira and Mary Lou Fulton to match all personal donations to the university up to $1,000, Shaw estimates they can raise $15,000 toward the scholarship.
"We both had the feeling of helplessness after the event happened," Shaw said. "We didn't know what to do. Once we came up with this idea, there was a concrete way where we could actually make an impact and do something."
With the $5,000 to $10,000 already in the fund, the couple's donations and raised funds will bring the total to more than $20,000.
Bill Bridges, an assistant dean for UVSC's School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, said the Orem college also is planning a memorial scholarship to honor McDonald, who majored in behavioral science at UVSC.
Bridges, like Mussett and Shaw, believes the school can create something positive from the tragedy.
"This particular cause certainly has a high degree of sentiment," Bridges said.
"It's going to be a good summer to raise the balance of that fund."
thollingshead@sltrib.com
Salt Lake Tribune