10.25.21

The long reach of need-based scholarships

Recipients-turned-graduates share their talents with their communities

Valeria Rodriguez grew up in a household where higher education wasn’t seen as a realistic opportunity. The daughter of parents whose own education was limited, who lived humbly, Rodriguez feared a dead-end future for herself without a college degree.

She managed to scrounge together the resources to graduate from community college, then transferred to Wichita State, where she estimates that scholarships covered about 80 percent of the cost of getting her degree in dental hygiene.

“My parents worked so hard and they had the bare necessities, but not much more,” Rodriguez says. “I wanted to make them proud, to do this for them as well as myself. Now, they’re always telling their coworkers and friends that I’m a college graduate with a good job.”

Need-based scholarships do more than just help financially strapped students afford a college education. They also make it possible for those students to get the education and training they need to launch careers and make an impact in their communities. That’s one reason need-based scholarships are WSU President Rick Muma’s top priority for philanthropy.

Rodriguez and recent WSU graduates Bobby Cook and Deiondre Teagle are three examples of graduates in flourishing careers. While students at Wichita State, each received scholarships designated for students who demonstrate financial need.

Now, each is working in their chosen field in Wichita – Rodriguez providing dental care to uninsured and underinsured individuals at HealthCore Clinic, Cook helping Textron Aviation build planes and Teagle enriching lives through the power of dance.

Cook enrolled at Wichita State at the age of 27 after working a series of menial jobs. “I really couldn’t afford to go to college, but I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere in life without a degree,” he says. Lacking financial help from his family, he worked and took out loans to pay for college. He received an Osher Scholarship, awarded to adult students returning to school, as well as several smaller scholarships.

“What the scholarships did was make it possible for me to work fewer hours so I could focus on my classes and also develop the soft skills that employers want,” said Cook, who graduated in 2020. He’s now an associate buyer for Textron, and he hopes to return to school to get an MBA.

Deiondre Teagle received several scholarships for students with financial need. The first in his family to earn a college
degree, he grew up in a household where his grandmother helped his mother make ends meet.

“When my grandmother died during my freshman year, that was a huge impact on our family. Money became super tight,” Teagle says.

Scholarships helped him live on campus during his freshman and sophomore years and to put off working until he felt confident and stable academically. A 2017 graduate in performing arts, he teaches dance today to students at Wichita State and Butler Community College. as well as for several community groups.

“I’m fortunate to be able to do what I love,” Teagle says.

If you want to learn how you can create a need-based scholarship, contact Darin Kater, WSU Foundation vice president, at 316.978.3887 or darin.kater@wichita.edu.