PSU Magazine Fall 2000

• • • PH I L A N T H R 0 p y I N ACTION Small donations make scholarship possible A steady grassroots effort in memory of Glady McCoy has brought the McCoy Graduate Scholar hip to the brink of its $100,000 fund-rai ing goal. The graduate scholar hip, estab– lished in 1994, awards money to ethni – ca lly di ver e social work students who demonstrate interest in policy devel– opment and servi ces for children and famili es. McCoy was chair of the Multnomah County Boa rd of Commis– sion and a 1967 MSW graduate. he also taught social work classes at Portland State in the 1970s. The scholar hip fund stands at $94,000, most of which has come in the form of mall donations from a wide spectrum of the population. Four stu– dent have received scholarships so fa r. Volunteers and donors supporting the fund include Ruby Haughton, a for– mer 1 bbyi t for US Bank of Oreg n who knew the late Bill McCoy, G ladys' husband , when he was a state enator. "Gladys and Bill were mentors of mine. Their sense of community and family are the values I care about, so I can put my money behind them any day of the week," she says. Haughton lauds PSU's G raduate School of Social Work as one of the best in the country. It is a reason why she ha been a regular contributor to the fund and has written letter and made phone calls on its behalf. Teletha Benj amin , a retired ocial service administrator who met the McCoys when she moved to Portland in 1958, is another regular contributor. A PSU ocial work graduate, Benj amin was one f the original 150 people who attended a meeting to establish the scholarship. She continues to give and solicit donations each year. "My commitment are very mean– ingful to me, and I chose this one because I believe in it," she ay . "It prov ides an opportunity fo r G ladys to still be connected with people, which she did all thr ughout her personal and poli tica l li fe." Mozart's comic opera, The Mar– riage of Figaro, was a Lavish production sung by an all– student cast to sold-out crowds this past spring. The production was made possible through a gener– ous gift from James F. Miller, a Longtime opera patron. A decade of helping women students This fall mark the 10th anniversary of a scholarship program that has helped women who otherwise might not have gone to college earn a bachelor's degree. The Nancy Ryles Scholarship, awarded through the Department of Women's Studies, provides assis– tance to women wanting to work toward an undergraduate degree who have had their education inter– rupted by financial difficulties, family responsibilities, or personal di abilitie . lt's named in memory of Nancy Ryles, an Oregon Public Utilities commissioner and long- time state senator. The two newest recipients, Lisa Davilia and Rachael Jimenez-Vu, epitomize the type of woman the scholarship was designed to assist. Davilia, a mother of three and grandmother of three, has a passion for women' and children's i sues, and hope to pursue a degree in ocial work. She is currently working for Washington County's Domestic Violence Resource Center. Davilia raised her three children alone after she divorced 17 years ago. "I always wanted to go to col– lege, but my priority was my chil– dren," she says. "I have so much respect for mothers going to school," she says. Jimenez-Vu, a Native American, was encouraged to go to college by her sister so she could help her son, Dominic, with his own school stud– ies. She started on that road in 1997 at Portland Community College. Both she and her husband struggled through economic hard– ship and the effects of three debili– tating car accidents. But through persistence and the help of schol– arships such as the Nancy Ryles award, she has been able to com– plete nine terms toward her degree. She i studying business and ociology. 0 FALL 2000 PSU MAGAZINE 19