PA College Magazine - Winter 2021 - 8

PA COLLEGE / TEACHING & LEARNING

SCHOLARSHIP SUPPORT MATTERS:

Just Ask These Students
Scholarships play a vital role in enabling students to pay
for school and follow their dreams. This is especially
true for PA College learners, whose unique demographics 
amplify how crucial need-based scholarships are to their
success. 
More than half of PA College students are the first in
their families to go to college,
college and scholarships help put
them on a new path - full of opportunities that their
parents and grandparents did not have. 
More than half of PA College students work part time,
and nearly 20 percent work full time in addition to their
studies. More than just a way to lessen the tuition bill,
studies
scholarships become a means to scale back on some of

those hours at work, allowing students to maintain a
healthier life balance and increase their likelihood of
succeeding academically and reaching their career goals. 
The average PA College student is 29 years old, and
more than one-third of students are parents. With
parents
a
rich array of life experiences, students do not necessarily
come to PA College right out of high school. Some have
been inspired to change careers, while others may have
turned their attention back to education after getting
married and beginning a family or serving in the military. 
The stories that PA College's scholarship students share
demonstrate just how much this support matters. Meet
a few of PA College's 2020-2021 scholarship recipients.  

Brenda Valentine '21, '23  
Kenneth G. and Susan H. Stoudt Endowed Scholarship

Valentine is enrolled in the 2+2 Nursing program. She expects to earn her
associate degree in May 2021 and her bachelor's degree in May 2023. 
As a child, she lived with her grandmother who had a son with special
needs.  " Witnessing all the attention and special care my grandmother gave
him showed me a valuable life lesson I could never forget, which was to have
love, compassion and, most importantly, patience, " she says. " To me, she
was a superhero and I want to be just like her. And what better way than
to be a nurse? "  
Valentine is proud to be the first in her family to graduate from J.P. McCaskey
High School, and also the first to go to college.  " I don't come from a family
with much, so attending a private school can be financially challenging, "
says Valentine, who is also caring for a toddler while enrolled in PA College.
" Receiving the Stoudt Scholarship and knowing that I have this family
rooting for my success by investing in my future means the world to me. "  

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PA College Magazine - Winter 2021

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