The Don Skop Memorial Scholarship Fund was established to provide college scholarships to students pursuing careers in vocations. Over the past few years it has become challenging to award the scholarship due to a lack of students interested in this type of work, despite the high demand. Last fall, through involvement with the Regional Prosperity Initiative meetings, OCF executive director, Dana Bensinger learned of MiCareer Quest Northeast, an upcoming hands on career readiness event for middle and high school students created to inspire and direct young people to viable careers in high demand occupations and to address the need for future talent.
“We have seen a decline in students applying for scholarships across the board and when we heard of this opportunity to expose students to high demand careers including vocations we thought it might help create a pipeline for future scholarship applicants as well as students from this area going into those field.” stated Bensinger.
Bensinger reached out to Kay Skop, to explain the situation and asked permission to use some the funding to provide transportation for Otsego County students to the event. Kay was delighted to learn of the opportunity and agreed it was a good use of the fund. On May 28, thanks to a grant from the Don Skop Memorial Scholarship Fund, students from Johannesburg Lewiston Schools, Gaylord Middle School and Gaylord High School were bused to the Industrial Arts Institute in Onaway. To learn more about the event click here.