artists who intend to become professionals, or special
workshops that are vital to a student’s future career.
One of the student-centered things the Community
Foundation has done, Young notes, is make the
application process simple. There’s only one form to
fill out. Once that’s done, algorithms identify all the
applicable scholarships for that applicant. This is more
involved than it sounds—the Community Foundation
has 80+ different types of scholarships that have been
funded by individual donors or organizations. And
most of the awards have specific criteria that is set
up by the donor which could include majors they’re
studying, activities they engage in, or where they
intend to attend college. “I like to say that we’ve got
something for everyone,” says Young.
Once the application is earmarked to be considered
for a particular scholarship, a volunteer committee of
100+ members gets to work, and no fewer than three
committee members review every single application
before a decision is made. This coming year, the
scholarships awarded from the January 1 to March
1 application period will come close to $2 million,
reports Young. With the continued commitment in
supporting area education, that number is likely to
keep growing. That kind of success is a clear testament
to how well the Community Foundation and Young
are running things.
What do these scholarships mean to the 500+ annual
recipients? Just ask Brittani Froug, a Sarasota native who
had “huge dreams and aspirations to go to college, to
become a professional, and make a positive change
in our wonderful community. But realistically, my
dreams were always out of reach.” She applied for a
scholarship at the Community Foundation and met
Earl Young, “who turned my word upside down and
advocated for my dreams to become a reality.”
She reports: “Today, I am a cardiac nurse at Manatee
Memorial Hospital. I am working full time, enrolled
in the BSN program at State College of Florida, and
working towards transitioning into a pediatric role
in nursing in the future. The Community Foundation
supported me/my education, both emotionally and
financially, through my nursing prerequisites, LPN
school, my RN-ASN degree, and now my RN-BSN
degree, with a completion date of Summer 2019.”
About what the Community Foundation’s help meant
to her, she says that “their support gave me the choice
to be something important, to make a difference, to
contribute to our community through healthcare
promotion and competent care at the hospital bedside.
It gave me an opportunity to prove to myself that I
MAY 2018 | SARASOTA SCENE 49
“We’ve got a great scholarship
program here. It’s one of the
largest—if not the largest—in the
entire state of Florida.”
-EARL YOUNG