New Fairhaven fund garners massive support
[ Editor's note: This article first appeared in the Western Foundation's "The Insider" newsletter. ]
For Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, whose foundational mission includes promoting social justice, its recent scholarship fund drive provided an opportunity that was wholeheartedly embraced before the student recipients even felt its impact. In a spectacular show of support for the college’s vision, commitment and educational future, more than 80 percent of Fairhaven faculty and staff contributed to the newly-established Fairhaven College Opportunity Fund.
The widespread gesture of generosity is a show of solidarity from within that’s not lost on Fairhaven dean Jack Herring: “A large piece of Fairhaven’s mission is to open up educational opportunities for underrepresented students who have been historically locked out of higher education. With the increase in the cost of education in the state of Washington over the past five years, we feel it’s critical to do everything we can to keep access to Fairhaven open to students regardless of their financial needs. And we are doing just that.”
The significance of this scholarship, which aims to address the cost-of-attendance gap not covered by Pell grants, State Need Awards and federally-subsidized loans, is twofold: designated for first-generation college students who are well-qualified for Fairhaven, the scholarship is offered as part of an admissions package and is guaranteed throughout the recipients’ four years, pulling double-duty as both a recruitment and retention scholarship.
In a very real sense, the fund affirms what Fairhaven offers its students overall: an opportunity, at a critical juncture, to train and mature as future leaders. “A lot of what Fairhaven offers students is the opportunity to become leaders in many diverse areas,” explains Herring, who is hoping the Opportunity Fund will be endowed within the next five to ten years. “They may be interested in working as community activists, as entrepreneurs, as social entrepreneurs or as legal professionals, but we also have a lot of Fairhaven students continue on to the medical profession, and a huge number of graduates go on into higher education. Our law, diversity and justice program, for example, allows students to understand how the legal system works, how they can influence it, how they can be a participant in it professionally, how they can go back into their communities with those skills and make a difference.”
“I’m so excited about the wonderful students who got the award in its first year,” says Sara Purington, Fairhaven’s outreach and admissions coordinator. “All four of them are interested in social justice and are already active in their communities. They are really invested in doing that work, really interested in Fairhaven and excited about the opportunity to study here. It felt great to be able to give them the financial support they needed to be able to come to Fairhaven – and to stay.”
The general designation of this particular fund also signifies a shift in strategy, adds Herring. “Sometimes it’s nice for donors to have something that they really care about to give to, like a subject of personal interest or a specific department. But we’ve also found that quite a lot of people” – beyond Fairhaven staff and faculty, contributions also came from interested community members, a family foundation, the college’s advisory council and alumni donors – “are interested in the broader question of, ‘How are we going to serve students who are at the risk of getting left behind by education? How do we include them, and give them the opportunity to lead us in the future?’ The leadership potential of the students we’re trying to attract is a common denominator of what we’re trying to achieve with the Opportunity Fund.”
And, as Fairhaven’s faculty and staff have demonstrated, they can lead not just by design but by action as well.