Each year, Scottish Rite Masons have an opportunity to meet our UNO scholarship recipients, whose impressive accomplishments demonstrate the impact our annual scholarships make for these students.
At the April 20th Scottish Rite dinner, the Culinary Masters served a fantastic dinner with marinated grilled chicken, saffron rice, and vegetables met, Wayne Stuberg, 32° KCCH, Venerable Master for the Lodge of Perfection, presented a Perpetual Membership certificate to Jason Thompson. He then welcomed Walt Keast, 33°, Chairman of the Cathedral Board, and Don Leu, 32° KCCH, President of the Scottish Rite Foundation of Omaha, who were proud to announce that the Million Dollar Fund had surpassed its goal of raising $1,000,000 toward an endowed building fund, including $250,000 challenge grants from two anonymous brethren who made these donations with the stipulation that the gifts be matched by additional donations and pledges. This fund will provide perpetual investment income to maintain and preserve our historic building.
After these presentations, Wayne welcomed Dr. Neal Grandgenett, Dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Services at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Dr. Grandgenett thanked Scottish Rite Masons for supporting UNO students, noting that 85% of the student body need some sort of funding support. To make his point that students can be propelled to do amazing things, he distributed paper boomerangs to the students. Often first generation college students, Dr. Grandgenett said, need a lift up and they are not sure they can fly. "Like these paper boomerangs, there’s a lot of things pulling them down. Maybe it’s where they came from or maybe they're just they were quite as good as they could've been in school, but this scholarship propels them now in ways that you can’t imagine." With encouragement from the membership, the students launched their paper boomerangs, which sailed through the air to return to the students, representing a successful launch to their adult lives and future careers.
Wayne Stuberg then welcomed Paige Moore, a graduate speech pathology student and recipient of the Sohm Family Speech-Language Scholarship. Paige spoke about the impact the scholarships make. For Paige, a first-generation college student from a single parent household, her scholarship meant she wouldn’t have to take out a loan for her education and could afford a little bit more for groceries. “It’s small impacts like this that can have a huge effect on success.” For her, the impact also helped her learn about new speech language technologies for patients with neurogenerative diseases like Parknson’s and ALS. Paige’s scholarship has pushed her to learn far outside her comfort zone and has given her confidence to follow her dreams. “The impact this scholarship has had in my life is the kind of impact I want to leave on others….and hopefully one day I’ll be sitting at a banquet like this getting thanked for the impact I’ve had on someone else’s life. I know one thing for sure, I’ll never forget the kind of impact the scholarship has had." Scottish Rite Masons gave Paige a standing ovation for her beautiful words.
With that, Wayne thanked our scholarship recipients and their family members a final round of applause for attending the evening.