Renee Reed
Reporter
April 8, 2005
Milligan College alumni Tony Jones and David Harris have established the
Milligan Friends Scholarship, a newly endowed scholarship to benefit students
with high levels of financial need.
“I did work study in the business office when I was a student at Milligan, and I
saw the needs that students have and learned which direction to go that would be
most helpful for future students,” Jones said. “I got my buddy David to help me
since he is a law student and very organized.”
The Milligan Friends Scholarship is an endowed scholarship that the college can
not terminate as long as the college is in existence.
“Tony and David understand that money is a big issue for students, and it costs
more to run the college then just tuition covers. They want to give back,” said
Todd Norris, vice president of institutional advancement.
The name for the scholarship came from a chat room that Harris created and
called “Milligan Friends.”
“There are around 40 to 50 of us who have graduated or who are still at Milligan
who ran around together, and we still keep in touch,” Jones said. “David’s chat
room really helps us be able to talk on a regular basis.”
Establishing an endowed scholarship is a way that current students or alumni can
give money to the college by donating any amount to their established fund. The
donator can choose where he/she wants his/her money to go to, which could be the
college or an individual student who applies for the scholarship.
“To start one is a rather simple process,” Norris said. “If you let the
Institutional Advancement office know what you are doing, they can set your
scholarship fund up in their software, and they can track who gives to the fund
and how much.”
Harris and Jones hope that this scholarship will encourage the start of other
scholarships by students who want to give back in the future.
Anyone can start a scholarship, including students as well as alumni, and Norris
encourages students to start thinking about it. “You may start out at $25 to
$100 a year, and as your income increases, so can your donation,” Norris said.