Newsletter 12.29.22

As 2022 comes to a close, we have much to celebrate, thanks to all of our supporters!

Reflections from Dr. Oscar Edwards, who recently received his Doctorate of Business Administration. Oscar was in 10th grade when “Mr. Jackson” became principal of John W. North High School. They became lifelong friends.

"At the end of the first-year effort to create a sustainable and impactful strategy for the Dr. Horace Jackson Legacy Scholarship we can all say job well done. My heart was warmed when I realized all the awarded students resonated in some way with my own high school experience being raised by a single parent, my mother. Our three inaugural scholarship awardees managed to navigate personal challenges with very limited resources. Yet they all achieved success academically and socially. All demonstrated strong indicators of continued success in higher education and life. 
I am thankful for all the donors who joined the founding scholarship committee to model Dr. Jackson in the willingness to SEED the future achievements of Angelina, Giermo and Fernando as he did for so many students directly and indirectly. I will never forget the day Dr. Jackson gave me a heartfelt talk and said emphatically ‘you are going to college.’ Little did he know before that statement, I was not sure where I was going after high school. THE SEED WAS PLANTED!"

OUR INAUGURAL AWARDEES

In our first year, we awarded the Dr. Horace Jackson Legacy Scholarships to three graduating John W. North High School students in the amount of $1,500 each. The scholarships are sent directly to their colleges; $750 distributed in the first semester and the other half distributed in the second. A panel of five (details in the January newsletter) used a rubric to review and weigh the applicants’ academic and extracurricular accomplishments with their personal statements. The home circumstances of each candidate were also taken into consideration. We focused on academic progress, activities which showed leadership values and the unique stories of each student. Here is an excerpt from one of our awardees, shared with their permission:

"I was raised by my mother and never had a father figure. My father was in my life for the smallest amount of time, …. So, struggles started to arise when living in a single parent household. Then later in 2008, we lost our house and were homeless. Many more challenges came along throughout the years of growing up, like losing my beloved Grandmother that had the best cooking and advice. Her passing affected my life deeply and from seeing struggles at such a young age, it motivated me to strive for the better. I want to work hard now so in the future, my children won’t have the worries like I did as a child."

Angelina and Giermo are attending Riverside City College, and Fernando Cruz is attending Cal State Fullerton. 

RECENT UPDATES ON OUR AWARDEES

Angelina is pursuing a nursing degree at RCC with the goal of becoming an ICU nurse. She works 25-30 hours a week to help her family with rent.  She found her first semester challenging but is eager to start her next.

Giermo (Business, welding degree, RCC) noted that he was surprised to find that he actually enjoyed his business class more than his welding. Giermo works full time as well as helping out at home with his siblings while taking classes.

Fernando (Sports medicine, Cal State Fullerton) took a full load of classes, feels happy with how he did and is preparing for next semester.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In our first year, more than 110 individuals (MAINLY HUSKIES) joined our campaign to make more Husky college dreams come true! We’ve raised $80,000 toward our first-year goal of $100,000 to create a sustainable scholarship. Thank you to all who have donated. Many of our donors make monthly or quarterly donations. That is a great way to help, and we are deeply appreciative. Imagine if we could get every alum to contribute something…!

In 2023, we plan to increase the scholarship from one to two years and add two new students each year. PLEASE CONSIDER an end-of-year donation to the Dr. Horace Jackson Legacy Scholarship. We are looking for more businesses and corporations to join our effort. We want to double the balance by the end of 2023. We seek to expand our message with more Husky and community voices. In 2023, we plan to create committees that will work on outreach, fundraising and more involvement with our alma mater.

We are excited to choose our next recipients for the Dr. Horace Jackson Legacy Scholarship. The application will go out in January. There are many ways you can help in this endeavor – and if you aren’t familiar with Dr. Jackson, please take a few minutes to hear from his students and staff about his leadership style and impact on students. We want to make a similar impact on current students at John W. North High.

We were thrilled to gain the support of ‘78 alum, Susan Straight, a nationally recognized novelist whose stories focus on the Inland Empire. Susan’s recent book, Mecca, made the Wall Street Journal’s top 10 books to read in 2022.

"What I loved about being here at North and what I tell everybody when I'm on the road to talk about life in the Inland Empire, which is what I'm known for writing about, is how much we all loved each other. And North High was extremely special, and people all over the country have said to me, I've never heard of a high school like that where you were all racially integrated…
And I still hang out with people every day who went to North. I think we all had dreams that we were gonna go do something great, but we never wanted to lose touch with each other.
I don't know that there was ever any other place like North High."

The Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF) houses and invests our fund. IECF has been supporting the Inland Empire for 80 years. The Annual Report for 2022 can be found here.

YEAR END FINANCIALS

DONATED OPERATING EXPENSES

Website development and maintenance: $653
Fundraising communication (newsletters, stickers, cards, flyers): $638
TOTAL: $1291

Thank you for your continued participation and best wishes for 2023! 

Sincerely,

The Scholarship Founding Team | Dr. Horace Jackson Legacy Scholarship

Oscar Edwards '72; Riverside City College; BA UCLA 1978; MBA Anderson School - UCLA 1981; DBA Grand Canyon University 2022
Michele Himmelberg '74; Riverside City College; BA USC 1979
Nancy Biddle Sutterley '75; Riverside City College; BA UCLA 1979; MBA Cal State East Bay 1991
Cullen Williamson '75; Cabrillo College; BS San Jose State University 1980; MBA USF 2001
Molly Williamson '74; UC Riverside; Cabrillo College; Riverside City College; Santa Monica College; BS San Jose State University 1984
 

THERE IS STILL TIME TO DONATE FOR 2022!