Call it giving back to the future.
The Resident Scholarship Program committees at seven Immanuel communities recently awarded $143,190 in scholarships to 54 of their student employees – the most students to receive the scholarships in Immanuel’s history.
Scholarship amounts this year ranged from $500 to $7,000. The program is fully funded by the residents at Deerfield in Des Moines; Grand Lodge, The Landing, and Yankee Hill Village in Lincoln; Immanuel Village and Lakeside in Omaha; and Trinity Village in Papillion. Fundraising campaigns included letter writing, student biographical displays, and other events. The funds are controlled by resident committees and dispersed directly to each student’s school through the Immanuel Community Foundation.
The program gives residents at participating Immanuel communities the opportunity to support the student staff members they interact with, says Immanuel Community Foundation Director Emily
Tonniges.
“The residents want to see these young individuals succeed and grow,” she said.
Students apply for scholarships at the Immanuel community they serve. Members of the community’s Resident Scholarship Committee determine the amounts of each scholarship to award, evaluate the applications and determine the recipients.
“The residents love doing this,” Tonniges said. “Giving back is so important to them. They put a lot of effort into their programs and take a lot of pride in the results.”
Jen Davidson, a member of the Resident Scholarship Committee at Grand Lodge, says the program is as important to the residents who believe in promoting continued education as it is to the students who receive the scholarships.
“The Resident Scholarship Program is near and dear to the hearts of most of the residents at the Grand Lodge for two reasons: Number one, we’re very fond of our part-time employees, whether they are the servers or work at the front desk,” she said. “Secondly, we know that education is important. Many of us spent our lives in the field or knew that education was a really important part of our lives
professionally.”
Student employees work in various services, including staffing the dining rooms, as dishwashers, on the front desk, and as certified nursing assistants. Twenty-two of the 2023 scholarship recipients are in college, some having previously received awards through the program.
Past recipient Emily Sharpe called receiving a scholarship from The Landing’s Resident Scholarship Program “truly amazing.”
“Being able to work here and receive that from the residents was truly incredible,” she said, “and being able to take that with me to my next level of education really made me develop a stronger love for this place and this community and working with the senior residents.”
Student scholarship recipients include:
- From Deerfield - Ryan Austin, Max Barr, Samuel Burnett, Cireel Fountain, and Grace Njai
- From Grand Lodge - Nina Campbell, Evelyn Dahlman, Corben Johnson, and Jackson Johnson
- From Immanuel Village - Shay Frost, Maleah Shrader, and Paw Soe Soe
- From Lakeside - Michael Begley, Thomas Begley, Adriana Caudillo, Delani Daubman, Grant Dixon, Faith Iossi, Mallory Jackson, Emma Johnson, Laci Kaffenberger, Kelsey Kathol, Kate Lichti, Abigail Marshall, Raegan Pereira, Linka Thompson, and Cooper Wilkinson
- From The Landing - Michaela Boyd, Hannah Chramosta, Kailey Conradt, Kate Dobson, Cali Engel, Hannah Fleming, Gavin Harms, Madeleine Hesse, Katy Mohatt, Avae’ Muir, Emily Nelson, McKenzie Stauffer, Katherine Stratman, Delaney Vacek, Peyton Wagner, and Liem Wills
- From Trinity Village - Gracyn Carper, James Kessler, Audrey Swanson, Carmen Theobald, Henry Vote, and Ava Zuerlein
- From Yankee Hill Village - Chloe Colgrove, Alyssa Cowan, Addy Dinneen, Justin Fanton, and Frannie Kiser
“The gratitude that I had and I know my peers had when receiving that scholarship, knowing it came directly from the residents, was truly something really special,” Sharpe said. “There is no way you can say ‘Thank you,’ … It shows that the residents do care and how much they appreciate the work and the level of relationships they build with us. It’s truly something really unique to watch.”
