Doing Good: Norfolk Couple's Scholarship Helps Students Today

Meet Raven Bland, Norfolk's first Youth Poet Laureate,
and a Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarship recipient.

	Raven Bland  (photo by Glen McClure)

Raven is a senior at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia who has been helped by a Joseph A. and Bertha W. Harry scholarship since her freshman year of college. She is among 413 students going to college in the fall with more than $1.3 million in Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarships started by donors like the Harrys.

Raven, a Granby High School graduate, grew up in the same Norview neighborhood in Norfolk where the Harrys lived. Joseph made his living as a grocery buyer and owner of  rental houses. He and his wife Bertha had no children but left a $1.7 million bequest to start a permanent scholarship fund for ODU and Virginia Wesleyan College students. So now the Harrys have hundreds of children who have all have benefited from their generosity.

Bertha and Joseph Harry

Raven will be among 40 students helped by the Harry Scholarship in 2016-17. She has written poetry as a hobby since age 12 and last year won Norfolk's inaugural Youth Poet Laureate contest sponsored by Teens With a Purpose, Urban Word, Hampton Roads Youth Poets and the Norfolk Public Library. This 1-minute-27-second video produced by ODU gives a glimpse into Raven's poetry.

Winning the 2015 contest led to Raven's first published book of poetry When the Raven Sings and public readings of her work where she saw first-hand how her words help people deal with life issues.


Raven is a history major who aspires to a career in government. She works at ODU's Student Success Center and this summer is interning with the City of Norfolk in its Department of Neighborhood Development. 

Community Foundation Donors Help 391 Students Go to College in 2015-16

We are excited about the 391 students who are in college right now with help from Hampton Roads Community Foundation Scholarships. Here is a snapshot of this year's scholarship program made possible by our generous donors who value education and love helping students.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $210 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

Engineering Student Follows Benefactor's Path

Virginia Tech senior Shae O'Hara of Virginia Beach, Virginia never met the late Wilfred G.
Semple.

But he is having a great influence on her life because he left a bequest to the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, which is providing Shae a scholarship for the second year. She also is spending this summer interning at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth,

Shae O'Hara
 (photo by Glen McClure)

Virginia for the second time.

It's a great coincidence that this is the same shipyard where Wilfred, who died in 1966 at age 80, spent his career as an engineer.

Shae, a senior industrial and systems engineering major, is preparing to follow in the footsteps of Wilfred G. Semple, whose scholarship is for upper-level students from Hampton Roads studying engineering, physics or math.

We can only imagine how happy Wilfred would be today to know that Shae is working at the same shipyard where he spent his career. And, even better, she has been offered a job after graduation next May that she is planning to accept.

"College expenses can be a considerable financial burden for a family, especially when its chief bread winner is a public school teacher," says O'Hara, whose brother also is in college.

Since 1991, when the Semple Scholarship started, 34 students have been helped by $155,000 in scholarships. Semple's original charitable bequest was $120,713, but the power of endowment has made his fund grow over time to a value of $277,627 while helping students like Shae. This fall there will be four Semple Scholars in college, including Shae.

It is donors like Wilfred Semple who make all the difference for students with dreams of great careers.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

Applications Available for Stephen Carpenter Scholarship for Norfolk Public School Counselors

Stephen Ashby Carpenter loved being a Norfolk Public School guidance counselor.

Although he worked just a short time in his chosen field before a car accident took his life just over 20 years ago, Stephen's enthusiasm for his career lives on today. The Stephen Ashby Carpenter Memorial Scholarship started by his family continues to help Norfolk Public School counselors gain additional education.

After Stephen died Emily and Tom Carpenter, Stephen's mom and dad, set up a scholarship fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. Memorial donations from friends, colleagues and family helped build the permanent endowment in his name.

The Carpenter Scholarship has helped numerous counselors over the years. April 1 is the

Stephen Carpenter's passion was
helping Norfolk students.

deadline for counselors in the Norfolk Public School system to apply to be the next Carpenter Scholar. The recipient will receive a scholarship for 2014-15 to help pay for graduate study. There is a preference for counselors who work with disadvantaged Norfolk youth. Click here to learn more about applying for the scholarship.

Stephen Carpenter was just 25 years old and working as a guidance counselor at Azalea Gardens Middle School when he died in November 1993. He had just started at the school a few months earlier. Ironically, one of his first accomplishments was setting up a grief program for students having no idea they would need it so soon.

Stephen's family knew how hard the Hampden-Sydney College graduate had worked to earn his master's degree in counseling at Regent University while teaching French in a Norfolk middle school. That's one reason they chose to start a scholarship to help guidance counselors like Stephen gain additional education and skills.

The first Carpenter Scholarship recipient in 1996 was Dr. Reuthenia Clark, who was a guidance counselor at Azalea Garden Middle when she was selected. Today she is principal of the same school and credits the Carpenter scholarship with helping her complete her master's degree at Columbia University in New York. She went on to earn a doctorate from the University of Virginia.

"I knew I wanted to be somewhere where I could make a difference for students through their teachers," Clark says.

Another early Carpenter Scholarship recipient is Dr. Susan Sigler, the Maury High School guidance counselor in charge of scholarships. "The Carpenter Scholarship opened a world to me," she recalls. "It helped me earn my doctorate.from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale." From there Sigler has gone on to head various programs in the Norfolk school district and also to teach college courses in the area.

 (The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org.)

New Scholarship Lets Tommy Horvatic Live Forever

It's scholarship application season at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. This year the Hampton Roads Community Foundation is delighted to offer eight new scholarship funds to help students from southeastern Virginia attend college. Here is the story of one of our newest funds:

 

Rita Horvatic couldn't let her only son die.That's why the Virginia Beach, Virginia mother and her late husband Tom started

Anne Horvatic Chrisite & Rita Horvatic love to share Tommy's story.

giving scholarships in 1987. That was the year their only son Tommy -- the baby in their family of six -- would have graduated from Princess Anne High School.

After a 1986 car accident at the start of Tommy's senior year took his life, his family started collecting and recycling aluminum to earn money for scholarships in Tommy's name. Since 1987 the Horvatics have given $25,000 on their own to 25 Princess Anne graduates going on to college.

 In 2013 Tommy's mom made sure her son's legacy will continue forever.

Tommy Horvatic in 1986.

She donated $100,000 to create the permanent Tommy Horvatic Memorial Scholarship Fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.

Much of her charitable donation came from money earned by recycling aluminum.

Please take three minutes out of your busy day to let Rita Horvatic of Virginia Beach and her daughter Anne Horvatic Christie of Norfolk tell you in this video about Tommy and his scholarship legacy.

The new Tommy Horvatic Memorial Scholarship Fund is among more than 70 endowed scholarship funds administered by the community foundation. In 2013, 358 students are in college with help from $1 million in scholarships donated by people from all walks of life.
 

Applications are now available for the Horvatic Scholarship and the many others available for 2014-15. Scholarships were created by generous donors from all walks of life -- primarily for students from southeastern Virginia. The deadline to apply for most scholarships is February 28, 2014. Learn more.