Nikki Green loves everything about STHM. But taking five classes, all while completing an internship and working three jobs, has been “incredibly hard,” said the junior Sport and Recreation Management major, who admits she doesn’t get very much sleep.
That’s why it was so meaningful to have been awarded the recently established STHM Alumni Association Scholarship. “I don’t even know how to put it into words,” Green said. “STHM changed my life. Getting the scholarship just solidified that.”
The $1,000 scholarship provided Green piece of mind and a slice of financial freedom, all while demonstrating the growing commitment of STHM’s alumni base to its current student population.
For STHM Alumni Association board member Andy Carl, who chairs the board’s scholarship committee, the goal was to identify a passionate student who may then, in turn, become engaged as an alum. And Green, competing in a pool of about 30 to 40 applicants, certainly fit the mold. This past December, Green became the third all-time recipient of STHM’s Alumni Association Scholarship.
“One thing we ask of applicants is to write an essay about what Temple means to them and what their involvement is at Temple,” said Carl, a STHM alumnus who earned both his undergraduate degree in Sport and Recreation Management in 2007 and his Master of Education degree in Sport Administration in 2010.
“We look for people who are truly involved, care deeply about Temple and have a need for funding.”
The creation of the alumni association scholarship is a positive sign of STHM’s future, in that the School was founded fewer than two decades ago. And that it is accomplished entirely through alumni contributions is especially promising, said Kathe Archibald, STHM’s Director of Development and Alumni Relations.
“Alumni giving not only impacts the amount of financial support we can offer students, but it also shows that STHM alumni value their degrees and want to stay engaged with the School,” Archibald said. “One of the ways we measure success as a School is via alumni participation in giving. Thanks in part to the efforts of our alumni association board, this rate continues to increase each year.”
Archibald added that the scholarship is not only funded by alumni donations, but that the idea was conceived and is now executed by the 12-person alumni association board. And Carl, the sports sales manager at the Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Bureau, is pleased to spearhead those efforts and help the School blossom from its “infancy stages,” when he was an undergraduate.
“We have seen it grow to where we have young and successful alumni able to give back and help the students who are sitting in the chairs we were not more than a decade ago. It’s pretty inspiring,” said Carl, who has helped pick all three scholarship award winners. “As I got more settled in my career, I wanted to make it a point of giving students — not the same opportunity I had — but to have an even better experience at Temple.”
STHM students become members of the alumni association the day they graduate, Carl said. But Green, for one, doesn’t need to be offered any reminders, saying she plans to give back to the next generation of STHM students.
“It’s a very close-knit community,” said Green, who will receive her undergraduate degree in 2018 and then pursue STHM’s Master of Science in Sport Business the following year. “And to have all of these resources out there supporting my journey and other students’ journeys, it’s pretty amazing.”