Continuing Unexpected Connections/MSI Endowment

The Endowment has been established as a part of the Mesa Scholarship Initiative. The following is a statement from the donor on the inspiration to establish the Endowment. My name is Joyce Owens. As a child I grew up in a loving blue collar family. My dad was a diesel mechanic and my mom started working part-time in a cafeteria when I was 10. After my oldest brother graduated from college there was no doubt in my parent’s minds that they wanted my other brother and me to go to college and graduate from it. They saw the difference a college degree and training made in my brother Jay’s life. So, in 1970 I went to a junior college in New Jersey where we lived. I was able to earn enough money with a minimum wage summer job to pay for my tuition, plus worked 15 hours a week in the college library on a Federal work study program to cover the rest of my expenses. After raising 6 kids there was not a lot of extra money in my family to pay for college. My dad retired while I was attending college with over 40 years working for the bus company. I went on to get a bachelor’s degree from a university in Florida with an out of state tuition waiver because I graduated junior college with honors. I was just an average student in high school but found college so much more interesting that I graduated with honors from both the college and later the university. My motivation to start this scholarship comes from wanting other young people who are growing up in Mesa County in a similar income background as I did to have the opportunity to also attend college. College costs have just skyrocketed from what I paid when I started in 1970. Now a minimum wage summer job would not cover even half of the tuition costs. Hum ….. How did I pick the name for this scholarship endowment? “Continuing Unexpected Connections”. That’s another story. In 2012 after becoming a widow, I decided I needed to broaden my life by doing trips with the Museum of Western Colorado. Here I got my first connections. It wasn’t easy for me to travel with strangers as I tend to be a bit shy but under the leadership of Zeb Miracle, Curator of Archeology, I found I really enjoyed the trips. So those trips started a friendship with Zeb who is an excellent trip leader and a very caring person. This year I signed up for a trip with the Museum, with Joe Higgins as the leader, to the Hopi and Navajo reservations. The next unexpected connection. While on the trip I met Judge Delfred Leslie and Sandra Ami, Hopi friends of Joe’s who led us on our tour of the Hopi Reservation. We found we had something unusual in common that gave us a strong bond which has grown. Joe, Delfred and Sandra have all been involved in helping young people for many years and are amazing people. While traveling, Joe told me about the Colorado Mesa Scholarship Initiative and invited me to a luncheon to learn more about it when I showed interest in it. The Museum, Zeb, Joe, Delfred, Sandra and I are all unexpectedly connected through these trips and all contributed to my making the decision to start this endowed scholarship. I believe in repaying kindness shown to me by passing it on in some way to other people. All of these people I’ve named also pass on kindness. So though the money for the scholarship comes from me, it is really a gift from all of us to you and your family, the ones who will benefit from the scholarships. It is also a way to honor and thank the people who are part of this connection. Please repay this by passing on kindness in some way to others. That will continue the unexpected connections to many new places. This scholarship also shows how having the Museum of Western Colorado in our area helps others in unexpected ways. My thanks to them too. Lastly, it also is in memory of my husband Doug who put up with my wanting to save money for the future. I know he would have liked me spending some of it in this way.