Mahone Fund establishes UW-Parkside Scholarship
Published: April 1, 2014
The Mary Lou and Arthur F. Mahone Fund joined forces with Gateway Technical College, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and Carthage College to provide and celebrate improved access and affordability for students in Kenosha County. The Mary Lou and Arthur F. Mahone Fund will pay for two newly created endowed scholarships through UW-Parkside and Gateway to benefit area students of color in their pursuit of higher education. Carthage College also partnered with the fund to provide a full-tuition scholarship to an incoming 2014 freshman from Kenosha.
"The simple fact is there are ever-increasing barriers facing young people in reaching a better life through education, especially for minority students," said Timothy T. Mahone, representing the Mary Lou and Arthur F. Mahone Fund. "I am proud of our educational partners' ongoing commitment to sustain our community's great legacy of securing education for all students."
Representatives from all three institutions of higher education were on hand at the celebration Tuesday, April 1, at Gateway Technical College. Gateway President and CEO Bryan Albrecht, UW-Parkside Chancellor Debbie Ford, and Carthage President Gregory Woodward all spoke at the event, along with Mahone.
"Access to affordable education has always been embraced by members of our community," Ford said. "Whether it was community support for Gateway Technical College more than a century ago, welcoming Carthage to southeastern Wisconsin in 1962, or getting behind an idea in 1968 that a public, four-year university degree should be available to our residents, this latest collaboration is a testament to that ongoing commitment."
The endowed scholarships will support Gateway and UW-Parkside as they continue "Forward Together" by offering seven sweeping 2-plus-2 business-related program articulation agreements. The scholarships will benefit a Gateway student in one of the seven programs who has committed to transferring to UW-Parkside as part of the agreement. They will benefit through a scholarship while still at Gateway, then at UW-Parkside when they transfer to the four-year university.
"What we started at Gateway's Martin Luther King Jr. Education Summit in January comes to fruition today as all three local institutions of higher learning join with community-based organization – the Arthur and Mary Lou Mahone Fund – to ensure greater opportunities for area youth to obtain a college degree," said Albrecht. "We have identified several ways we can work together to support student success and increase access to higher education. This is the first of those joint efforts."
In an effort to increase access to higher education and student success in their future careers, the three institutions are strengthening the relationships to provide needed access for students in Kenosha County. At the educational summit hosted during Gateway's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, educational leaders discussed the status of southeastern Wisconsin educational programs and opportunities focused on minority student success.
The Carthage scholarship is one of five the college has implemented this year to promote diversity on campus. Carthage has a long-standing relationship with the Mahone Fund through the Reaching for Rainbows Pursuit of Excellence gala.
"The Carthage College Mahone Fund CEO Scholarship combines our support of the Kenosha community with our commitment to create diversity in education by furthering awareness, access and engagement," Woodward said.
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is one of 13 four-year campuses in the University of Wisconsin System. Founded in 1968 to better serve the needs of a growing population in southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois, UW-Parkside offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs and serves as an academic and cultural resource. The campus is located at 900 Wood Road in Somers.
The Mary Lou and Arthur F. Mahone Fund was created in 1998 to honor and perpetuate Mary Lou and Arthur's legacy of service and commitment to the Kenosha community. The mission of the Mahone Fund is to promote educational and career opportunities for students in need and to support healthy lifestyle initiatives which reduce overall health-care disparities among the Black population and the community at large.