On Tuesday, June 3, the Legacy Foundation invited scholarship recipients, along with their close friends and family, to the Croatian Center Banquet Hall in Merrillville to celebrate its annual scholarship awards dinner.
Jodi Kateiva, Legacy Foundation scholarship administrator, believes this is one of the most special celebrations that the organization hosts all year.
“This is our seventh annual event,” Kateiva said. “It’s a fun night to celebrate all of the recipients for their hard work while bringing families together. We’re thankful for our donors because they are the ones that make these scholarships possible.”
The Legacy Foundation has a review team of more than 70 people who help out with the scholarship process. This year, more than 500 applications were submitted from throughout the community.
“This event is awesome because it continues to grow every year,” Kateiva said. “It’s a great opportunity because a lot of our parents really only know about what we’re doing with the scholarships. This event gives us a chance to talk about some of the other areas that we focus on with the Legacy Foundation. We want people to understand the impact that we have in this community, which includes our scholarships.”
A myriad of scholarships were presented at the dinner, including scholarships for both high school and college students of various majors.
One of this year’s recipients for the John W. Anderson Scholarship is Samantha Bunag. She is a recent graduate of Washington Township High School. Bunag is incredibly grateful to be selected for this opportunity and looks forward to how this will help in her educational journey.
“It’s honestly a life-changing opportunity for me,” Bunag said. “Getting recognition like this is incredible. I’m going into Purdue University’s engineering program and hope to do computer engineering, so this $10,000 a year throughout my college experience is going to help me out a lot.”
Laura Reid is a volunteer scholarship reviewer with the Legacy Foundation who served as a guest speaker at the event. She understands how much students like Bunag wanted these scholarships, and it's a fulfilling moment to see these recipients get their flowers.
“Every year, I’m more and more impressed and inspired by the students in our community,” Reid said. “I'm given a unique opportunity to reflect on my own experience in reviewing for these scholarships. Service isn’t just something you get to do in high school – it’s something you get to do all throughout life.”
Reid was a recipient of the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship in 2018. She has a special place in her heart for this award, as it helped shape her own educational journey.
“The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship is a full-tuition scholarship,” Reid said. “For me to be able to have that scholarship and then pay it forward while giving back to the organization that administered my own seven years ago, it’s been a full circle moment for me. There’s a whole network of people who have received the scholarship throughout the state, and it's great to see Lake County be a part of that network.”
John Freyek, chair of the Legacy Foundation board of directors, has a lot of admiration for not only this event but the students who go the extra mile to improve their futures.
“This event means a lot to the Legacy Foundation because it’s in our name already. We want to help leave something behind,” Freyek said. “When you see so many young people who are getting so many different scholarships, it gives you hope for the next generation of people in Lake County. We’re happy to be in a position to help further their education.”
Freyek also works as a market president for one of the Legacy Foundation’s partners, Horizon Bank. He understands the value of partnerships when it comes to the Legacy Foundation bringing opportunities to life in Lake County.
“Sponsorship means that we want to be something and we want to help,” Freyek said. “Everybody that came out to this event believes in what the Legacy Foundation is doing or wants to learn more about it. We believe the grants help strengthen Lake County, and there is a level of trust that the Legacy Foundation is doing the right things in our communities.”
In total, the John W. Anderson Foundation Scholarship awarded $120,000 to three recipients, and the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship awarded $778,668 to six recipients. Additionally, a total of $256,000 was presented to scholarship recipients for one-year awards, and $244,000 was presented to scholarship recipients for four-year awards.
Sponsors for this year’s awards dinner include the Lilly Endowment Inc., John W. Anderson Foundation, Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation, NiSource, and NIPSCO.
For more information on the Legacy Foundation, you can visit legacyfdn.org.
