Funding Dreams

By Corey Jenkins Schaut, MPA ’07

For many students across the university, paying for tuition and books is tough. Sometimes, it looks like it just isn’t possible. Sometimes, students have to make difficult decisions about whether they can continue their education.

To assist students facing this dilemma, the university undertook the Campaign for Mason Students in 2004 to raise funds for need- and merit-based scholarships, University Libraries, and other student support services. Committee cochairs Jimmy Hazel, JD ’84, a George Mason University Foundation trustee, and university Provost Peter Stearns report that more than $11 million has been raised to date. The targeted initiative ends on June 30.

Prentice Whitlow and Kennedy Keenan, now both within reach of graduation, are but two examples of the hundreds of students who have already benefited. Thanks to private support, they are a little closer to achieving their dreams.

Prentice Whitlow

A Passion to Perform and Teach

During his senior year of high school in 2003, Prentice Whitlow was a coordinator for arts programming at a community center near his home in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The center did not have any dance programs, so he sought to start one.

“I thought it would be easy. I’d just go take some dance classes at my high school and bring back what I knew,” Whitlow remembered. It turned out to be a little more complicated than that, but he was determined to bring the joy of dance to others.

This determination to learn and succeed has pervaded much of Whitlow’s life. When he could not attend college right after high school, he worked for a year while continuing to dance, teach, and choreograph. During that time, he managed to scrape together enough money to visit, and eventually attend, a small university in Missouri to study dance. Whitlow spent two years there before deciding to come home. He enrolled at Mason in spring 2006.

Dance Department Chair Elizabeth Price is grateful Whitlow chose Mason. “Prentice is a really talented dance artist,” she says. Price notes that, most recently, Whitlow was selected for two works presented at the annual gala dance concert, “Gloria” by Mark Morris and “Reach” by Patrick Corbin.

Whitlow appreciates the opportunity to work with the guest artists who come to the university. He also values the range of Mason’s program, in which he can both perform and choreograph.

After Whitlow transferred to Mason, financing his education was a problem. By fall 2007, he was not sure he could afford to finish his degree until scholarship support made it possible. During the 2007–08 academic year, Whitlow received multiple scholarships, including the Wachovia Bank Arts Scholarship and an award to help him purchase textbooks.

Whitlow also received the Amy Kruppenbacher Memorial Scholarship, which was established by Kruppenbacher’s parents, Paul and Sharon. Sharon is a former staff member in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Receiving this award has special significance to Whitlow.

“The fact that her family’s generosity has provided me with means is the same thing as them giving me a push,” he says. “It’s like they are saying, ‘You can do this, we expect great things out of you.’ That’s pretty meaningful to me.”

All signs indicate that Whitlow will live up to those expectations. The senior, who has made the Dean’s List every semester since coming to Mason, hopes to eventually become an artistic director.

In the meantime, Whitlow continues to develop his craft both at Mason and with community performance organizations. He is an instructor at Imagination Stage in Bethesda and the Northeast Performing Arts Group in Washington, D.C. He will launch his full-time artistic career after he graduates in December 2008.

Kennedy Keenan

A Call to Serve Others

Public service has shaped Kennedy Keenan’s life, almost from the start. With a father and brother who are both firefighters, it’s not much of a surprise that she feels so compelled to give back to the community.

“College students may not have a lot to offer financially,” she notes, “but I think college students have the ability to give in so many other ways.”

Keenan’s personal volunteer efforts have included everything from making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the homeless to fulfilling a young leukemia patient’s wish to attend a Mason basketball game and meet the team.

A junior, Keenan serves as a Mason Ambassador for prospective students and is the group’s community outreach coordinator. In that role, each semester, she organizes the ambassadors’ volunteer project, such as the holiday party for foster children this past December.

Keenan loves her volunteer work, but she is also passionate about her future career. The government and international politics major is an intern with the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) in Fairfax.

Amy Hultman, Keenan’s internship coordinator at IAFC, says the association staff is “counting the days until she graduates” from Mason, hoping she will become a full-time employee.

“Kennedy demonstrates the personal and professional qualities that employers cherish,” Hultman says. In particular, Hultman attributes Keenan’s work on the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System with contributing to improved safety and training for firefighters.

Keenan’s internship, class load, and volunteer work keep her busy—but in a different way. At one point, she was working three jobs to pay for her education. Scholarship support has allowed her to cut back.

During the 2007–08 academic year, she received the Olza M. and Sally A. Nicely Scholarship, which was established by an alumnus, who is a former George Mason University Foundation trustee, and his wife. Keenan also received the George Mason University Alumni Association Service Scholarship and the Samuel and Daphonal Bell Scholarship, an endowment established through an estate gift to the university.

She describes receiving this support as having a domino effect. While Keenan has always been a good student, she was able to earn straight A’s for the first time in her academic career and has made the Dean’s List for the past two semesters.

Keenan hopes to graduate early from her program within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and apply for another of the college’s programs, a master’s degree in public administration. Ultimately, she wants to work in emergency management in her home state of Delaware while continuing to make a difference in her community through volunteer work.

At Mason, there is more than $18 million in unmet student financial need each year. For information on helping to close this gap, call 703-993-8740 or visit supportingmason.gmu.edu.