By Richard May
“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” That quote by Malcolm Forbes is posted at the top of APRO’s Education Foundation web page. Since 2008, when the association began awarding scholarships annually, APRO members have embraced Forbe’s observation and given generously to the fund. The scholarship program has been a tremendous success. There are now more than 100 students whose minds APRO has helped open. In addition, those students have a bit less debt and a more positive outlook. Their futures look bright! APRO’s Education Foundation awarded its first scholarship to Penny Wyatt, an employee at Show Me Rent to Own in Desloge, Missouri. Wyatt, who is also a 2014 scholarship recipient, represents the first beneficiary of a committed journey that began in 2002 to help rent-to-own professionals and their family members pursue higher education and fulfill dreams.
While it’s been a long journey from the planning stages to the rousing success the program is today, the underlying need for APRO’s scholarship fund has not changed in the past decade. Higher education is outrageously expensive-so expensive that many are unable to attend college or, if they dare enroll, find themselves thousands of dollars in debt upon graduation. The average cost for one semester in a four-year university program, including room and board, is $11,000, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center of Education Statistics. That adds up to at least $88,000 needed to earn a bachelor’s degree over four years and does not include other basic living expenses.
From generous donations by APRO members, TRIB Group members and RTO-industry vendors, more than 100 students have received scholarship money totaling over $280,000 since 2008. Donations are made through APRO dues payment deductions, during APRO’s annual Legislative Conference fundraising event and via a raffle drawn at the association’s National Conference & Trade Show. Thanks to the diligent efforts of David P. David, APRO’s immediate past president, last year’s raffle prize was a Harley-Davidson; at next spring’s conference in Daytona Beach, the plan is to raffle off a sporty convertible to raise funds for scholarships- but remember, you’ve got to play, er pay, to win! If a Harley or convertible don’t entice you to make a donation, the energetic and very entertaining fundraising antics during both the Legislative Conference and National Conference & Trade Show, featuring two of the scholarship program’s leading advocates, Larry Carrico and Jamie Slatton, are impossible to ignore.
In addition to the rousing pleas by Carrico and Slatton, other APRO members have also been crucial in the development of APRO’s Education Foundation and the scholarships it awards. In 2002, Shannon Strunk, then APRO’s public relations chair, urged then-president Gary Romine to shift APRO’s philanthropic efforts to a scholarship fund specifically for rent-to-own employees and their children. Strunk’s thinking was that almost all APRO members have their own local charitable causes to which they contribute, and that helping those pursuing higher education had universal appeal, making it a good fit for a nationally based effort. From 2002 to 2008, the scholarship fund was fed. The goal was to have enough money in the pot to make a significant difference for college-bound students. In 2008, the first scholarship was awarded, a total of $2,000 to one recipient, Penny Wyatt. In 2014, a total of $115,500 was awarded to 34 recipients. Not bad for a program that’s only been awarding scholarships for six years! And the fund continues to be fed.
While the amount raised is impressive, the scholarship applications are likewise impressive-the quantity and quality of the applications have also increased each year. More than 80 applications were submitted last year alone. Applicants are judged on their community and charitable efforts, prior academic performance, financial need and a written essay addressing how the rent-to-own industry positively impacts consumers. Students must be rent-to-own professionals or a child of a rent-to-own professional who is employed by an APRO-member company. They must have at least a 3.0 grade point average and be accepted into an accredited university or college.
APRO has applauded members’ donations in its publications, online and at its annual conferences. Contributors certainly deserve a pat on the back. But listening to and observing the real-world impact these donations have made to the students’-and their parents’-lives is the best pat on the back money can buy. Meeting the recipients, hearing their stories of how APRO’s Education Foundation has helped, is how one truly understands the value of the program.
Two-time APRO scholarship recipient Haley Sims is the first of her siblings to graduate from high school, let alone go on to college. Sims addressed attendees at APRO’s National Conference in 2012, expressing how important a college education is to her and her future.
“I’m going to make my- and my mother’s- dream come true by being the first Sims generation to obtain a college degree and walk across the stage, thanks to APRO members’ generosity,” Sims says. Currently, she is a junior at the University of Cincinnati and is not the only scholarship recipient who is first in the family to go to college.
University of Georgia senior Michael Elkik is a four-time scholarship winner who plans to graduate next spring. “It is incredible how much I’ve been able to accomplish over these past three years with APRO’s support. The journey has been amazing and I’m really blessed to have APRO members invest in me and my future,” Elkik says. “My goal is to show them how much of my future has been realized due to their support.”
Michael Elkik’s brother, Nick, is a two time recipient. While they were growing up, Michael and Nick’s mother, Ann Elkik, stressed upon both of them how important college would be for their future. All three were ecstatic when they won. Ann recalls discovering on APRO’s website that Michael had won a scholarship. When she saw his name on the list of recipients, Ann screamed out loud. “I went up to Michael’s room and was trying to get him to come down and see ‘something’ on the computer. He was half asleep and kept asking me to just tell him what it was and he would see it on the computer later. l finally had to tell him ‘You won!’ His eyes popped open and he sat up. ‘What? I won?’ We still laugh about that because I never saw a person go from sleepy to wide awake so quickly,” Ann recalls.
Michael Elkik joins Kiersten Scheele and Faith Jennings as the three APRO scholarship recipients who have been honored four times in a row. Jennings is now a doctoral student at the University of Kentucky in the Pharmacy College. Scheele is pursuing a doctoral degree in occupational therapy at the University of Toledo.
With sincere gratitude and a great sigh of relief, Scheele reveals that without this year’s scholarship, she may not have had the means to continue her education. “This scholarship has helped me tremendously over the past few years, and honestly, I’m not sure I’d have made it this far without [APRO’s] help,” Scheele says.
The RTO industry and APRO members have a reputation for helping the communities in which they do business, performing charitable deeds and donating to worthy causes year round. That “pay-it-forward” philosophy has influenced the APRO scholarship judging process, which determines who will receive money. The way the fund is dispersed distinguishes the association’s scholarship program from thousands of other programs across the country that award scholarships based solely on grades. In addition to scholastic achievement requirements, APRO scholarships are designed to reward those who go above and beyond, performing good deeds in their communities and demonstrating a passion for helping others. APRO encourages recipients to continue their charity and pay it forward whereever and whenever possible.
“To know that there are actually people out there who are selfless enough to invest in someone else’s education makes my outlook on the world all the more brighter,” says 2014 recipient Za’Kazia Morgan.
“I hope one day to help others as you have helped me,” writes Shamaica Lewis, another recent scholarship winner.
Taylor Mullins, a 2013 recipient, affirms Lewis’ “pay-it-forward” pledge. “The APRO scholarship helps immensely, especially considering that I’ve got four siblings following behind me. APRO members’ generosity means so much to me; it’s helping me reach my dreams-studying psychology and eventually earning my master’s degree in occupational therapy, so that I can use my skills to help others.”
Patrick Estep, a two-time scholarship recipient, is also seeking a career that helps others. Last year, he graduated magna cum laude in biomedical engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In addition to serving as an ambassador for his honors program, a peer mentor for incoming freshmen and a tutor for at-risk youth, Estep has also conducted research with far-reaching and potentially life-saving implications. In college, he was required to research an important scientific topic and develop a thesis. He opted to do research on cardiovascular stents, a device designed to open blocked arteries. “Cardiovascular disease is America’s number-one killer and more than 800,000 people receive stents each year, but currently, stents have a 10 percent to 15 percent failure rate, which equals about 100,000 patients a year,” Estep says. “My work was to reduce or completely eliminate that failure rate.”
RTO dealers are in the relationship business, and that is just one reason I support APRO’s Education Foundation-to nurture the aspirations of those who believe in the value of relationships, a value that is harder to find in today’s business environment,” says Spencer Smith, owner of Smith Group, an APRO member based in Cortez, Colorado. “Anything my organization can do to support the youth of the families who continue to build the RTO industry is a value Smith Group believes in.”
Jamie Slatton also recognizes the benefit to the RTO industry: “APRO’s Education Foundation creates future ambassadors for the rent-to-own industry from these grateful kids. It contributes to the betterment of mankind in a way that rent-to-own naysayers just can’t argue with.”
“Awarding these scholarships lifts us up as an organization, coming together to help change people’s lives in profound ways,” says Shannon Strunk, the one who started it all in 2002. He looks forward to the next stage of APRO’s Education Foundation, one where the fund maintains a $1 million balance and yearly scholarships are generated from the interest alone. And he is eager to see at least one scholarship recipient become one of the next great innovators in the rent-to-own industry. *
Richard May is APRO’s public affairs director. Learn more about APRO’s Education Foundation Scholarship program and find out how you can contribute to the APRO Education Foundation’s scholarship fund.
