Have you ever imagined that donating your blood could not only help the people who need it, but also help a student receive a scholarship?
The of Well-Being and the Vitalant Foundation have a partnership that makes this possible.
Vitalant, previously known as LifeShare Community Blood Services, used to work with the Office of Health Promotion at the DeWeese Health Center until COVID-19 happened, and offices were shut down.
However, Sierra Baker, M.Ed., CHES, coordinator, Student Health and Well-being, and Meghan Factor-Page, M.Ed., assistant director at the of Well-being, brought back this scholarship opportunity for students.
“Meghan and I started looking for potential gaps in service across the campus community, maybe some programs or services that used to happen but were no longer happening,” Baker said. “I used to work in the Office of Health Promotion, and I knew that [Vitalant] had this great program with donating blood and turning around and giving scholarships back to students.”
Vitalant awards a $500 scholarship for every 50 units of blood collected in an academic year. During the 2022-23 academic year, 109 units of blood were donated at the Recreation and Wellness Center, and two scholarships were awarded to students for the fall of 2023.
An interior design student, Natalie Thompson, felt honored to be awarded this scholarship from blood donations.
“Being awarded this scholarship means a lot to me because my grandfather had type O blood, so he was always willing to donate blood when needed,” Thompson said. “His kindness and generosity came back full circle to him towards the end of his life when he was diagnosed with leukemia and needed blood donations himself.”
Students do not need to have donated blood to apply for the scholarship. However, they must be U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents, enrolled during the upcoming fall semester as a full-time or part-time undergraduate student on the Kent Campus, and be in good academic standing.
Additionally, applicants need to submit a one-page statement regarding why they chose their college major, what contributions they would like to make to their field of study, and reflect on their academic excellence or recognition.
Baker mentioned that only a few students applied for this opportunity. “We haven’t had as many applications come in as I would like. I want everyone to be aware of this and go for it.”
The scholarship is a one-time-only award for each recipient, and the application is usually due near the end of April.
Katy Neff, account manager at Vitalant, mentioned the partnership first occurred during the 2005-06 school year. Neff stated that 370 scholarships totaling $185,000 have been awarded, and 13,641 blood donations have been collected.
“These generous gifts were used to sustain or save the lives of up to 40,923 patients in need. The impact these events have had is unbelievable,” Neff said.
The of Well-Being plans to partner again with the Vitalant Foundation for the upcoming academic year.
“We don’t know how many scholarships we’ll give away because we don’t know how much blood we’re going to collect,” Baker said. “But I always tell students to apply for the scholarship at any time throughout the year because I feel like they forget about this by the time April comes around.”
The upcoming blood drives will happen on September 20 and 21, 2023, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Student Recreation and Wellness Center.