{"id":54635,"date":"2012-05-08T11:18:37","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T15:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=54635"},"modified":"2015-12-11T11:46:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T16:46:28","slug":"mds-2012-scholarship-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2012\/05\/08\/mds-2012-scholarship-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Student stories underscore the value of Bates philanthropy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Karl Fisher '14, left, talks with Charles E. Clark '51 at the Mount David Society Scholarship Luncheon on March 30. Clark is the author of Bates Through the Years: An Illustrated History, published as part of the college's 2005 sesquicentennial.<\/p><\/div>\n

Romina Istratii ’12 of Athens, Greece, says she was fortunate to find Bates on the map when she did her college search.<\/p>\n

“And that is how it happened \u2014 I opened a map,” she said with a smile.<\/p>\n

Her quip, delivered at the Mount David Society<\/a> Scholarship Luncheon on March 30, drew a warm laugh from the gathering of donors whose philanthropy helps to fund the college’s nearly $30 million outlay of scholarship aid each year.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the warmth radiating from the audience toward the several student speakers reflected something senior Jeff Beaton of Haverhill, Mass., said in his remarks.<\/p>\n

At Bates, he said, “We all want to see each other succeed. We are interested in each other’s passions. We thrive on celebrating each other’s achievements and we care wholeheartedly about each other’s success.”<\/p>\n

Bates, she says, “gave me confidence and it gave me a dream.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Istratii made sure the donors understood the value-added proposition of their philanthropy to Bates, a place of “extraordinary character in a world of very ordinary things.”<\/p>\n