Tuesday, June 10, 2014

SECU Scholarship

 

That image says it all.  Well, almost...

ChinaBoi's grandmother was a Maryland State employee prior to retirement.  And since she is retired, she has donated a portion of her time to trying to find scholarships for both me and ChinaBoi. So, every once in a while, I find a link in my inbox to a scholarship for which she thinks one of us might qualify.  One of those links was from the credit union she was a member of when working for State.  

This one really worked out for ChinaBoi, because the "essay" could be submitted as a video.  So he practiced what he wanted to say and recorded himself on his iPad, and I gave myself a crash course in learning how to do closed-captioning.  A few weeks later, we got word that Charlie's video was one of the winners!  

They invited us to what turned out to be a beautiful ceremony at the SECU arena at Towson University, where they had a HUGE catered buffet.  Y'all do remember the hunger issues, right?  For ChinaBoi, it's all about the food...  

There were 13 winners, 10 of them written essays, and 3 of them videos.  Charlie won a $1,000 scholarship, and when he submits a follow-up video in September, they will provide ANOTHER $1,000. 

I have to say, I was really impressed with all that I learned during the ceremony about what SECU does to help students in Maryland.  One of OldestSon's chronic complaints about the educational system in Maryland is that he graduated with no financial literacy skills whatsoever.  SECU sees that issue as a problem and is really putting resources in place to combat that and provide students with education about student debt, entrepreneurship, and money management skills.  ChinaBoi has decided to open an account with them even though he has an account with another credit union. 

They gave each of the winners an oversized check to keep, and they showed the videos during the ceremony.  Charlie got a little choked up watching his video; they caught that moment on film--and put it into the video they made commemorating the scholarships.  When I asked him later what was going through his mind at that moment, he said he was thinking again about how awful life was as a deaf person in China, and how wonderful it was to be here in America where deaf people have the same opportunities as everyone else.  

Okay, I'll admit it.  I cried the rest of the way home.