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A Donor's Story 

Teenagers face daunting choices when they graduate from high school, ones with life-long impacts. I certainly impacted my future in the mid-1960s when I chose to get married, giving up a scholarship in the process.  By age 22, I was a stay-at-home mom with two wonderful little girls, but both my husband and I were anxious and determined to get our degrees. When our youngest entered nursery school, we decided it was time to restart our education. Thankfully, BSU was there to help with a combination of scholarships, work-study and loans. With the school’s support we were able to go full time, work part time and spend the evenings studying around the table as a family. It was a happy, productive time for all of us. 

Four years later my husband graduated with a degree in political science and began a career in economic development. Soon after, I followed with a degree in communication theory and went to work for Idaho Public Television. I told myself that when I was able, I would try to repay the support we’d received by endowing a scholarship.   

Later, I divorced and moved to Oregon where I started an advertising agency. During the next several years I managed my business and remarried. When I sold my company recently I started to think about that scholarship again. My husband, knowing how much my BSU education meant to me, generously offered to assist. With matching funds from the Boise Industrial Foundation we have now established the Ralston Family Scholarship which will assist students who are also parents.

Raising children and attending college at the same time was very difficult 25 years ago and can only be more so today. With the support of the BSU Foundation’s Development Director Rika Clement and Social Studies and Public Affairs Dean Mike Blankenship we discovered endowing a scholarship was simpler, more doable and more rewarding than we could have imagined. If you’ve ever considered exploring the possibilities, start by giving the BSU Foundation a call.

 --Jennifer Ralston Blair

Communication
Class of 1979
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Boise State University    •    1910 University Drive    •    Boise, Idaho 83725