$76,000 goes to the class of 2019
By Bay Stephens EBS LOCAL EDITOR
BIG SKY – Sara Davis, 19,
wakes up at 4 a.m. each morning to prepare for the day. Davis and her boyfriend
leave their apartment in Bozeman by 5 a.m. so he can arrive punctually at his
job at Spanish Peaks Mountain Club. Davis then drives the car back into town to
work at the Country Market in Meadow Village from 6:30-ll a.m. when she heads
to school at Lone Peak High School.
After school gets out at 2:45
p.m., she babysits her “little” Bentley, who she was paired with through the
Big Sky chapter of the mentorship program Big Brothers Big Sisters. That’s a
normal day for Davis, who, coming from an upbringing marred by drugs, alcohol
and abuse, left her parents’ home in North Dakota as soon as she turned 18. She
chose to finish her last year of school at Lone Peak High School, and is set to
graduate in June.
On April 4, Davis was
awarded three scholarships totaling $3,500 through the Friends of Big Sky
Education community scholarship program, opening the door for her to attend the
interior design program at Montana State University’s Gallatin College,
something she’d never thought possible.
“Pretty much before this
year, I wasn’t going to go to college,” Davis said.
She was one of 14
graduating seniors who received a total of $76,050 in scholarships from the Big
Sky community. Kegan Babick, Kodi Boersma, Brooke Botha, Kolya Bough, Sam
Johnson, Ava King, Cole March, Rowan Merryman, Dawson Raden, Milosz Shipman,
Solae Swenson, Emma Tompkins and Myles Wilson were also awarded scholarships.
FOBSE has acted as a
conduit for the community to give over $257,000 in scholarships to 72 students throughout
the past five years, garnering the support of local businesses, families and
foundations to aid students in their pursuits of higher education or trade
school.
The organization was founded
in 2003 by Anne Marie and Jerry Mistretta with the express goal of building a
high school in Big Sky. Once Lone Peak High was realized in 2009, they concluded
FOBSE’s purpose needed some refinement; in 2014, they decided to start a
scholarship program, raising $25,000 from a few families who donated heavily.
“We wanted to give the
community the opportunity to demonstrate to the kids their support for their
hard work,” Jerry said.
Since then, an ever-growing
number of donors and sponsors has allowed available scholarship funds to
increase as BSSD’s graduating classes do.
Davis received a $1,500 scholarship
from the Glore Family Fund, a sum designated for a student who lives in a
non-nuclear family. Additionally, she received a $1,000 multiyear scholarship
from the Agency Insurance Division and $1,000 from Big Sky Build, both of which
are reserved for students with a trade related study trajectory.
“There are these
stereotypes of Big Sky students as rich and privileged,” Jerry said. “That’s
not true of all the students. The high school has the whole spectrum, and our
goal is to serve every one of them, if they meet the criteria.”
Visit friendsofbigskyeducation.org to learn more about Friends of Big Sky Education.
