2010 Scholarship Drive – A Success!

Due to the high volume of donations  that the UW Foundation receives in December, the books for 2010 will not close until sometime in January 2011. However, preliminary indications are that the 2010 SOMAA scholarship drive will surpass last  year and could approach our best year of 2007. Thank you to all who contributed again this year and to the first time contributors to the scholarship fund. A final report of contributions will be made in the next edition of Modulations.

SOMAA is now assisting eight students in the School of Music: seniors, Shohreh Davoodi, oboe and Daniel Kim, viola; juniors, David Olson, voice and Judith Stephen, French horn; Sophomores, Liza Garza, percussion and Mark Hatfield, trumpet; freshmen, Alice Bartsch, violin and Eric Ellis, clarinet. Each of the students has received a four year $8,000.00 scholarship.

When SOMAA established the scholarship program for incoming freshmen in 2002, the board hoped to be able to provide $5,000.00 a year to the SOM for a scholarship, which would be matched by the UW Foundation. We also hoped to have $50,000.00 in our UW Foundation account by 2010 towards a future endowment fund. The generosity of our alumni has enabled SOMAA to far surpass those initial goals. In eight short years the SOMAA scholarship fund has provided $104,000.00 for the SOM.

The scholarship program was started during my time as the first president of SOMAA and I have been working with it ever since then. It is time to hand the leadership over to a new person on the board. It has been an exciting and rewarding nine years. I have relived many memories and friendships as I addressed letters to classmates and colleagues. Those of you who I have never met have become “friends” as I feel that I have come to know you, recognizing your names and addresses. My personal thank you  for your support of the SOMAA scholarship fund. I hope you will all continue your support so that SOMAA can assist future young musicians attending our beloved School of Music.

Tom Buchhauser, chair

SOMAA Scholarship Committee