The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges                      
250 E. Broad St., Suite 1700
Columbus, Ohio 43215-3722

For more information contact Lynne Briggs or Cheryl Kight at
614-469-1950 or briggs@ofic.org, kight@ofic.org

 

STOW RESIDENT, RECIPIENT OF HASLINGER FAMILY FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP, PURSUING MARKETING AT JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY

Jessica Lau, from Stow, Ohio is a senior at John Carroll University majoring in Marketing with a minor in philosophy.  She is the recipient, for the second year, of a scholarship from the Sandra L. and Dennis B. Haslinger Family Foundation through The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges’ Ohio Scholars Program. 

Jessica, who comes from a single-parent family and will be a first-generation college graduate, wrote to her scholarship donor, “Thank you for helping me through this journey”.  She expresses profound appreciation, on behalf of her family, for the financial assistance.  Her mother, she states, owns and manages a small family-operated take-out restaurant and is supporting not only Jessica but also her older brother, who is studying for his master’s in Education at John Carroll.  She describes her brother as a “very intelligent math nerd who wants to teach high school calculus” and credits him with strongly influencing her interests and goals.  Jessica herself works two jobs, one as assistant manager to her mother, in which position she is responsible for all aspects of the restaurant’s daily operation.

Maintaining an impressive 3.6 grade average, Jessica plans to work as a marketing analyst or go into sales.  She praises John Carroll’s academic programs and says that, in addition to business and technical theories and practices, the university’s liberal arts teaching has instilled in her the ideals of humanism, pragmatism and compassion for others.   “I doubt”, says Jessica, “that I would have developed these values to such a degree at any other school in the area.”

OFIC is the primary corporate and foundation solicitation organization for 34 independent Ohio colleges and universities and operates one of the largest, most comprehensive and diverse scholarship management services in the state.  OFIC member colleges collectively enroll nearly 97,000 students and award one-third of all bachelor’s degrees in the state. For 58 years OFIC has worked to highlight the leadership, value and excellence of independent higher education and has provided unrestricted operating funds and scholarship commitments through funds raised in annual solicitations of businesses and foundations, thereby assuring continuation of excellence in private higher education. OFIC is governed by a Board of Trustees comprised of Ohio’s corporate leaders, as well as presidents of the 34 member colleges.

The member colleges are:  Ashland University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Bluffton University, Capital University, Cedarville University, University of Dayton, Defiance College, Denison University, The University of Findlay, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Franklin University, Heidelberg College, Hiram College, John Carroll University, Kenyon College, Lake Erie College, Lourdes College, Malone University, Marietta College, Mount Union College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Muskingum College, Notre Dame College, Oberlin College, Ohio Dominican University, Ohio Northern University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Otterbein College, Urbana University, Ursuline College, Walsh University, Wilmington College, Wittenberg University and The College of Wooster.