Scruggs scholarship offers average students a chance
February 26, 2007
“Dad had an expression for people who had ambition, but were being held back by circumstances. He’d say, ‘Just give them the ball, and they’ll run with it.’ In other words, if you simply give these people a chance, they’ll do the rest.”—Dana Scruggs
Charlie Scruggs’ belief in the potential of others is the inspiration for the “Your Chance” Scholarship, established for Indiana University Kokomo students by Charlie’s daughter Dana Scruggs. While many academic grants benefit those with the highest academic standings, she wanted C+ (2.5 GPA) students to be able to compete for the scholarship honoring the memory of her father, a long-time Kokomo defense attorney who died in 2006.
This different approach reflects Charlie’s style. Respected for his professionalism and common sense in the courtroom, Charlie also loved riding motorcycles and once served on an Indianapolis 500 pit crew.
“The mainstream didn’t apply to him,” Dana recalled. “He’d do things other people wouldn’t do,” such as the time he convinced an IU dean to give a second chance to a neighbor of the Scruggs family. The young man had reluctantly dropped out of IU Bloomington and was waiting tables in Kokomo when Charlie encountered him. The next day, Charlie was in the dean’s office in Bloomington with the young man, negotiating. The dean agreed that, if the young man would enroll at IU Kokomo and earn good grades for one semester, he would be readmitted at Bloomington. The student lived up to Charlie’s belief, graduating from IU and becoming a podiatrist. His younger brother and another neighbor followed him into that field. “Just look at the ripple effect [Charlie’s actions] had,” Dana said.
Dana chose IU Kokomo as her scholarship beneficiary in order to set off a similar ripple effect. Her dad worked his way through law school; many IU Kokomo students also handle jobs and families while studying, she noted. “They have a lot of ‘real life’ on their shoulders . . . It’s harder for them to get as much out of school as they can. Yet school seems to make the biggest differences in these students’ lives and in the lives of people around them.”
Society as a whole benefits by helping this “middle section, these ‘average students’ who are often discounted,” Dana said. “If someone really wants an education and you can take some of the pressure off them [through financial aid], they can skyrocket.”
Dana Scruggs’ own life has been and continues to be transformed by higher education. A nationally competitive cyclist in the 1970s, she moved from Kokomo to Boulder, Colorado to attend college, but mainly to “ride her bike in the mountains.” She “fell in love with school” and earned a bachelor’s degree in German in the hopes of working as a translator. Four years after graduation, she was hired by a German corporation in Indianapolis to work as a bilingual secretary and translator.
Ten years ago, she made the leap to become a self-employed technical translator, working out of Indianapolis for her former employer, and branching out into patent translation for other German corporations. “Patents are written by engineers, so I realized I needed two languages—German and ‘engineering,’ ” she said. Dana began taking courses through technical schools and, eventually, IUPUI, where she’s now a student in the School of Engineering and Technology. This education allows her to better understand and describe the technical details of patents and products, ranging from automotive to medical. In 2006, her business reached its first million dollars in transactions.
Not resting on her success, Dana is still picking up new skills through classes and at translation conferences and manufacturing trade shows. Networking is also important, such as attending a recent workshop for women entrepreneurs sponsored by the IU Kelley School of Business. “When you own the business, the only thing you have is the quality of your work,” she said. “You learn from your mistakes, and you push the envelope. You do things you never thought you could—mainly because you have to, but also because you love it.”
Or, as Charlie Scruggs might say, you take a chance.
For more information on applying for the “Your Chance” Scholarship, contact the IU Kokomo Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, (765) 455-9216. Contributions may be made to the “Your Chance” Scholarship fund by contacting the Office of External Relations at (765) 455-9415.
