Free Education

I don’t know if all children are so self-focused, but I suppose many of them are. Food appears on a table, clothes are provided, and the warmth of a home surrounds them. The financial situations of parents are rarely shared with the children.

My parents always seemed to have enough. We went on long vacations to Yellowstone, my step-dad purchased all types of recreation equipment, tucks, jeeps, campers and trailers. Y mom always made sure we had food and clothes.

Still, I suspected things were tight, and in the few discussions we had, my mother wasn’t certain how to pay for my college. She was helping with Mark, as well as with my grandfather who had a home conveniently located in Provo.

So I applied for scholarships. Miracles occurred. Somehow, I did well on the NMPQSAT. The testing board advised me to take the SAT on the chance that I might win a scholarship. The short story is that I took the test and I won a scholarship, but there are more angles in it that that.

When I registered for the ST, I was faced with the choice of testing locations. Students in Utah did not typically take the SAT, rather, the preferred tests for Western schools wa the ACT. I don’t remember the choices I was offered in the application process., but either the week did not work or the location was miles away. So I chose two locations that might work – the University of Utah high school and Dugway Proving Grounds, where the Army had a post.

Of course, in the beauty of bureaucracies somehow I was assigned to take the SAT at the Dugway Proving Grounds site rather than the University of Utah. I didn’t know how to change the venue. Instead, my step-dad – having taken away my driving privileges due to an accident between the Blazer and a gate at the high school – drove me across the valleys of Utah on that quiet Saturday morning.

I met the double handful of fellow students there to take the test. They were from the post. I was the outsider. I enjoyed meeting a few of the kids, then went into the tent in a rather peaceful, outside-of-myself frame of mind and proceeded to ace the test. I’m not sure the location helped, but it didn’t hurt. I was later notified that I had won a $2500 scholarship.

Other things occurred in the meantime. I had applied for a scholarship at Brigham Young University, interviewed, and was notified that I was a finalist for the Spencer W. Kimball Scholarship, the most prestigious scholarship at BYU. As part of the decision process, I was invited to a Friday/Saturday finalists’ competition to be held at a BYU-owned cabin up by Sundance.

I was driven down to campus in Provo. Others flew in. We spent Friday on the third floor of the Wilkinson Center. There were twenty-five of us male finalists. Surprisingly, one of them was a young man from Dugway who took the test at the same time I did.
Another was a _____ Hyatt whose father had been friends with my father (Walter Kramer), and whose home I had visited. There was an indoor pool, so I felt welcome to start with.

Friday was a series of situations – a few of us in a room with several faculty members, given a scenario, and allowed to discuss in the group or work alone, and present or explore various responses. Our scenario was - we were trapped in a _________________ cave in, we designed a campaign for BYU’s next century, we evaluated the importance of various priorities to us.

Friday night was special. We went to the lodge. The professors left, and we associated with each other. These were young men of capability and faith - intelligent, capable, athletic, artistic leaders. These were the individuals that were student body leaders, geniuses. I was humbled and uncertain in their company.

We were given a packet of materials for our last scenarios for the following morning. We all spent some time studying. We found beds, played pool and ping-pong. We talked and ate.

The following morning, we gathered together for a testimony meeting, a sharing meeting. NO advisors, no counselors, just us – 25 finalists. Individuals would stand, some to bear strong knowledge of the truth, some to express their uncertainty. I sat and watched, looking go outside at the woods, feeling the quietness, _____ filled with the light. My mind expanded to see the nature and the world and the universe…a testimony of it all. God, the God of the universe and of this world and of the forests, trees, and flowers was real and His influence could be clearly seen by any with eyes to see. I bore that testimony.

We packed and returned to the university. We spent the rest of the morning supporting a candidate for public office. Each of us had a candidate. Each of us was challenged to support them. There were strong candidates. Mine wasn’t that strong. I couldn’t portray him as what he wasn’t. I listened as my fellow-scholarship candidates and competitors ___ their political candidates and themselves, and I didn’t know what to say. Until I realized that I could promote compromise. My candidate’s weaknesses became his strengths. I argued that he had not offended the groups that were promoting the other candidates. Though no decision was reached before we finished, the purpose was accomplished. The faculty and advisors saw us interact.

I returned home, received a letter from the Chemical Engineering Department that I would receive a $500 a semester scholarship. And then in February, I received notification that I had won the Kimball Scholarship.

When I graduated, I didn’t speak as valedictorian or salutarian. I had received one B+ which reduced my grade to 3.97 and my position from #1 to#5 in a class of over 750 . I sat in the audience. But the principal made me stand. He singled me out for my service for the scholarships I had won, and how I had performed academically in such an outstanding fashion that he had never seen before. I was completely embarrassed.

And able to pay for my college. Fall tuition from the Kimball scholarship, the $2500 grant from the National Merit Foundation, and the semester-by-semester stipend from Chemical Engineering.

I still had to take part time jobs to account for all the other expenditures. But I never cost my parents any money for my university education.