Consider making a charitable gift to the Western Foundation and help a student "reach their goals and dreams."
"Receiving these
scholarships allowed
me to concentrate more
on my studies, my
future, and not on my
financial status."
- Josh Berg
The Return on Your Investment
If you are considering a donation to the Western Foundation, you may wonder if your donation will really make a difference.Will the student really appreciate it? Is it really an investment that has value?
For Josh Berg, the answer is yes. Josh, a Bangor native, received two scholarships through the Western Foundation while a student in the Culinary Management program: The Ray H. Kircher scholarship and the La Crosse Tribune scholarship.
Those scholarships gave him confidence to apply for state and national scholarships. He was one of only 12 students nationally who received a $2,000 scholarship from the National Restaurant Association and a $2,000 scholarship from the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, a rarity for a technical college student. He was also named a New Century Scholar by the Phi Theta Kappa-International Honor Society of the Two Year College.Only one student in each state receives the honor and a $2,000 scholarship funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation and the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. He also represented Western at the Association of Community Colleges National Convention in Long Beach, CA in April, the first time for a Western student.
"Receiving these scholarships allowed me to concentrate more on my studies, my future, and not on my financial status," says Josh."It also exposed me to well-known restaurateurs,which wouldn't have happened otherwise." More than that, he says, he felt like someone invested in him, that they believed in his abilities and rewarded his hard work and dedication."While representing Western at a scholarship banquet I heard someone say that this generation of students is the future and we need to help them so that the rest of the restaurant industry succeeds."
And Josh did succeed. He was named to Western's President's List of High Distinction,Who's Who Among America's Junior Colleges, and the National Dean's List. He was a charter member of Phi Theta Kappa and the vice president of scholarship for the society. He also served as Western's Student Ambassador and was president and an active member of the Foods Club.
And all of the attention he gained by being a scholarship recipient helped him gain employment after graduation. He was hired by Stoney Creek Inn in Onalaska, in part because of the scholarships and accolades he had received and the publication of his successes in the La Crosse Tribune. He was recently promoted to their Conference Center supervisor.
"I never thought all of this would happen to me," he says. "I never thought I'd be awarded those scholarships. I never thought I'd be an ambassador."
And to think, all of his success began with the awarding of those two Western scholarships.
