(From Missouri Southern State University)Joplin residents David and Debra Humphreys will continue their robust scholarship program at Missouri Southern into the next decade, contributing $1 million that will directly benefit students.
Since its inception in 2017, the Debra and David Humphreys Excellence Awards have benefitted more than 100 Missouri Southern students through an initial contribution of $1 million with combined $775,000 to date awarded in scholarships. This additional $1 million gift announced Friday means the program will continue to ensure many area students are supported financially at Missouri Southern. Award recipients are called “Humphreys Scholars.”
David Humphreys is the chairman and chief executive officer of TAMKO Building Products, and with his wife Debra, co-founded the Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School. Debra Humphreys is the founder and executive director of the Compass Academy Network which provides a summer enrichment program for local middle schoolers with many MSSU students serving as CAN peer mentors. Debra and David have committed to making educational opportunities available to students throughout the community.
“Humphreys Scholars are recognized throughout our campus and community as some of the best and most committed students we have at Missouri Southern,” MSSU President Dr. Dean Van Galen said. “We have seen tremendous successes from our Humphreys Scholars inside and outside the classroom. It’s impressive to think of how many lives the Humphreys family will touch through their commitment and the continuation of this program.”
The Humphreys awards are provided to students with one of the following criteria at the time of application: A minimum 3.7 high school or collegiate grade point average, a 28 or above composite ACT score or a combined critical reading and mathematics SAT score of 1300 or graduating in the top 10 percent of their high school class. Eligible recipients must have graduated from a high school within a 50-mile radius of MSSU and either be, or plan to become, a full-time student at Missouri Southern majoring in biological and physical sciences, mathematics, education, accounting, finance, engineering technology, or computer information science. The scholarship is renewable for up to eight semesters if recipients remain a full-time student and maintain at least a 3.5 grade point average at Missouri Southern.
Each award is for at least one-third of Missouri Southern’s tuition rate each year.
Even more impressive than the amount pledged by the Humphreys family is the impact the gift has made in Joplin and the surrounding area. Since the scholarship program began in 2017 with a $1 million gift to establish the program, 66 Humphreys Scholars have graduated from Missouri Southern, with more than 90 percent living and working within a 50-mile radius of Joplin. Also, nearly 90 percent of the students who were awarded the scholarship stayed in school and earned their degrees from Missouri Southern.
"We have always believed in the power of education to create life-changing opportunities for young people,” said Debra Humphreys. “Our gifts to MSSU reflect our confidence in the outstanding education MSSU offers. Our hope is for these scholarships to open more doors to more students by making their education more affordable so that they may achieve their true potential now and into the future.”
I am curious why the Humphreys do not open up the scholarships to all majors—especially the field of history. I say this because they appear to have a sincere interest in celebrating the accomplishments of a selective few of Joplin’s former bigwigs like Schifferdecker and Zelleken (although there are far worthier men AND women) worth remembering.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I have been told they reportedly pay Brad Belk’s $75,000 MSSU salary to serve as a “community historian.” Why, then, not invest in history majors? We need more bright students who may want to study our region’s history and even want to come back and teach it at MSSU. Local (and national) history matters. You likely won’t get many students from outside the area interested, so let’s start here. There is so much potential in what a program could do that could be beneficial for decades to come…