IMPACT
I am not sure who you are, but I do know that you are an extremely kind and gracious person. The effects of COVID-19 have taken their toll on the world, and somehow, you found it within your heart to provide an everlasting hope within me. My name is Colton, and I am a senior at USU, trying my best to finish my degree. I am studying history, with a minor in psychology, because I deeply desire to teach. I am hoping to be able to teach history to students in high school when I graduate, and I know that this part of my own history will never be forgotten. When I teach my future students about the effects of this pandemic, I will remember to mention the individuals that put humanity, hope, and others as a priority.
These are dark and intense times throughout the world, and I truly would love to thank you for giving me the physical gift of financial support, but also thank you for the gift of hope that will stay with me for the remainder of my life. I am from Blackfoot, Idaho, and I come from a family that is financially based on the foundation of the business that my parents maintain. COVID-19 hit home hard, and I would not be able to remain in Logan to finish my final year of college if it had not been for your support. The amount which I received, allowed me to remain in my apartment for two whole months. However, it also allowed me to put my current income towards my car payment, my groceries, and my debts from not being able to work as I once was able to before COVID.
I currently am in one of the busiest moments of my life, working forty hours a week, taking 16 credits of school, and attempting to finally climb out of the hole that so many people were placed. For those reasons, I would like to express my apologies for such a delayed response, but I also appreciate your patience. This donation, although physically gone and put to its purpose, will forever remain with me. When people speak of COVID-19 in the future when the world can return to a more normalized state, I will not think of the hardships that I faced, nor will I think of the surrounding elements that are taking their toll on society, no, I will think of the person that, although they didn’t have to, decided to act and help. I will remember the person whom does not know me and decided to help me regardless. I will remember you, and I truly hope to be given the chance to thank you personally someday
Thank you for more than you know,
Colton
I would like to formally express my gratitude for the relief you have brought me with the COVID-19 Hardship Fund. The award has relieved a great deal of stress and pressure off of my shoulders. I have been able to focus my efforts on my job search, and I ended up securing a steady position for myself for the summer. I can’t express how much the funds helped me start to organize myself and my situation — the impact has already been amazing.
On behalf of all the recipients of this award, thank you for what you are doing. It has such a positive impact on our community. Thank you for being responsible and understanding in the distribution of the fund. I appreciate all you are doing.
On behalf of my family and I, I’d like to sincerely thank you for the donation that you have made to help me get through this challenging time in my studies. Without your help, I don’t know that I would be able to continue studying at Utah State, and for that I am truly grateful.
People like you are the ones that help shine a light around the world when those of us cannot.
Thank you,
Chase
I am writing to thank you for your generous scholarship. I was very happy and appreciative to learn that I was selected as the recipient of your scholarship. Thank you so much for your generous donation so that I can continue to finish my schooling through this difficult time. I am almost done with school and am so excited to be able to start my career.
I am a student in the Dietetics Internship program. I plan to work at a nursing home upon graduating.
By awarding me this scholarship, you have lightened my financial burden allowing me to focus more on the most important aspect of school, learning. Your generosity has inspired me to help others and give back to the community. I can’t wait until one day I am in the situation to be able to help other students achieve their goals just as you have helped me.
Sincerely,
Kathryn
On behalf of my family and myself; I would like to thank you for the assistance we have received. The help that we received allowed us to buy food that will last longer than the week at a time I was previously only able to afford, our phone and internet bill so my son and I could finish our assignments, renew my registration as well as pay for car insurance.
In my lifetime I have had many firsts: I am the first generation to be born in the United States, first in my family to finish high school, first female to join the United States Marine Corps, and first to attend a university. Being a student at Utah State University, is tied with my time in the service of how proud I feel to be part of this institution.
I can continue to be an example for my family and show my son that you can do anything you want in this life if you’re willing to work for it, which is also thanks to you. Mr. Morales, I write this letter with tears of gratitude; that I never would have thought to be the recipient of such a generous contribution from you.
This letter in no way fully encompasses the deep thanks and gratitude I feel; but it is a start. I truly believe that the entire faculty at USU cares about the wellbeing and success of its students; and it is even more evident now that being accepted into this university is one of the best decisions I have ever made.
With the deepest thanks,
Cynthia
My name is Julie. My husband and I were the recipients of your gracious donation to the USU COVID-19 Hardship fund. We wanted to personally thank you for your generosity and for your compassion, but due to the present restraints, a letter will have to do.
When we received notification of your grant, we were struggling to recover from temporary loss of employment due to COVID-19. I had been in and out of the hospital the month before due to medical issues. It felt like life had kicked us while we were down...repeatedly. Receiving word that we would not have to worry about food for a few weeks was an immense and timely relief. For the first time in our married life, we felt helpless in our situation, and we cannot begin to thank you for being the help and hope that we needed.
My husband and I have been married for 18 months and are both students at Utah State. He is finishing up his Associate’s in Entrepreneurship and will start culinary school this fall. He wants to eventually open up his own non-alcoholic, zero-waste bar and restaurant. He currently nannies a young man with autism, who is probably just about the cutest thing in the world. I’m a double-major in Family Life Studies and Special Education, and I will be finished with my degrees next year. When I graduate, I plan on getting my master’s and ultimately providing parent education and district consultation for students with autism spectrum disorder.
We love walking and hiking, making non-alcoholic mixed drinks, and traveling. And we are blue-blooded Aggies, through and through! Thank you for your support, generosity, and compassion during these difficult times. We hope that all of the goodness and kindness you’ve given us will be rewarded back to you ten-fold.
Stay safe and healthy,
Julie
I wanted to show my sincere appreciation and say thank you to USU for the very generous donation. It helps me tremendously. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have been given to further my education and you have played a huge part in making that possible for me. So again, thank you!
I have lived in Castle Dale in a little home built in the late 1800’s for my whole life, but I honestly wouldn’t want it any other way. My mom always said that love grows best in little houses and that rang true to me growing up. I have two older brothers who are my best friends. I love being involved in anything outdoors especially horseback riding and fishing. Family camping trips are also something that I have really enjoyed since a young age and hope it is a tradition I can hold onto for my children.
My mom works full time as a Social Worker and my dad works at Rhino coal mine. I was born into a mining family, my grandpa worked at Hiawatha for many years and at several different mines as well. I have several uncles, great uncles, cousins and now my brother works for Rhino mine.
I attended Emery High School in Castle Dale during my entire high school career. During my time at Emery High I participated in cheerleading, drama club, and other school activities. I had a very memorable high school experience that I will cherish forever, but I am more than excited to see what new things are to come in my future. I hope to make my college experience an even better experience for me and get involved in as many things as possible and make it a memorable yet appropriate stage of my life. I chose to go to school at USUE because it is right in my backyard, and I have a great support system here. I find comfort in knowing that I do not have to travel far to receive an education and am blessed to have the opportunity to attend college just thirty minutes from my hometown. USUE has also made it possible for me to receive a degree based on the low tuition costs, which is also super awesome because I don't know that I financially would be able to attend otherwise.
I plan to major in Criminal Justice because I took a class based off of Criminal Justice/Law Enforcement my junior year of high school and it got me super interested and I knew that it was something I wanted to study more into. I’m not exactly sure what occupation I would ideally like to have yet but I hope to do something in that field of work. Once I receive my degree I hope to someday start a family and be able to have a job to provide for my family if the situation comes where I need to. I hope to live somewhere close to family so I probably won’t roam too far from Emery/Carbon counties but we will see. I would love to have the opportunity to one day be able to work up to a place where I could possibly work from home while raising my kids.
I just wanted to take a second on my behalf one last time and say thank you so much for your generous donation as it helps me out in both my college and lifelong career.
Sincerely,
Montana
I am writing to thank you for your generosity in helping Utah State University graduate students receive grant aid in the recent devastation of Covid-19. I recently lost contractor work and was living on private loans while in the graduate program at USU. Usually there would be plenty of work through Onforce where I would replace billboards, fix digital signs, internet or other connectivity issues in McDonalds, Starbucks, and other restaurants. This grant will help me in my goals to stay in school and hopefully find more contractor work once restrictions open up again from Covid-19.
The $750.00 awarded, I am hopeful will be enough to keep me and my son afloat as a single dad until the state starts opening up work and reducing restrictions. I hear it is already starting soon. This is good news and I hope this is not too soon at the same time as there is some fear over a resurgence. I was unable to get unemployment due to a full-time student status and contractor position. I was denied when applied. So, this really helps.
Hopefully, society will find a way to overcome and better our world. I am hopeful a lot of good will come out of this negative historical event. Hopefully, we as a society will adapt and find better ways to thrive together as a society in the future. It's nice to see a lot of people thanking cashiers at gas stations, store stockers being noticed and people genuinely caring more. Maybe society will realize we are all in this together once we are through this.
Thank you so much for your consideration and help.
Joshua