Scholarship Fund

Angela Gram Memorial Scholarship

The Association for Women in Communications established the Angela Gram Memorial Scholarship in late 1988 in honor of chapter member Angela Gram.  Gram, a professional communicator and free lance writer, was one of the earliest members of the Greater Springfield Chapter.  Sadly, she and her husband both died from injuries suffered in an automobile accident in Seymour, Mo., in September 1988.

Founding members of the AWC chapter remembered Gram as a caring individual who was first in line to help and comfort others in their times of need.  Appropriately, they chose to establish a chapter scholarship in Gram’s honor, knowing how much she would approve of the idea of helping young women who were furthering their education.

The first Angela Gram Memorial Scholarship was awarded in January 1989 to Susan Konnesky, a student at Drury College (now University).  The scholarship amount that first year was $50.  Each year since, the chapter has awarded one scholarship to a deserving college student entering her junior or senior year in the communications field.  Today, the scholarship amount has grown to $500.

In the early years of the scholarship, the chapter elected to commit proceeds from an annual fundraising event to fund the award.  The chapter’s Special Events Committee was charged with organizing that yearly event and for more than a decade, the chapter raised the necessary $500 in this way.  Then in 2004, Melinda Mancuso, Student Chapter Liaison/Scholarship Committee Chair, proposed that the chapter establish the Angela Gram Memorial Scholarship as an endowed fund with Community Foundation of the Ozarks.

Recognizing the many benefits of Mancuso’s suggestion, the board unanimously approved her proposal that year.  In September 2004, funds in a Certificate of Deposit and Money Market Account were moved to CFO and the chapter embarked on a couple of years of higher-level fundraising to fully endow the Angela Gram Memorial Scholarship at $10,000. That goal was reached in the spring of 2007.

Today, the fund annually generates a $500 payout for the scholarship and will do so for perpetuity.  In addition, the fund will continue to grow at a modest rate on its own.  In the meantime, the board has begun discussing new goals for this meaningful scholarship.  Ideas include increasing the amount of the award or adding a second scholarship.  Either way, these efforts will continue to be a fitting tribute to a founding member of our AWC Chapter.