Madison Forever Scholarships change lives

Read their stories:

Four students share gratitude for gifts allowing them to stay Madison forever.

When the world you know crumbles — whether financially, physically or mentally  — it is a comfort to have family members to lean on.

In the last two years more than 200 Madison students and their parents have found both solace and solution in the Madison family and their gifts to the Madison Forever Scholarship program.

“Emotionally, being in a position to need to ask for help has been a challenge for us,” says Liz Daniels (’13P, ’16P), mother of Zachary (’13) and Josh Daniels (’16). “A few years ago, our family would have been the people helping students like Zachary. My husband and I have been married for 27 years and have always worked hard to build a secure environment for our family. Despite what we thought were good decisions and safe planning, our world completely crumbled over the last two-and-a-half-year period; the effects of the economy caused my spouse’s salary to decrease to only 25 percent of what it had been for the previous 10 years.”

The Madison Forever Scholarship program made the difference.

The scholarship “made it possible for my son to graduate from JMU with his bachelor’s degree,” Daniels says. “It is one thing for parents to face ruin, but had that also cost my son his opportunity for a secure financial future, I just do not know how we could have dealt with it emotionally. I am truly humbled by the generosity of those individuals and donors who have made this possible. There will never be a time that I will not feel immense gratitude for this act of giving.”